Get Wisdom: Flee From Evil! | Ps Ben Moir

I'm so excited to be in the house of God

this morning. If you're wondering why I

have three phones with me this morning,

it's not because I have burners. Um,

my side business. I wish. No jokes. No.

Three youth students came up to me

before the service and said, "Hey,

Pastor Ben, can you please hold on to

our phones because we want to listen to

your message this morning.

Little did they know, if a phone gets

called, I will be answering it live.

And who knows what's going to happen

then.

Can you turn your phone on?

Oh, it's even off. How good is that?

Come on. Let's Let's honor our youth

students

that they want to be raised in the house

of God. Uh but I'm so excited for today.

I just want to welcome all of our

guests. Come on. If there's any guests,

give a huge elevation welcome. Maybe

it's your first time, 10th time, 100th

time if we haven't had the pleasure of

meeting. My name is Ben and I get the

privilege of serving as one of the

associate pastors here at Elevation

Church. And you have joined us in an

amazing series. It's called Get Wisdom.

Easy as that. I love this. I love this

graphic. It just reminds me of those

early 2000s, you know, inspirational

quotes that you'll see on the office

walls. Like there's an eagle and it just

says fly higher.

I don't know what that means. Are you

just like I want that in my life even

though I have no idea what that means.

But get wisdom. Uh it's not necessarily

a series on Proverbs, but a series out

of Proverbs that it all comes out of

this one verse, uh Proverbs 4:7. And it

Proverbs 4:7

says the beginning of wisdom is this.

Get wisdom. Ah, if it was just that

easy, right? Just get wisdom and your

life will be fine. Right? But many of

us, many of us live life like there's

there's always going to be a second

chance. We live life like there's always

going to be a doover. Like, you know,

it's all going to wash out in the end.

But the thing is that every decision

that we make here in this life has a

consequence.

And it will dictate what our next life

looks like. In Australia, we we say, you

know, ah, she'll be right about

literally anything. If it's going it's

not going our way, a she'll be right. If

our kids aren't kind of behaving, a

she'll be right.

Everything is she'll be right. But our

decisions that we make today have real

world consequences

both in heaven and on earth. So why live

life like there is going to be a doover?

We need to be living life like this is

our only life simply because it is. And

it's far easier far easier to learn from

somebody else's mistakes than have to

learn from our own. I would much rather

not have to go through the pain, the

suffering, the heartache, the struggles

to to rewind my mistakes when I could

spend an hour with with someone who's

gone through things before me, read the

word of God, read a book so I can

understand how do I live my life the

best way possible. So why wouldn't we

want to pursue wisdom when it's there

readily available? Why do we why do we

leave it out in the ether going, "Yeah,

it will come to me eventually." No. Get

wisdom because it's good for you. So,

that's what we're going to do today.

We're going to read through a passage of

scripture and we're going to learn about

how do we get wisdom. And the the wisdom

principle that we're going to be talking

on today is flee from evil. Exclamation

mark.

Flee from evil. And I know if if you

haven't been to church before or maybe

you have been to church before, this

this message is going to be convicting.

This message is going to be hard. But I

pray that this message is not

condemning.

That this message when you walk out of

this room, you leave with hope. You

leave with peace. Because yes, sin is

real. Sin has real world consequences.

But there is a God who's greater than

our sin. There is a Jesus who's died on

the cross. And because he's died on the

cross, he can wash away our mistakes. He

can wash away our sin. And we can live

our life focused and fixated on the

savior of the universe. So will it be

convicting? Yes.

But I pray it's not condemning. So, if

you got your Bibles, let's turn to 2

Samuel 11 1-5 where we find the story of

David and Beth Sheeba. And if you've

read the Bible before, you know where

we're going.

