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Psalm 3 // Stories Behind The Psalms // John Wilson

The Movement Church CO

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  1. Welcome to the Movement Church Podcast. We want you to know that God is

  2. for you and so are we. You're about to hear a sermon from one

  3. of our weekend services in Palmer Lake, Colorado. We pray that your faith

  4. is provoked, your mind is renewed, and your heart is awakened as you

  5. engage the Word of God. Stay tuned. That's the message for ways to

  6. get connected with us. God bless you. Thanks for tuning in. Well,

  7. good morning everyone. Hope last week was amazing for you as well.

  8. If you remember, we went out into the community and served as a church

  9. and that was awesome. I was just telling Chad, Yeah, good,

  10. Oh, that's fantastic. Absolutely, that was an amazing time telling Travis man

  11. he can back up a trailer like a boss. Man. That was for

  12. That was for legitimate. So I just wanted to share a little bit about

  13. myself. I'm on the teaching team here. This is my fourth time to

  14. do this with you all, so I appreciate the opportunity to do with you.

  15. I'm married to the delightful Christine Wilson over here, is one of our

  16. leaders in our church, and nothing greater in my life than not getting to

  17. serve with her. I also have my mother here in the building today,

  18. all the way from Plano, Texas. Give it up for Mom, you

  19. know, absolutely, of course, my son John amazing folks. I'm a

  20. father of four, so I get to celebrate thoroughly today on Father's Day.

  21. I wanted to share just a little bit just about being a father. I'll

  22. share some more with that. But if you are a father, would you

  23. mind just you know, raising your hand diligently, very nice, which I'll

  24. give it up for all the fathers in the building. I really believe that

  25. we all have a tremendous role in making an impact in our kids' lives,

  26. no matter their age and where they are, and we have the amazing opportunity

  27. to make a difference in them. And so I appreciate each of you a

  28. few things on Father's Day. I don't know if you realize this about father's

  29. we have some very unique things that we like to do. I saw this

  30. on TikTok, but apparently I don't know. I'm trying to figure out if

  31. I actually do this personally. But Father's do you do you shake your snacks?

  32. Anybody? Do you know this? Like you take your peanuts? Right,

  33. you pour them in your hand and then you go like this and then

  34. you pop them in your mouth. Anybody does anybody do this? Yeah?

  35. Yeah, okay, I got a couple. Thank you, Britt. Appreciate

  36. that. Represent man. So apparently this is a thing you should watch yourself

  37. in the mirror sometime the next time when you shake your snacks, you know,

  38. your peanuts or whatever. How about this, Dads, do you ever

  39. stand in front of the TV like this? You know, you put your

  40. hand on the hip, you know, I mean, you're really like getting

  41. into the anybody anybody do this? Yeah? Okay, all right, thank

  42. you appreciate that one with the back yard. I actually think I do this

  43. like late at night. It's like, I don't know, I feel like

  44. I need to be closer to the TV to try to interact with it somehow

  45. on my hip. Dads, I think I think this. I know it's

  46. a little dramatic, but gas prices, I don't know what it is.

  47. This is a tribute to my dad, I presume Blake, but he always

  48. tells me, hey, you know, John, I got gas for twenty

  49. cents cheaper this week. Congratulations. He's really you know. Walmart Plus gives

  50. you ten cents off Mercy, Murphy gas or whatever. It's always about the

  51. gas prices to seven degree. And my favorite is, I'm just gonna rest

  52. my eyes. Anybody if I know what this looks like? You know,

  53. hey, I'm just gonna rest my eyes for a few minutes and then oh

  54. man out gone like for the whole time. That's my dad. It's also

  55. me. Last night was actually hanging out with my son Luke on his bed.

