 But today we're in 2 Samuel chapter 15, and we're not going to go through the entire chapter. Normally I try to take a chapter at a time, but we're not going to do that today. We're only going to do the first 23 verses of this particular chapter as we continue our study here in 2 Samuel. And what we did is we began with 1 Samuel, went through 1 Samuel, and I felt it was such an edifying, instructive portion of Scripture in 1 Samuel that we just continued on. And we've been looking at the life of David, and so what we find here in chapter 15 is a continuation of some of the events that followed his transgression, his sin of adultery and murder and a variety of things that relate to that. And so let's begin in 2 Samuel at chapter 15 verse 1. I'll read verses 1 through 6, and we'll get into our study. 2 Samuel chapter 15 verses 1 through 6, and what we're looking at is stolen hearts, and you'll see this when we get to verse 6. He says, after this it happened that Absalom provided himself with chariots and horses and 50 men to run before him. Now Absalom would rise early and stand beside the way to the gate. So it was whenever anyone who had a lawsuit came to the king for a decision that Absalom would call to him and say, what city are you from? And he would say, your servant is from Chino. No, he wouldn't. Your servant is from such and such a tribe of Israel. And Absalom would say to him, look, your case is good and right. But there is no deputy of the king to hear you. Moreover, Absalom would say, oh, that I were made judge in the land, and everyone who has any suit or cause would come to me, then I would give them justice. So it was whenever anyone came near to bow down to him, they would put out his hand and take him and kiss him. In this manner, Absalom acted toward all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. Absalom stole the hearts. We're looking at the subject of stolen hearts. This is one of those studies, by the way, that is usually given in pastor's conferences or in leadership training because it speaks concerning how people can steal other people's hearts and the devious ways in which they can do so. Obviously in society, at large, it can happen on your work place, it can happen also in politics, it most certainly happens in the church today. And so there's a word that we, as pastors, might use in reference to somebody who has been stealing hearts, and that word is Absalom because that's what Absalom does. Absalom steals the hearts of the men of Israel. He does so in a tactical way. Now we need to remember what has taken place up to this point. You know, King David was a great king. David was a warrior king. He's known for a variety of things. When you look in life of King David, and many people have, you'll see that he was a great king, he was a great son, he was a great warrior, he was a great man in every way. And the nation of Israel, early on, had a deep affection for him. The nation of Israel greatly loved him. But David was also a man of great appetites. And when he saw a beautiful woman, a woman by the name of Bathsheba, she was taking her a bath and all in us, he saw her and his heart lusted for her and he conceived a plan in order that he might have her. Well, when David did finally take her and she conceived a child by him, sent word to him that she was pregnant with his child, then David tried to find a way to make her husband, Uriah, believe that the child that she was carrying was his. And we know the story. We've gone through this. Everybody knows it. Ultimately, because Uriah was a noble man, a loyal man to him, David repaid his loyalty by putting him in the front lines and he ultimately was killed. As a result of that, in battle, he died. As a result of that, God sent a prophet by the name of Nathan to speak to David and as Nathan came and spoke to David, Nathan made it very clear to David that his sin had not gone unnoticed. God had paid attention to it and as a result, he said, trouble's not going to leave your house. And so we've seen David after his fall and we've seen the repercussions of that fall because David had a daughter by the name of Tamar and she had a half brother by the name of Amnon and a full brother by the name of Absalom. And as we saw, Amnon had lustful desire for his half sister and raped her. Absalom, when he discovered what had been done, waited for a while until things seemed to be cooled down and ultimately orchestrated the death of his half brother Amnon and promptly fled into exile into his grandfather's land, a place called Ghashur in Syria, and stayed there for three years. Finally, David brought him back and now he's under basically house arrest for two more years. David hasn't seen him. He got upset. He wanted to have an audience with his father. His cousin Joab has a field that's next to his and he has it lit on fire. Joab comes and Absalom says, look, if I've done something worthy of death, then put me to death. But if not, I want to see my father. And last time we were together, we saw that David took his son Absalom, embraced him, kissed him, and basically was fully reconciled to him. David was reconciled to Absalom, but Absalom was not reconciled with his father, and that's what we're seeing take place here in 2 Samuel chapter 15. We're seeing what takes place in the heart of a son who is angry at his father. We're going to see a betrayal here, a