Verse one, in the spring of the year,

the time when kings go out to battle,

David sent Joab and his servants with

him and all Israel, and they ravaged the

Ammonites and besieged Rubber, but David

remained at Jerusalem. We'll come back

to that. It happened late one afternoon

when David arose from his couch and was

walking on the roof of the king's house

that he saw from the roof a woman

bathing. And the woman was very

beautiful. And David sent and inquired

about the woman? And one said, "Is not

this Ba Sheeba, the daughter of

Elellion, the wife of Uriah the

Hitittite?" So David sent messages and

took her, and she came to him, and he

lay with her. Now she had been purifying

herself from her uncleanliness.

Then she returned to her house and the

woman conceived and she sent and told

David, I am pregnant.

So before we jump in, it's very quiet in

here. Let's pray.

Lord, I just uh thank you for this

opportunity this morning uh to preach

your holy word. I pray that as I preach,

Lord, it's not my words. It is solely

your words.

Tell me what to say, what not to say.

Translate that which needs to be

translated. Lord, I pray nothing falls

upon deaf ears.

Open our eyes to see. Open our ears to

hear.

Lord, speak for your servants are

listening. In your mighty name, amen.

Well, this past week I I started playing

Oz Tag. Um, it was awesome. I've had a

great time. Uh we lost five to one.

>> So good. But that one try

>> this guy.

I was able to take that home and tell my

son, "We lost, but I scored a try. I

kind of feel like my West Tigers at the

moment. It's all good."

But in leading up to this uh when I

registered I realized that I had really

played a team sport in like 15 years. I

had really sprinted in like 10, right?

So I was like, man, I need to sort this

out. I can't just go out there and hope

for the best. So I I I I chose another

day to do another day at the gym or

legs, just sprinting. You're like, I

didn't skip leg day. I only did leg day,

right? So I was like, I'm going to do

it. said, "When you when you start

something like this in the gym, they

always say, you know, start easy, start

light, and then ramp it up." And I said,

"No, I know my body better."

Famous last words.

So, I went to the gym for that on that

Wednesday and I gave I gave it

everything I could. I was like, I I used

to be fast. I used to be a winger. I was

like, "Come on, I got this." So, I just

110%.

It just took one gym session, going too

hard on something I hadn't worked in

many, many years, and I injured my quad.

One session. I was like, man,

who would have thought?

I injured my quad. I could I could not

run. And I was like, awesome. I'm going

to be like holding I've like paid my

registration. I'm ready to go. Got my

jersey. Got this injured quad. I'm just

going to be sitting on the sideline for

three months. Praise the Lord. went to

physio, fixed it, scored the try. Amen.

But the issue was the gym wasn't the

issue. Training wasn't the issue. The

issue was that I didn't listen to the

wise counsel that was given to me.

I training I I was doing the right

things. I was just doing it the wrong

way.

I should have listened to people who

knew better, like Pastor Luke.

people that had studied this and knew

what was going on. I should have

listened to them and and done what they

had said. But the thing is that we treat

sin a little bit the same way. Oh no, I

think I know better. It's not really

sin. So what is going to happen? But we

live our lives so precariously on the

edge of what is right and what is wrong

that time and time again we fall into

temptation.

But we need to be living our life that

we're not just fleeing sin, but we're

fleeing anything and everything that

could lead or potentially lead us to

sin. We need to be so far away from the

edge that there is not even a thought in

our mind that we could step over.

See, God knows he time and time again in

scripture, he warns us. It tells us that

there is a world out there that is

antithetical to the kingdom. The that

the culture of the kingdom is opposite

of the culture of the world. God knows

this. There's even today there is things

called moral relativ relativism which

basically means that what you believe is

true, what you believe is good is good.

There's also pragmatism over principle

which basically means the goal is your

priority and uh morals are contextual.

As long as you like as long as you make

it what you did to get there doesn't

matter. And then we have this other

thing called the harm principle which

basically means as long as no one gets

hurt we're all good.

But this is antithetical to what the

scripture tells us. This is the opposite

of the way we should be living as

kingdom ambassadors

because God knows that just one drop,

one drop of wickedness can spoil the

heart, can make the heart foul. Just one

drop. I hear so many times, oh, how far

is too far, Pastor Ben?