  56. I grabbed his pillow and I was out right, let's side there.

  57. So we do some funny things as dad's. But I wanted to, you

  58. know, kind of continue in this series today and I'm gonna focus around we

  59. kind of pivot a little from Psalm four to Psalm three. I think there's

  60. some great, some great content there to go about. But I want to

  61. tell you the story of a father and a son, and a son that

  62. made some really poor decisions and a father who did something very unexpected or his

  63. response to his son was really unexpected. It's a sad story, it's an

  64. admirable display of a father's love. It's about rebellion, it's about justice,

  65. it's about deep pain and whether you're a dad this morning or not. I

  66. think there's something really applicable for all of us. So this is a tradition

  67. of mine. So I'm going to ask you to oblige me like with this,

  68. but I like to stand in honor of God's words. If you wouldn't

  69. mind standing with me this morning, we're going to take a look at Psalm,

  70. the whole Psalm, the third Psalm together and this is from David,

  71. and I'll tell you his story. Says, Lord, how many are my

  72. foes? How many rise up against me? Many are saying of me.

  73. God will not deliver him. But you, Lord, are a shield around

  74. me, My glory, the one who lifts my head high. I call

  75. out to you, the Lord, and he answers me from his holy mountain.

  76. I lie down and sleep. I again, because the Lord sustains me.

  77. I will not fear, though tens of thousands assail me on every side.

  78. Arise, Lord, deliver me, my God, strike all my enemies

  79. on the jaw, break the teeth of the wicked. From the Lord comes

  80. deliverance. May You're blessing beyond your people. Thank you have a see.

  81. Appreciate y'all all doing that with me. So this morning, as you heard

  82. in this passage, there is anguish, there's a call for justice, even

  83. some smashing of teeth, clearly like he is feeling some real anguish in his

  84. heart. And this story is the story of a king, specifically King David.

  85. And if you know anything about David, David is a hero of the

  86. Jewish people. And he is described by his predecessor, King Saul like this,

  87. I have seen a son of Jesse of Bethlehem who knows how to play

  88. the liar. And he is a brave man and a warrior. He speaks

  89. well, he's a fine looking man, nice title, and the Lord is

  90. with him. He's an amazing man. He's a musician, he's a songwriter,

  91. he's well spoken, and he's incredibly close to God. He was known

  92. as a man after God's own heart. He was someone who expressed his deep

  93. emotions to God. In fact, know if most of the psalms are written

  94. by David, and in that his deep emotions are expressed to him, and

  95. usually it's in the midst of almost unmatched uncertainty and betrayal. And so there's

  96. incredible it's just an incredible death that David has with God. He was a

  97. brave man, he would not back down in the midst of certain defeat.

  98. If you know this story, there's a giant or a champion in First Samuel

  99. seventeen where David says to the giant, you come against me with sword and

  100. spear and javelin, But I come against you in the name of the Lord

  101. Almighty, the god of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.

  102. So he was a warrior. You remember, he was a shepherd boy,

  103. and he would fend off wild animals, all from their sheep, their family.

  104. It's interesting it says again that he is fine looking. He was decent

  105. to look at. You've seen the David's statue as well. That would give

  106. you an idea of maybe what he looks like. Lord looked like he ushered

  107. in greatness into the kingdom of Israel and expanded the kingdom like no other king

  108. had before. And probably most importantly, he was really young. Like through

  109. this, it's interesting kind of Samuel when he chose him. He was the

  110. son of eight brothers, sorry he was had eight brothers, and he was

  111. the youngest of those eight brothers. And although he was fine looking, he

  112. wouldn't have been the choice to be king. But God chose him anyway.

  113. In First Damuel sixteen, God said to Samuel, the Lord does not look

  114. at the things people look out, but people look at the outward appearance.

  115. But the Lord looks at the heart. And so fast forward. We're going

  116. to continue in our story here a few years or many years, I should

  117. say, And David is now king of Israel, and he has many sons

  118. and daughters, and one of his sons is named Absolom, and Absolum.

  119. I don't know if this was a great depiction of him, but maybe something

  120. like him. He was a handsome man. He is described in First Samuel

  121. for fourteen twenty five as this. In all Israel, there was not a

  122. man so highly praised for his handsome appearance as Absolom. From the top of

  123. his head to the sole of his foot, there was no blemish in Would

  124. you like to be described that way? Wouldn't that be great? And it

  125. actually reminded me a little bit of a competition that we have on a magazine

  126. cover here in the US of Starre in nineteen eighty five, Mel Gibson was

  127. on it. If you remember this from People magazine, The sexiest man alive

  128. is anybody seeing that no, okay, nobody looks at this as well.