betrayal that would break any father's heart. We're going to see a son intentionally destroying his father. You see in Exodus in chapter 20, verse 12, the Bible says, honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you. So the Bible makes it very clear that we're to honor our parents. Absalom breaks that commandment, even as his father broke the commandments against murder and adultery. And so as we see this, Absalom has been laying the plans, the foundations for what we today would call a hostile takeover of the kingdom. From all outer appearances things seem to have been okay between David and his son, but from Absalom's perspective it's time for a regime change, and he's going about the fostering of that. Now if you wanted to undermine somebody, if you wanted to find a way to displace them and to replace them with yourself, what would you do? Well here we see a few things in the life of Absalom and how he went about stealing the hearts of people that can give us a warning to teach us not to be men and women like this, because we see what he does. We see that he has certain tactics that he uses to steal a position of importance, and we see these tactics as we examine Absalom and see what he did to achieve this kind of end. And as we go through it, let me give you a few things. Verse one, let's begin there. If I wanted to steal some power position, if I wanted to usurp some authority, if I wanted to get something somebody else has, what can I do? Now verse one gives us the first thing, after this it happened that Absalom provided himself with chariots and horses and fifty men to run before him. Now when we look at this, you need to see that these are symbols of royalty, and so what this does is it gives him the appearance of importance. These horses and these men running before him gave him this air of importance as he would arrive into the city, and so what he did is he took advantage of his present position in order that he could put himself in the limelight. He wanted to steal people's attention. If you want to steal a position, get known by the people. Get your face out there, what they call FaceTime. Get your face out there so the people will know, and they'll look at you and they'll recognize you, and they'll say, oh, isn't this so and so? That's exactly what he did. And so he used these symbols of royalty to give himself the appearance of importance. We know that symbols communicate powerful messages. We know that symbols are used all the time so that people might have brand name recognition. For example, if I were to put on the video screen just the symbol of a Mercedes, everybody here knows what the Mercedes symbol is, all of us do. It looks like a peace sign without a leg. That's what it is. Or the Lexus symbol, they have spent millions of dollars marketing these symbols so that you know that the Lexus symbol is an Allen and oval. We know that the crest and the wreath is the symbol of Cadillac. And so these marketing specialists will do that so that you don't even need to know the name of that product. The Hyundai Genesis today has come out, and you see the Hyundai coming towards you. It doesn't have anything. There's no Hyundai insignia of any sort on it. But just the grill itself tells anybody who knows anything about cars. That's a Hyundai Genesis, because that is used as name brand recognition. Symbols are used that way. And when you have a symbol that draws attention, it's something that is usable if you especially want people to favor you or your product. You see, to the people, Absalon appearing in public in this way was something that they expected. He was a king's son, so they thought this kind of behavior would be normal. So when he would show up like that and people would see him, they would be thinking of royalty. It's kind of like when they have the Academy awards and all, and the Hollywood actors arrive. How do they arrive? Do they arrive in a taxi, a yellow cab? You know, no, they come arriving in limousines, and people expect them to be in those limousines because that's a symbol to them. When they roll up and they go out in that red carpet and these Hollywood actors and actresses climb out of that car and they make their appearance and all of that, people are fully expecting that. And that's how it was with him. They expected him to be somebody who did that because this was a king's son. And so it made him seem important. Just arriving in that way made him and his opinions seem more important than the average person. Again, the Hollywood actors seem more important. And so when they come in and they come in in that kind of way, they're important in every way to some people. So they give lectures on climate change and they give their opinions on politics, things that they have really no experience with, and yet people will listen to them because after all, they are Hollywood actors. And that's the way people think, and Absalom was that way. Absalom rolled in with his chariot, with the 50 men running before him, and the people would see him and immediately he had the air of importance. And so he conducted himself in such a way that the average person would immediately think some very important person has entered into the room. So if you want to steal somebody's heart, get people to run around you acting like you're very important, and before you know it, people will start thinking, this is an