Well, my sin's not as bad as their sin.

Is that really the way that you want to

be judging yourself? that you're

slightly less worse than somebody else.

Take these two glasses of water. One of

them I got from a tap, the other from

the toilets.

I'm not drinking them, don't worry.

But if I took one and poured it into the

other, but then poured the water back

into it,

I would hedge a pretty good bet that

nobody in this room would dare drink

these.

Just had to look at the youth just for a

second just in case. Yeah, I knew it.

But no one's going to be drinking this

because it doesn't matter if it's 90%

toilet water or 10% water. We know that

it's disgusting. We know that it's

ruined the entire cup, but we don't

treat sin like that. We go, "Ah, it's

slightly okay or it's only slightly bad.

Really, how bad could it be?" But God

knows and he warns us because he knows

that the path of wickedness will always

lead to destruction. And that's what we

see in his word. That's what we see in

the story of David and Beth Sheeba, that

it was just a little bit. He just took

an inch and he took a mile.

and it led to destruction. So what we're

going to do today is we're going to go

through the story of David and Beth

Sheeba. We there's three things that I I

would like to go through that we can

learn from. What are the things that

David did wrong? But then what are the

things that David should have done in in

that place, right? So there are three

things that well there are many things

that David did wrong, but three things

that I'd love to point out for us this

morning. The first one is this. He was

in the wrong place. And I'm not talking

about, oh, the wrong place, wrong time.

No, no. He was just where he should not

have been. In verse one, it says, in the

spring of the year, the time when kings

go out to battle, David sent Joab and

his servants with him and all Israel,

and they ravaged the Ammonites and

besieged Ruba. Israel was winning.

Israel was victorious. It was a good

time. Yet David remained at Jerusalem.

When an army goes out, a king's place is

not the throne. A king's place is

leading the army.

When an army goes to war, the king also

goes to war. Yet, David, for whatever

reason, just decided to stay at home.

And this decision caused him to fall

into sin after sin after sin after sin.

He was in the wrong place. I'll give him

the benefit of the doubt. I don't know

what the reason was, but he was where he

should not have been. If he had just

chosen to do the right thing and the

thing that he was called to as king of

Israel, we wouldn't even have this whole

chapter in the Bible. It would it would

have said they went to war and they won

next.

But because he chose to stay at home,

because he was where he shouldn't have

been, things unraveled.

And how many times do we we find things

like that in our life that we're just

not where we're meant to be?

You spend a little bit too long at your

boyfriend's or girlfriend's house.

Nothing bad, nothing good happens after

2 a.m.

Or maybe you're just always hanging

around with that group of friends that

that parties and they always get drunk

and you're like, I just I don't want to

seem like the odd one out.

Or maybe it's just that workplace that

you're at. Toxic, greedy, there's just

jealous and go jealousness and gossip

just everywhere you look.

Yes, we are called to be the light to

the world, but not at the expense of our

soul.

We are called to be the light, but we

can no longer be the light if the light

has gone from within us.

So sometimes we need to just remove

ourselves from situations in order to

make our light shine brighter so we can

go into those places.

So David, he was in the wrong place.

What should we do to not be in the wrong

place? It is pretty simple.

In Proverbs 4:14, it says, "Do not enter

Proverbs 4:14

the path of the wicked. Do not walk in

the way of evil. Avoid it. Do not go

into it. Turn away from it. Pass on. You

see it, run.

Avoid it at all costs. That's what David

should have done. He should have gone.

The right thing is for me to be with my

army, so let me do that because who

knows what could happen if I stay at

home. We need to be avoiding sin. And

now, I don't have time to just stand up

here and list out every sin in the

Bible.

That's not really my job anyway. That's

your job. So, I've put five scriptures

behind me that Take out your phones.

Gotcha.

Bang.