  129. Maybe not, but I you know, last year was Patrick Dempsey. You

  130. know, the year before that was Chris Evans. You know, they were

  131. the sexiest men alive during that time. One of my favorite moments when this

  132. magazine comes out is if you're in the grocery store line. You know it's

  133. it's there, you know, everybody can see it, and you see the

  134. ladies that are you know, they're interested in looking at this, but they

  135. don't want anybody to know that they're looking at this. So it's kind of

  136. what it's kind of one of one of these You kind of look at it

  137. and then they kind of look back and then they grab it real quick and

  138. put it in their baskets, but nobody can see them. But then there's

  139. the ladies that they own it, right. They just walk up, they

  140. grab the thing, they're checking it out, they're letting everybody see that they're

  141. looking at that. That they throw their basket and go anywhere. This would

  142. be an example of you know what the category is that I would put absolutely

  143. in. He is at the time the sexiest man alive, if you will,

  144. handsome, no blemish in this guy he was a troubled, very troubled

  145. man. He did some things that were just questionable, to say the least.

  146. He was cunning and he was devious. Give you an example of this.

  147. You can read this and second Samuel. But basically, his brother decided

  148. that he was in love with his half sister, or Absolom's sister, and

  149. he lured her into his bedroom because he said he was sick, and he

  150. raped her and Absolom. So obviously that was an evil thing that Abnen did.

  151. But Absolum in response, he didn't go through the appropriate channels to try

  152. to take care of this or bring justice to the situation. Now, he

  153. held on to it for two years and he waited for the exact right opportunity

  154. to avenge his sister, and he brought all of the king's sons together and

  155. he had him butchered in front of all of the king's sons. At that

  156. time, so very devious, held on to things, did some very troubling

  157. things like in his time, and was had a troublesome relationship with his father

  158. as well. So this is a rebellious, devious and troubled man. Well,

  159. one day he decides that is time for him to be king. He's

  160. done with his father. He has decided that he should be the one to

  161. take the throne. Now remind you that usually this happens when the father passes

  162. right and goes to the son of his choice or his heir. But in

  163. this case, he just decided that he was going to be that guy.

  164. It's interesting as handsome as he was, and he was also just a very

  165. charismatic person. And they're, you know, our leaders. I think even

  166. now that we could relate to that could be very charismatic, but it may

  167. not have the best message that comes with this. And so I think there's

  168. this. This is something like he would do. He would actually stand at

  169. the gates, or actually he would have a huge procession in front of him

  170. of horses and a lot of men, and he would wait by the city

  171. gates and he would look for the opportunity to say to travelers as they were

  172. coming, Hey, the king isn't available, but man if I were the

  173. judge in the land, like I would bring justice to everybody. So he's

  174. planting the seeds that the king is not a great king and that he would

  175. be the natural choice, like for whoever could replace the king. He didn't

  176. say he should be king. He's just saying he should be the judge.

  177. He's planting the seeds, and then he would take the opportunity. And usually

  178. people would like bow to the heirs of the king or princes or whatever,

  179. but he would grab them and kiss them on the forehead and show him that

  180. he is a man of the people. And it's interesting like his response with

  181. that, he ended up like winning the hearts and minds of many of the

  182. Israelite people. And he didn't just do this over like a couple of months.

  183. He did this over a four year period, so it was intentional.

  184. He's looking to take the throne of his father. Now, I want to

  185. remind you of other charismatic leaders that maybe that have sounded great and have led

  186. to some really terrible things. And this person I don't think is the most

  187. the most fine looking person in the world. However, he was a very

  188. charismatic leader, and that was Hitler, not you know, this person obviously

  189. not not as fine looking as Absolute. However, like his message, if

  190. you remember from history, brought something was he was just a very charismatic person

  191. that people would look to. And when you're really demoralized and somebody brings a

  192. message to you of hope, you say, yeah, maybe that is right,

  193. maybe we should do that, Maybe we should head this direction. Oh

  194. actually, yeah, that is probably what's best for our country. Now we

  195. know how this all worked out right into that terribly like they did horrible,

  196. horrible things and atrocities like our in our world. But Absolom was very much

  197. this way. He would share a message that was devious, that would usurp

  198. his father from the throne, and that would guide people in the wrong direction,

  199. and people believed him and they followed after him, and so that's when

  200. you first first Samuel fifteen to six has absolutely behaved in this way to where

  201. all the Israelites who came to the king asking for justice, and so he

  202. stole the hearts of the people of Israel. So now he's got their hearts

  203. and minds. Four years later, he's finally kind of at a place where

  204. he's waiting for the perfect opportunity to seize the throne, and so he does.