exclusive kind of person, can't get close to them, they're just out there, they're more than I'll ever be. And that causes that kind of worship that takes place that people can have even in ministries. I mean, I get comments every once in a while, and actually quite often people say, I appreciate the fact that you speak the way you do about yourself and you're willing to show your warts. That's all I am as a wart. I mean, what's the problem? I'll say what I am, I'll say what I've done because I'm not trying to create some kind of error if I'm better than you. You know, we're in this together, a bunch of sinners who need the Lord Jesus Christ, and to be treated differently is not right. And so of course, you're one of the people because that's what you are. Well, Absalom was one who wanted people around him to make him feel important, to look important because when people saw how important he was by the way other treated him, well naturally they would just join in. He used that to steal the hearts of people. Self-importance. Secondly, I want you to see this in verse two, Absalom would rise early and stand beside the way to the gate. Now that's another way of saying that he would go to the place where cases were tried, where people would come to get their cases settled. But what this was showing about him was given an appearance of being a hard worker and diligent. It appeared to others that he cared about how things were going because he'd arrive early. And that would also communicate to them that they have a problem he could act immediately. You see, some people think nobody cares if somebody's not there exactly when they need them. So if they have to make an appointment or they're unable to see the person they want to see, they immediately feel unimportant or not needed or not respected. In the case of Absalom, he showed up bright and early. So when people who were coming in, they were disgruntled, these were people with problems. When they showed up, he would be there given the appearance that he, of all people, cared about them. So he was available to them. That's the third thing you see. Whenever anyone had a lawsuit and they came to the king for a decision, Absalom would take the time to talk to them. So the third thing you see is not only is he appearing to be diligent, not only is he royal, but he's also accessible. He gives that impression that he cares for them. So he has an outward compassion. These people would come by to get their grievances settled. So he had a group of disgruntled people to speak to by asking them, where do you come from? He was given an impression of genuine concern for them. So his easy accessibility and apparent personal attention would go a long way. And so these people thought, he's here for us and David's not. As a matter of fact, he actually capitalizes on that because notice in verse three, Absalom would say to that person, look, your case is good and right, but there's no deputy of the king to hear you. And so that's another tactic. He would foster a belief that the king's too busy to be concerned for them. The king's too busy and the king's too old to help you. He's out of touch. Obviously, his other sons don't care else they'd be here and seeing that I'm the only one here early in the morning, I care about you. And so what he was saying there, one is the king doesn't care and then two, the king doesn't know how to appoint people with wisdom to help. And as a result, because of his lack of administrative skills, people are getting hurt. And that is a common tactic of an Absalom. Now notice, he would say, your case is a good one. When he would say to them, your case is a good one, he was saying to them, I understand what you're going through, we used to use the phrase that was used, I can feel your pain. And that's basically what he's saying. And so he's saying, look it, I'm on your side. But in doing this, well, Proverbs 29 verse five says, a man who flatters his neighbor spreads a net for his feet. What he was doing was setting them up to steal their hearts. Now in verse five, Absalom, rather verse four, Absalom would say, oh, that I were made judge in the land and any, everyone who has any suitor or cause would come to me. Notice, I would give him justice. This is a fifth thing. He made it appear that he was being overlooked for a position that he was qualified for. The people knew that he had been gone for three years and had recently returned. So that comment would move them to think that he had been treated unfairly. And that gets what you call the sympathy vote. So people will look and they'll say, well, he's qualified, why haven't they placed him there? It's true, he's here early. He obviously has royal dignity. He's somebody who would decide in my favor and he's being overlooked. And so he's getting their sympathy. And he's saying, if I were in office, you would get your case settled because I would be just. Now this is one of the things. See, I normally will take about 45 to 50 minutes to go through these six verses. I'm rushing right now and I feel it. But I'm gonna still rush, but let me give you this. People have a tendency. If they have a problem, and we know this is true, all of us know this is true, we've done it. If not, we've got two problems. We've done it and we're lying about it. But I'll talk about that some other time. If I have a problem that I need settled, it's