You're welcome.

Take out your phones. These five verses,

five pieces of scripture that you can go

home and you can read through them. But

just a couple of And this is the

starting place. This is not the be all

and end all. This is not an exhaustive

list. This is the starting place because

they have things in these scriptures

like sexual immorality, theft, coveting,

deceit, envy, slander, pride, idolatry,

fits of rage, drunkenness, greed, lovers

of money, lovers of self, being

arrogant, abusive, obscene talk, malice,

disobedient to your parents.

I'll be preaching at youth in a couple

weeks. Very excited.

But the list goes on. I encourage you go

home and study. And it's not so that God

can control you. It's so he can protect

you. We look at these lists and go,

"Wow, look at all the things I can't

do." But maybe we need to look at these

lists and go, "Wow, look how much God

loves me that he wants to protect me

from all these things."

And maybe for us, it's it's just being

really practical. There are intentional

decisions that you need to make in order

to flee, to avoid. You're struggling

with pornography. There are apps you can

literally put on your phone to to block

it all out that to control your phone in

order that you can't even go on unless

you unless you have a passcode and all

these other things.

Maybe there's

there's just that there's environments

that you find yourself in time and time

again that you just need to remove

yourself from for a season in order to

be sanctified, in order to be filled

with God's holiness and able to be

the the the man and woman of God that

he's called you to be. Maybe you just

need some more sleep.

I'm honest. There's times in the Bible

where where God's like, "You're too

angry. Have some sleep.

Right? You wake up in the morning and

you're like, "Man, I just need to have

my first coffee and then my then I'm

myself,

but you're kind of being a bit of a jerk

to your spouse.

You're just yelling at your kids all

morning. You need some more sleep. You

don't need to wait for that coffee. Fix

it beforehand, not afterhand."

Or maybe there's just movies or music

that you're watching, listening to, and

in in of themselves, they're not bad,

but they're changing who you are from

the inside out. That there are things

that you watch that you're just numb to

now. You're scrolling on Instagram and

you're like, man, look at all the bad

stuff in the world. Yeah.

All the music that you're listening to

just changes. You listen to this type of

music, you just get a little bit angry.

and you hold on to it and you just don't

know what to do with it anymore. We need

to be avoiding sin at all costs because

just one drop turns a heart foul and can

lead to destruction. So David was in the

wrong place. How do we be in the right

place? Avoid sin at all cost. Do not do

not tiptoe next to the edge. Run as fast

as you can.

The second thing that we see with David

in this story was it actually wasn't one

single decision. It was a multitude of

bad decisions that got him to where he

was. He chose to not go and fight with

his army. He then uh he looked out his

window and he saw Beth Sheba and in some

scriptures it says and he noticed that

she was beautiful to look at. So he

didn't just look, he kept on looking. He

then got his servants to grab her and

bring her over. He then slept with her,

committing adultery. He then impregnated

her. Then she became pregnant. He then

called Uriah, her husband, home from war

in order for to try and get him to sleep

with his wife to cover up his mis

misdoings.

But Uriah being the the righteous man he

was, was like, "No, no, no. The arm is

at war. I can't do that." David gets

annoyed. He gets angry. And then he

throws a party, gets Uriah drunk, and

even in Uriah's drunkenness, he is still

more righteous than what we see King

David. And he goes, "No, that's not what

I need to be doing right now." So David,

he sends Uriah back

to the war and he says, "Put him on the

front line." And when Uriah goes out,

everyone else step back in order for him

to be killed.

It wasn't one bad decision. It was a

multitude of bad decisions. And for us,

it might not be one bad decision. No one

wakes up a murderer. No one wakes up a

drunken. No one wakes up a drug addict.

No one wakes up an adulterer. No, no.

It's a series of bad decisions that get

you to that place.

It's a series of bad decisions. So if

there's a series of bad decisions that

gets us to the wicked place,

then it's a series of good decisions

that gets us to where God wants us to

be.