  205. So. He says to his father, he says, hey, let

  206. me take two hundred two hundred of my best friends, and I want to

  207. go fulfill a vow that I had for God. In Hebron, and Hebron

  208. specifically is where David was annointed as king. And so this is a very

  209. symbolic move for Absolom. He fooled his father, took these two hundred probably

  210. advisers of sorts of David's, took them to Hebron and where he could be

  211. declared king. And what he would do is he sent out these messagers all

  212. through the empire and said, hey, blow your trumpets, and when you

  213. do that, declare me as king. So all at the same time across

  214. the country, and so the conspiracy gained strength, Absolin's following kept on increasing,

  215. and the rebellion ensued, and so all of these people turned against David

  216. and and Absolom declared himself as king in the land. And so I obviously

  217. want you to know what Absolom had done. I want you to look really

  218. closely at what David's response was. He says, come, we must flee,

  219. or none of us will escape from Absolom. We must leave immediately,

  220. or he will move quickly to overtake us and bring ruin on us and put

  221. the city to the sword. So he understood that he needed to preserve his

  222. higher that you know, even he even realized that like his his son's act

  223. of rebellion would fail, like he ultimately may be able to win in the

  224. equation, he may be able to to overcome like what's happening. However,

  225. he wanted to like preserve his empire in response to that. So as he's

  226. going up, David continued up the Mount of Olives. He left his you

  227. know, left Jerusalem at this time. He's weeping as he goes. His

  228. head is covered, he's barefoot, and all the people around him have their

  229. heads covered and are weeping as they go up as well. And then he

  230. writes Psalm three. And this is where I want to bring us to that

  231. moment of like David has just experienced his son turning against him, some of

  232. his most trusted advisors turning against him. He's got, you know, a

  233. lot of his inner courts deciding to go with them. He's out, you

  234. know, of the throne room. He's out of the capital of his own

  235. and he's walking down the road. I mean, if you read this passage

  236. too, there's like people throwing rocks at him as he goes. He is

  237. covered in dirt. He's at his lowest point, awful awful season for him,

  238. and that's when he writes this. He says, Lord, how many

  239. are my foes? How many rise up against me? But then he comes

  240. back and he says, Lord, you are a shield around me. You're

  241. the one who lifts my head high. I call out to you. You

  242. answer me from your mountain. I lay down in sleep. I wake up

  243. again because the Lord sustains me. I will not fear though tens of thousands,

  244. literally tens of thousands assail me from every side. A rise, Lord,

  245. deliver me, my God. Strike down all of my enemies on the

  246. jaw, break the teeth of the wicked. For the Lord. Come from

  247. the Lord comes deliverance. May you're blessing beyond your people. He understood a

  248. desperation for God. He understood that he did not have control in the scenario,

  249. and that he had a real desperation with you. So, okay,

  250. so we've gotten to like the lowest point in David's life. I want to

  251. tell you kind of go back to Father's Day for here, just for a

  252. moment, and tell you a little bit about my role as a father in

  253. my house. One of my unique roles in my house is the video game

  254. controller linker guy. I don't know if that's the right phrase or not for

  255. this, but you know, anytime you try to connect a remote to something

  256. or something, you have to have a person in your house that is actually

  257. capable of doing this. This is Luke, my son, and one of

  258. his many requests is, Dad, I really need you to reconnect this blasted

  259. thing. So I really read it this lot for you all to know you

  260. can connect an Xbox controller to an Apple TV. So if you're ever interested

  261. in that, I can tell you the secrets of my ways later. The

  262. other thing is I am the head dishwasher in my house and I have a

  263. little fella. He's four years old. He's Jacob. I'll probably know him

  264. from around here. It's very important, as the head dishwasher in my house

  265. that every child has a towel. And I don't know why this is,

  266. but I just feel like I can't do dishes alone. I've got to have

  267. all of my children there with me. I think this creates a lot of

  268. work for Christine because you've got to manage the four year old's throwing around all