easy for me to give my side of the story and to omit the other side. I can paint it in such a way that the other person that I have a problem with is totally at fault. It's easy to do that. I just omit certain facts. I just don't give the other side. I just give my side. All of us know that. Your dad busted you doing something wrong. Did you say, yeah, I did it? Did you come to it? No, you didn't. What you said is, well, you know what? And you gave your side of the story. That's what we did as kids. We can do that as adults. As a minister, there have been many times when people who have had a problem with somebody else have come to me as a pastor to ask for some advice. And they will give me their side of the story. And so if I ask them about other things, they always kind of blow it off. No, they always blow it off. Well, you know what? The Proverbs says something about that. Proverbs 18, verse 17, the first to present his case seems right till another comes forward and questions him. It may be right. You may be giving me all the facts, but you're leaving out some. Well, that's what they would do. And that's how he was. In other words, when they came, Absalom would say, oh, yeah, I'll side with you because the average person who's got a problem with somebody else wants to hear that they're right about that. They don't want to hear. You need to go back and reconcile. They don't want to hear that. They don't want to hear it. Could it be that you're wrong? Could it be that what you've done is, they don't want to hear that? No, I came to you to settle for me and that's what Absalom's doing. He said, oh, if I were a deputy, if I was a judge, if my father was wise enough to have placed me here, I am certainly capable of doing this. I am after all the prince. I'm the king's son. No, I've been exiled. No, I've been exiled. I've learned many things. There's no reason why I can't do this. I get up early. You see me here. And so they come to him. Where are you from in a friendly way? Oh, I'm from this place. Oh, yes, I'm familiar with a beautiful town. What's your problem? Well, I wanted to see the king. Well, he's too busy for you and he doesn't have a deputy here who's capable of hearing. Now, if I were the deputy, if I were appointed to this, I could help him. And by the way, I'm certain that your case is just and I would settle it for you. Well, everybody wants to hear that. That I'm right and everybody else is wrong. And that's how he was doing it. He was using a tactic just to draw these people to himself. Well, notice verse five. So it was, whenever anyone came near to bow down to him, they would put out his hand and take him and kiss him. In this manner, Absalom acted toward all Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. Finally, he presented himself as just one of the guys. Charming, great personality, and the people had come. Now, the people had come to see the king, but he made it seem as if David was unavailable. And so he replaced his father with himself. Here's your question. Was David unavailable? And the answer is, no, he wasn't. We already saw how this wise woman of Techoa came and had audience with him and spoke to him and he listened to her story. We've seen that David is available. He is accessible, but the fact is Absalom played on the people's perception of authority to the degree that he was able to steal their hearts from the king. Javern and McGee, I don't know if you've ever heard of him, most of you have. Javern and McGee writes this. He said Absalom was a bad son, but a good politician. Many politicians have no qualifications other than the fact that they are good at handshaking and back slapping. Today, there are many preachers who use this method. They cannot preach and they cannot teach, but they sure can slap backs. Unfortunately, that is exactly what appeals to us. That's absolutely true. Most people prefer personality and entertainment when they go to church than a Bible study. I guarantee you, I guarantee you. Personality, charm, entertainment, that really gets people in the United States excited. That's the kind of tactic that was used by Absalom. Absalom seemed to be there. He had, in terms of, he had the royal feel to him. He was accessible. He was personal. If somebody came and showed him the kind of respect that a prince would receive, oh no, don't go down, just one of the boys, and he'd kiss him, and he won their hearts very slowly in this way. And that's what he says in verse six. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. Now, verse seven. It came to pass after 40 years that Absalom said to the king, please let me go to Hebron and pay the vow which I made to the Lord. For your servant took a vow while I dwelled at Geshur in Syria saying, if the Lord indeed brings me back to Jerusalem, then I will serve the Lord. And the king said to him, go in peace. So he arose and went to Hebron. Remember with me that he had gone into exile. He had been up in Syria in this place called Geshur. And he is simply saying, I made a vow while I was there and I want to keep my vow. Now I want to make a sacrifice and I want to do so in the city of Hebron. Absalom was born in Hebron and David had been crowned king in Hebron and to that day they were still having sacrifice in that city because the temple was yet to be built. And so he's given to him a reasonable explanation as to why he wants to