So how do we live opposing to what David

did? In Proverbs 4:18, it says, "But the

Proverbs 4:18

path of the righteous is like the light

of dawn, which shines brighter and

brighter until full day." How do we live

opposed to what David did? One step at a

time. Just one step at a time. You might

feel like you're taking two steps

forward and one step back, but that one

step that you've made is far further

than you have taken if you didn't take a

step at all. And I get it.

You might feel it's like, yeah, but

every time I try, it just feels like it

gets worse. But I just want to encourage

you, don't let your setbacks set your

trajectory.

your your your the things that are

coming against you, the way that you're

feeling, the way that you're being

pushed back. Don't allow those things to

then shift your mind and go, "Well, if

it's always going to be that way, then

I'm just going to why not just push into

it? Why not press into it?" No, no, no.

God is calling us to to set our eyes on

him one step at a time, one choice at a

time. Yes, you might have setbacks,

but

one step at a time. Because for David,

he was in a cycle of hurt. He was in a

cycle of bad decisions. And it wasn't

until Nathan, his friend, called him out

and held him accountable that he was

able to break out of of this issue, of

this sin. So, do you have someone in

your world that can hold you

accountable? I know that there's people

in my life that if they started seeing

me step out, I would get a slap in the

face before I got some words and I

praise God for them most days.

But it's because they because they they

want the best for me. I don't just want

the best for me. God doesn't want just

the best for me. My my friends, my close

friends, they want the best for me. And

I would slap them, too.

But time. Maybe that's for you. Maybe

you just need to find who are those

people in your life that you can

actually be real with. Actually have

them hold you accountable. The things in

your life that aren't looking good, but

you can call them up at 2 a.m. and just

go, "Man, I just need someone to talk

to. I I just I these things that are

going on, I I just need I need to talk

to you because I know if I don't call

you, if I don't talk to you,

man, I'm going to make a bad choice."

So, how do we not end up where David

did? One step at a time.

And the last thing that we see with

David is that he ended up far, far from

where he started.

He started

by deciding to not go to war and he

ended up murdering his friend.

See why? Why was a David able to see

Bath Sheba? And the answer is because

Uriah

and Beth Sheeba lived close to David

because Uriah wasn't just any warrior.

He wasn't just any commander in in the

king's army. No. No. He was one of

David's closest and top 30 men.

His close circle of friends, Uriah, was

in that group. So David just didn't kill

anyone. He killed one of his closest

friends.

All to try and cover up the sin that he

committed.

He didn't look like himself. We can read

this passage and go, "This is not this

is not the what the man in the Psalms

looks like. This is not what an image of

a man after God's own heart looks like."

And we can read it and go, how how do we

reconcile this image of David and the

Psalms?

How do we reconcile those two things?

How could God possibly save him?

And if we're honest, the reason is that

we ask those questions is because we ask

them of ourselves.

We look at ourselves. We know our sin.

We see our sin and we go, "Man, how

could God save me?

How

How could God

change me?

Maybe you feel like your sin's too much,

too great. I get it. There's been times

in my life that I've just

I've looked at my sin and God, man, is

that the last straw? Is that it? Have I

done too much?

But I cry out to God every time and I

feel his peace.

But then you do it again. You're like,

"Man, I stuffed up again."

You stuff up again and again and again,

and you're just like, "Man, when does it

end?" But I'm here today to tell you

this thing. There is grace for all sin.

There is grace for everyone in this

room. Doesn't matter what you've done.

Doesn't matter how much you've done it.

There is grace that and there's mercy

and there is the blood of Jesus that can

cover all wrongs. How? We see it in 2

2 Samuel 12:13

Samuel 12:13. And David said to Nathan,

"I have sinned against God." The answer

is repentance.

Turn to God. Don't turn to your sin.

Turn to God. Admit your failings. Admit

your faults and say, "God, I've done it

wrong again."