  269. of the dishes in the kitchen when you do it, that's it. Lastly,

  270. I'm an accomplished napper, you know, for dad, it's anybody else

  271. an accomplished napper in your house. Yeah, very nice, thank you,

  272. Brett. Yeah, it's it's an important role that you get adequate sleep,

  273. and it's an important role with that. So you know, kind of back

  274. to our story here, like we have roles like in our life, and

  275. I think God has a role in your life that I want you to take

  276. away from this passage today. The first is that God is available. So

  277. thinking about Psalm THII, the story of you know, Absolom his son coming

  278. after him, I want you to walk away with this idea, this concept

  279. that God is a available, a God wants to hear your deepest thoughts.

  280. He wants to walk through your darkest moments of your life. And on Father's

  281. Day today, like I think it's important that even if you're not facing you

  282. know, your son overthrowing you like in this this scenario. I think all

  283. of us have experienced separation from somebody that we love through death, in a

  284. family situation, a friend, you know, even someone who has betrayed you.

  285. Like in your life, there is difficulty, there is struggle like in

  286. this life, and no matter like what what it seems that you do in

  287. this situation. It seems like you just don't have control, like all the

  288. way through it. But I want to share with you that God is available,

  289. that He is near, that He is real, and he is ready

  290. to listen. See the darkness is promised, it will come. It is

  291. going to be difficult. Many of you have experienced a lot of this in

  292. your life right now. And although that promise is there, he also promises

  293. that He will join us in the midst of that difficulty and he will walk

  294. with us through it. So God is available. He wants to hear your

  295. feelings. He wants to know your thoughts. He wants to know your sorrows.

  296. He wants to know your difficulties. He wants to commune with you.

  297. He wants to take you through the darkest parts of your life. Don't try

  298. to ignore Him through it, because there is significant hope. There's One of

  299. my favorite passages is Philippians four six through seven says, do not be anxious

  300. about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving,

  301. present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends

  302. all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds. In Christ Jesus,

  303. God will heal, he will bring peace, He will guard your hearts and

  304. your minds. God is available. See David, I think really experienced this.

  305. He experienced extreme darkness, deep depression, anxiety, and we read the

  306. psalms like you just see this all like carried through it. It's just his

  307. depths of sorrow like in his life, of everything he experienced. But it's

  308. like he understood, I'm not in control of this. I don't have power

  309. over this, but God does and will walk through the darkest moments of your

  310. life. And I wonder, like with this, like how much of our

  311. time is spent trying to distract ourselves from this reality. I think that's why

  312. social media is such a huge driver for us, is it's a distraction from

  313. our own life. It's why we binge watch if you guys are Apple TV

  314. Plus fans, not everybody, but anyway, it's an option media binge watch.

  315. But those are those are ways to distract us. I think we're so

  316. busy to try to pull ourselves away from and distract ourselves from the thing,

  317. from the reality of the sorrows of this life. But the truth is I

  318. don't think we can distract ourselves from those things, because it is inevitable.

  319. The pain is inventable, is inevitable. The sorrows of this life are plentible.

  320. But God is not going anywhere. He wants to hear them. He

  321. wants you to draw near, even when you want to say to God,

  322. God kill my enemies. As David would say, He wants to know that

  323. He wants to hear your emotions. He says in John Sorry, in James

  324. four to eight, he says, draw near to God, and he will

  325. draw near to you. That God desires to commune and be close to you.

  326. He is available now. The second thing I want you to walk away

  327. today, that God is available, but that God is able, that God

  328. can do anything, that he is a miracle worker. He isn't bound by

  329. scientific laws that govern our world. He has no bounds, and he can

  330. work outside of any of those constraints. In response to your prayers, to

  331. what you ask for. See we sing this song at the Movement Church from

  332. Elevation Worship call more than Able. And in the song they say, when

  333. did I start to forget the great things you did? When did I throw

  334. away faith for the impossible and how did I start to believe you weren't sufficient

  335. for me? Why did do I talk myself out of seeing miracles? You

  336. are more than able times for who am I to deny what the Lord could

  337. do? It is easy for him. It's it's easy for God to do

  338. what we think is impossible. It doesn't take a lot of effort for God

  339. to do those things. So I'm part of a great ministry called Celebrate Recovery,

  340. a ministry here in our community, and it's you know, for you

  341. that know Alcoholics Anonymous or some of those, it is a twelve step program

  342. and it's part of that it helps people work through addictions and compulsive behaviors.