go to this city. But I have to touch on something very briefly here. And I want you to see it with me in verse one, rather verse seven, when it says it came to pass after 40 years. Now that couldn't have been 40 years because it doesn't fit with the biblical outline. David ruled for a total of 40 years. You see that in 2 Samuel chapter five, verse four. Absalom was born after David began to rule. You see that in 2 Samuel chapter two, verse four. This event did not occur at the end of David's reign. So conservative scholars find that number 40 suspect. Conservative scholars believe the number to be a copyist error. The correct number would be after four years. There's only a couple of letters, difference between four and 40. And so there are those and I happen to agree with them who would say that that number 40 more than likely is really four and it would have been a four year period of time. Now, immediately by saying that there are some who say, are you saying that the Bible is not divinely inspired? I probably shouldn't even have brought this up, huh? No, of course it's divinely inspired. The original manuscripts are 100% accurate. Is it possible that over the centuries two letters may have been misplaced or displaced? And the answer is yes. Does it change anything about the inspiration of scripture? Absolutely not. Does it change any doctrine of scripture? Absolutely not. The conservatives argue over that, whether or not the number is 40 or the number is four. I happen to believe that it's a four year period based on the things that I just said. But the bottom line is this, as you're looking at this, what he begins to do is he begins to try and find a way to get into the city of Hebron so it could rally his troops. Now, here's something for you. He's using his father's religious beliefs as a tool against him. You see, David's a dad who wants his son to worship God. So all Absalom has to do is say, dad, I'm gonna go worship God, and David's all for it. Absolutely, son, go for it. Do people still use their parents' religion against them? Absolutely, absolutely. I did a Bible study, an evening study, and two teenage girls walked up to me after the study, this was years ago, walked up to me and said, pastor, do you have a bulletin? I need to take a bulletin home, I wanted to show it to my dad because I wanted him to know I went to church. And so, like an idiot, I gave him a bulletin. And then they left, and as they went walking out, I started thinking, no, wait a minute, you walk up to me after church is over asking for a bulletin. Duh, I mean, I've got kids, oh, I felt like man, I was taken, and I was, I was. Because all they wanted, you know, all they wanted, have you done that too? Oh, shame on you. All they wanted is they wanted to give proof to their dad that they were in church because dad was a religious man, they used their father's religion against him to go out and do what they wanted. And I'm telling you, that still happens to this day. And so David, hearing his son say, I wanna go to Hebron, I wanna make a sacrifice. David doesn't even think about it, he just thinks that's great. My son wants to worship the God that I worship and serve. Of course, son, you can go, but he's using his father's religion against him. And so what does he do? Well, in verse 10, Absalom sent spies throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then you shall say Absalom reigns in Hebron. And with Absalom went 200 men invited from Jerusalem and they went along innocently and did not know anything. So what he's doing is he's setting him up. He sends these men throughout the tribes and he has them speaking his name and saying good things about him and asking, have you guys heard of Absalom? And they would say, well, of course, well, what do you think about him? And then the people would give their opinion and the spies would say, you know, we think that Absalom's a great guy, he should be king. And that's what they were doing. Now he's making his move, so he gets 200 of the leading men of Israel to go with him and they're innocent in this. They are assuming that David is behind this and it's no problem. But now he's got spies out there saying he's a good guy. He's got 200 leading men with him and everybody knows that you will actually borrow status from the people you know because sometimes a person may not be known by somebody else but they are known by the person that they're friends with. So what he wants to do is he wants to build his reputation by having these great men around him giving the appearance that they believe that he should be the next king and he's using it all against his father and then finally it says in verse 12, Absalom sent for Ahithophel the Gelenite, David's counselor from his city, from Gilo while he offered sacrifices and the conspiracy grew strong for the people with Absalom continually increased in number so his plan is working its way out. Now he brings Ahithophel. Ahithophel's advice at that time, you'll see this later, he was looked at as being divinely inspired by having this counselor with him it gives the appearance that everybody supports him. Now Ahithophel may have a bitterness towards him because Bathsheba is Ahithophel's granddaughter. So Ahithophel would be angry at David for what David had done in taking his granddaughter impregnating her and having her husband killed. And so he's on board