And as we see in the New Testament, it

says, "Yes, now go sin no more." That

doesn't mean they're now perfect. It's

just a command to try again one step at

a time with the power of Holy Spirit.

And then what we see

what we see in verse 24, it says, "Then

David comforted his wife Ba Sheeba and

went into her and lay with her and she

bore a son and he called his name

Solomon and the Lord loved him.

Solomon

was the first child of the lineage from

David to Jesus Christ.

From all of the wives David had, of all

the children that he had, Dave that God

chose this union to bless. He chose this

union to be the one to be the lineage to

Jesus Christ. Why? Because God wanted to

show that he could fix broken things.

You are not too far from God. You have

not sinned enough for God to to look the

other way. No, no, no. It says in our

Bible, "Whoever calls upon the name of

the Lord shall be saved." Doesn't matter

what you've done.

Doesn't matter how many times you've

done it. God wants to save you. So, if

you're here this morning,

maybe you've this is the first time

you've ever

heard this gospel. Maybe this is the

first time you've heard that

there is a God that loves you

and he is able to wash away your sin.

Doesn't matter how great it is. Doesn't

how many times he's done it, he's able

to wash it away. Or maybe you have heard

this before.

You've heard it a couple times, but

today you just know, I need to make this

decision. I need to respond. I need to

say yes to Jesus again.

You need to repent and say, "God, I need

what your Bible is talking about. I am a

sinner, yet you are greater."

And God, he wants to come down and he

wants to comfort you.

You don't have to fix yourself up to

come to God. God is the best fixer

upper. He wants to come into your life

and fix you up. He doesn't want you to

fix yourself up and come into his life.

So if that's you this morning, if you

for the first time or maybe

for for the second or 10th time you want

to respond to Jesus in a moment, I'm

going to give you an opportunity to say

yes. So with eyes closed across this

room,

I don't know what your life looks like.

I don't know what your your journey with

Jesus looks like. But what I do know is

that

You are so close to God

because you've made it into this room.

And today's your day. Today's your day

to say yes. Today's your day to respond.

Today's your day to say no. I need this

Jesus. I need this God. Cuz we are all

sinners,

separated from our God.

No one is perfect. Everyone falls short.

But there was a God in heaven who came

down to earth put on flesh.

He lived a perfect life and he died so

that you didn't have to. He paid the

debt that we're meant to pay. And now we

can come back into relationship with our

God and we can

live the life that he has called us to

live.

All we need to do is respond. All we

need to do is say yes. So, in a moment,

if that's you, I'm going to ask you to

boldly raise your hand. And this is not

to point you out. Me and just some of

the team at the back are are looking

around. And this is not so we can go,

"Hey, that's that guy." No, no. This is

so we as a church, we as leaders can

know who we are getting around. So, we

do this journey with you. This is not a

journey you do alone. This is a journey

we do together.

So, if that's you, on the count of

three, I'm going to ask you to boldly,

boldly raise your hand. One, God loves

you so much that he sent his son to die

on the cross. Two, Jesus loves you so

much that because of the hope that was

set before you, and you were that hope,

he went to the cross. And three, if

that's you this morning, I ask you right

now to boldly raise your hand.

If that's you in the room and you want

to respond and say yes to Jesus. We had

a bunch of people in our first service

say yes.

I I just know there are people in this

room that are wrestling with this

decision.

This is the best decision that you could

ever ever make. So if that's you,

raise your hand with all eyes closed. No

one's looking.

So good. Well, there's something that we

say at elevation. It's not about a hand

raised. It's about a heart changed. So,

I know there are people in this room

that are wrestling or maybe they've made

the decision. They just didn't want to

raise their hand. So, we as a church, we

we're going to say this prayer together.

So, church, come on. Let's repeat after

me. Jesus, I give you my life. I give

you my all. Thank you for dying for me.

I call you savior and king and his

mighty name. Everyone says, "Amen."

Amen. Call, let's give our God a shout

of praise.