  343. And it's something unique from Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous is that it is Christ

  344. centered. So it is not just a higher powered it is the higher Power.

  345. It's an amazing program. If you have heard of it before, I

  346. want to know more about it or want to get involved with it, I

  347. can connect you to it. It's fantastic and will change your life. And

  348. I am speaking from personal experience, but one of the things in it is

  349. several steps you know that you work through. If you know twelve step programs.

  350. And the first step they we say, we admitted we were powerless over

  351. our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable. And the

  352. second step we came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us

  353. to sanity. And then finally, we have made a decision to turn our

  354. lives and our wills over to the care of God. Now, I was

  355. going to share from a personal standpoint, this is the most difficult decision I

  356. continually make every hour of my life. Is relinquishing the control of your life

  357. to God. So Jesus said that faith the size of a mustard seed could

  358. move mountains. Right, it makes me wonder about my faith? How big

  359. is it? Oh? Man? It's like non existence. I mean,

  360. I don't know what could be smaller than a mustard seed from what he had

  361. shared. But that is the truth of my life. It's a real lack

  362. of faith, you know, when I approach really anything, truth is that

  363. God really wants me to rely less on myself and more on him. He

  364. wants me to learn that He is the restorer and I am not, that

  365. I am powerless, and that He is capable and able to do anything,

  366. including restore my life. So what about you? Are you like that?

  367. Do you are you like me? Or you just want to hold on to

  368. your life control it. How much time do you spend trying to fix your

  369. circumstances when the restorer is waiting to do something great that you couldn't even imagine?

  370. How much of your life is seeking to dole pain of this life instead

  371. of seeking the one that could actually bring life to your hearts and minds.

  372. Again, I read you today, relinquish the control of your life. I'm

  373. not saying it's easy. I'm making decisions right now in the moment to do

  374. that myself. But turn your will over to Him and your life can be

  375. restored and won't look or be what you expected. I promise you that,

  376. but there will be amazing restoration that only God can bring. See. I

  377. think David knew this. I think David was able to understand the difference with

  378. this. He could really see I don't have control over this, but God

  379. does, and that's why he speaks that in the Psalms. So I want

  380. to bring this story to a close. I'm want to tell you how the

  381. story ends. So David and Absalom finally face off in battle, and then

  382. before they go into battle, he's got his three commanders with him and he

  383. gives this order surprising. I mean, his son just took his kingdom from

  384. him. He says, be gentle with the young man, Absoline, for

  385. my sake, be gentle with my son, Absoline. He had compassion,

  386. He still loved his son. He didn't want to see anything happen to him.

  387. He wanted his life to be put in place. And it's interesting and

  388. kind of an ironic turn of events if you know this story. H Absolom

  389. actually gets stuck in a tree. His hair gets caught up in a branch,

  390. and he ends up hanging from a tree. Like just like how humiliating,

  391. right, Like, if this is the way you're gonna die, right,

  392. you just you just got you know, you got the whole kingdom.

  393. And then you're riding your mule. Then all of a sudden you get caught

  394. up in a tree by your amazing looking hair and there you are stuck.

  395. So Joe abb his Uh, the one of David's leaders or commander of his

  396. army, comes upon him, and David had told him to be gentle,

  397. and Joe ab didn't do that. Joeb said, oh, I'm going to

  398. take care of this, and he did. He killed him on the spot

  399. right there, and one of the You know, obviously this was against David's

  400. direction of what he said, and we won't focus on Joeb's disobedience here,

  401. but we will focus on David's response to this. And he says, the

  402. Kushite came to bring the message to the king. Says, my lord,

  403. the king hear the good news. The Lord has vindicated you today by delivering

  404. you from the hand of all who rose up against you. And the King

  405. asked the Kushite, is the young man, Absolom safe didn't care about kingdom,