now with Absalom and the whole picture you have here is the impression that all are in favor of him. Now as this is taking place, verse 13, a messenger came to David saying the hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom. This messenger may have been one of those 200 who discovered what Absalom was doing and came and reported. So David said to all his servants who were with him in Jerusalem, at Jerusalem arise, let us flee or we shall not escape from Absalom. Make haste to depart, lest he overtake us suddenly and bring disaster upon us and strike the city with the edge of the sword. The king's servant said to the king, we are your servants ready to do whatever my Lord, the king commands. Then the king went out with all his household after him but the king left 10 women concubines to keep the house. David knew the temperament of his son, he knew that he'd better get out and everybody with him or else Absalom would come and wipe him out. If Absalom made sure that Amnon, his brother, died, he would make sure that David died and everybody with him. And so David immediately responds to this and he takes them and he leaves. And as he does, so he leaves behind 10 concubines, these are women who are supposed to take after the house. Now as this is taking place, David actually wrote a Psalm, Psalm three. And in Psalm three verses four through eight, this is what he was going through. He said, I cried to the Lord with my voice and he heard me from his holy hill. I laid down and slept. I awoke for the Lord sustained me. I will not be afraid of 10,000s of people who have set themselves against me all around. Arise, O Lord, save me, oh my God, for you have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone. You have broken the teeth of the ungodly. Salvation belongs to the Lord. Your blessing is upon your people. And there are times when we say you need to pray the Bible, well this is a good prayer. Break their cheeks and bust their teeth, Jesus, in your name I pray. Amen. Little Old Testament prayer for you. So what happens? Well, verse 17, the king went out with all the people after him and stopped at the outskirts of the city. Then all his servants passed before him. All the keratites and palatites, these were his personal bodyguard. And all the Gittites, 600 men who had followed him from Gath passed before the king. And the king said to Etai, the Gittite, why are you also going with us? Return and remain with the king, for you are a foreigner and also an exile from your own place. In fact, you came only yesterday. Should I make you wander up and down with us today? Since I go, I know not where. Return and take your brother in back. Your mercy and truth be with you. I wanna spend a few moments looking at this because I think this is very important. Some basic things to see in this. That can be of application to us in 21st century. Basically, as we see here, we have the keratites and palatites, they're the personal bodyguard, but you also see these men from Gath. The city of Gath was one of the five leading cities of the Philistines. This tells us that these are Philistines who are with David, 600 strong. And they have a leader, his name is Etai. Etai, as David just said, just recently arrived in the city of Jerusalem and David is saying to him, why is it that you're arriving so soon and having to leave? And he actually says, what you should do is just remain here and join Absalom. You have no obligation to be with me. He's saying, return to Jerusalem with your men and may God show you kindness for your loyalty. Now, this is the application I wanna make here because Etai knew David and respected him in a way that his son, Absalom, did not. Etai saw something in David that Absalom refused to see. Absalom was a bitter son who refused to see the greatness of his father. Absalom, I'm certain, could only see the failure and did not see a lifetime of loyalty to God. And he used it against his own father. David somehow had lost the respect of Absalom to the degree that Absalom believed that he should be displaced and replaced with himself. And that happens sometimes. There are in families good men and good women who have children who do not hold them in the respect that others do because maybe they saw in the life of their father or their mother, maybe they saw something that for them they struggled over, I don't know. I don't know a single child that was raised in a perfect home outside of my own. Now, I don't know a single child who's ever been raised in a perfect home. Every one of us has been raised by parents or a parent who did their best, I'm sure with the best that they had, but they were not perfect, who is? And so what happens is you can have a kid who's bitter. Now, in the case of David and Absalom, as we've seen, David did not react to Amnon. Amnon raped David's daughter and David did not respond, but Absalom did, and Absalom certainly knew that David had committed adultery with Bathsheba, and there's no doubt that was common knowledge. So something had happened in the heart of Absalom so that he felt his father should be replaced. But God's grace and mercy had been poured over David, and it was something that even though David would reap the repercussions, as Nathan had said, the sword will never depart your home. What you've done, God has taken notice of, and he is displeased with it, and David, you will reap