  406. cared about his son. The Kushai replied, made the enemies of my

  407. lord, the king, and all who rise up to harm you be like

  408. this young man who the king was shaken. He went up to the room

  409. over the gateway and he wept, and as he went he said, oh,

  410. my son, absolute, my son, my son, Absolom. If

  411. only I had died instead of you, you, oh Absalom, my son,

  412. my son. And I listen to his agony like again, his kingdom

  413. had just been taken from him. If anything, he should be feeling anger,

  414. he should be feeling like, you know, excitement that this had been

  415. laid to rest. But no, his responses, I wish that my life

  416. had been taken instead of my son. Does this sound familiar? Don this

  417. sound like the gospel? Doesn't this sound like this? Or God so loved

  418. the world he gave that whoever believes in Jesus shall not perish but have eternal

  419. life. See that's the message of the gospel. Right, It's like David

  420. seeing I would rather my life be taken than than than the life of my

  421. son. I say, that's exactly what God did with you. All of

  422. your wrongdoings have consequences, and those consquences ultimately result in death. Death in

  423. this life, death in the afterlife, like hell is a reality and is

  424. where we're headed because of those wrongdoings. But God, right, God decided,

  425. No, I want to provide a way. I am going to send

  426. Jesus to die on the cross for you, and I'm not. It's not

  427. just that he is going to die for that penalty. He's going to rise

  428. and he's going to bring new life to you, restoration to your soul.

  429. Away forward. See, David wasn't successful he wasn't successful in rescuing his son

  430. in the equation, but God was for you. He finished it. He

  431. did the good work. He brought great redemption for us all. And now

  432. he just says, if you declare with your mouth Jesus is Lord, and

  433. believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, then you will

  434. be saved about declaration that He is the leader of your life. And it's

  435. about belief that you that you you believe that God actually did what he did

  436. to bring redemption to you. That this is the opportunity. And I you

  437. know, shortly, I'd love to give it the opportunity to respond to that.

  438. If you haven't had the opportunity to say to God, you are the

  439. Lord, you are the leader of my life, and I believe that you

  440. have changed me or that you have done what it takes to deliver me from

  441. my wrongdoing. I want you to respond to that today because today would be

  442. the day to do that. So just to recap God's available to you,

  443. as we saw in David's story, like he believed that God was available to

  444. him and he could say anything to him. God is able, He is

  445. able to do anything in your life. He is a miracle worker and he

  446. still does that today, and he wants to do that for you. He

  447. just wants you to ask and bring that to him. And God is your

  448. redeemer. He has come to bring life to you. David wasn't successful in

  449. rescuing Absolom, but God was successful in bringing rich new life to you.

  450. And so in closing, I just want to ask you to just bow your

  451. heads for just a moment and have a moment with God. I want you

  452. to think about these three ideas. That God is available to you, that

  453. God is able to do anything, and that God is your redeemer. And

  454. if you are like wrestling with that, like with those ideas, that God

  455. actually would want to know you, that God would actually want to work a

  456. miracle in your life, or that God would want to save you, would

  457. you mind just putting your hand up real fast and then putting it right back

  458. down. Amen? Amen, Amen. I just want to take the opportunity

  459. to pray for you, and then we'll kind of move into this time of

  460. communion together. I'm going to pray Lord. I just thank you for the

  461. opportunity to share together this unique story of a father's love for his son.

  462. A rebellious son that I think really symbolizes us. God. Would you redeem

  463. us? Lord. I pray for those that raise their hands Lord, they

  464. would see that you are ready and available God, for them that you want

  465. to hear the struggles of their life. God. I pray that all of

  466. us God would see your great power this week and how able you really are.

  467. God. We pray for rich salvation for many God in this building today

  468. in Jesus name. Amen. So what's God leading you to do next and

  469. how can we help? Would you send us an email to info at Movement

  470. Church dot co and tell us how we can pray for you and help you

  471. take the next step in your spiritual journey. If you'd like to contribute financially

  472. to our ministry, text the amount you'd like to give to the number eight

  473. four three two one, or look us up online at Movementchurch dot c.

  474. You can find the Movement Church on all social media platforms, and we hope

  475. that you'll give us a follow God bless you and remember God is for you

  476. and so are we.