the consequences as a result. David knew that it was blessed to be forgiven of his sins, and he had made his offerings to God and had been reconciled, though he knows that he's gonna reap what he has sown. Absalom, as the son sees the father and feels that he should displace him. Now Jesus, in Mark, chapter six, verse four, said a prophet is not without honor, except in his own country, among his own relatives, and in his own house. I think that sometimes children don't see their parents the way others do. Billy Graham has a son by the name of Franklin Graham. Franklin Graham many years ago wrote his testimony, a book, his testimony, and in it he shared how he was a wild kid, didn't listen to the things his dad had to say, wasn't interested in the things of the gospel. Billy Graham is the most famous evangelist that we'll ever know in our lifetime. He's a man who is known for his devotion to preaching the gospel. He's famous for that world over. On one occasion Billy Graham was in Africa doing a crusade and he and some of his friends decided to take a ride in the jungle and as they were driving through a jungle path, Billy Graham was driving, he found himself kind of stuck and he had to back up to get out and as he was backing down this path, there was a New York Times reporter who was driving in the same path, not knowing who was in front of him. And when he sees this car backing towards him, the New York Times reporter stopped his car, started honking the horn and then stuck his head out the window there and started yelling at the driver and he said, where are you going for Christ's sake? Billy Graham stuck his head out the window and looked back at the reporter and said, I go everywhere for Christ's sake. That was Billy Graham. That was Billy Graham and everybody knew and everybody knows of him in this New York Times reporter. I read this as he wrote it, he said, you know, of all people to ask such a question to I asked it of Billy Graham. Because he was famous for that but did Franklin respect his father? The answer is at first, no. No, he didn't. Did Franklin Graham know that his father was a great evangelist? The answer is no, he was just daddy and a prophet is never, ever honored in his own home. Jesus said, why? Because they see your warts. They see your anointing when it's on and they see it when it's off and some of them sometimes can say, you're a hypocrite and I don't, and that's how it works. I don't respect you. Especially if you have a kid who's rebellious who's looking for warts, looking for problems, looking for something that they can dislike. And there's no doubt about that. Many pastors, many ministers have suffered through this kind of thing. David suffered with it. David failed. But David when he wrote Psalm 32 and Psalm 51 said, oh, blessed is man, God does not impute the iniquity too and blessed is the man who's been forgiven. And if it was sacrifices you asked for, I would give them. But the sacrifices that God accepts are a broken and contrite spirit. These, oh God, you will not deny. You accept these things. He was a broken man. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation, he said. God be merciful to me. You see, David had experienced the grace of God even though he was gonna reap the repercussions of sinful choices. Absalom, Absalom's great desire is to get rid of his father which makes this even more powerful to me because I want you to see this. You have a Philistine by the name of Itai who has come recently with 600 men to join David. David is now sorrowfully departing from the city and David sees Itai as they march before him and he says to him and his 600 men, go back and support Absalom. You recently came, you don't need to be with me. But notice Itai's answer in verse 21. Itai answered the king and said, as the Lord lives and as my Lord the king lives, surely in whatever place my Lord the king shall be, whether in death or life, even there also your servant will be. No, I will go with you. I will encounter dangers with you and if need be, I will die with you. With loyal friends like this, great things can be accomplished. You see, because normally people bail at the first sign of trouble. But Itai said, no, I know that you're a man that I can follow and I'm willing to follow you every step of the way. I'm willing, if I need to, to encounter danger with you and I am willing, if I have to, to die alongside of you. Where Absalom was willing to kill his father, Itai was willing to die alongside of him and that to me is a very powerful token of loyalty. Well, David said to Itai, go and cross over. Then Itai, the Itai, and all his men and all the little ones who were with him crossed over and all the country wept with a loud voice and all the people crossed over. The king himself also crossed over the brook Kidron and all the people crossed over toward the way of the wilderness. They wept. They wept over Absalom's evil towards his father. They wept as David left his city. They're there in the outskirts. They're crossing the brook Kidron. They're entering into the wilderness now and they're weeping with a loud voice. The Kidron runs north and south right next to the city of Jerusalem. We've been over it many times. It's the brook that you will cross over to get to the Mount of Olives. When you go to the Mount of Olives in order to remember Jesus there on the Mount of Olives, you can't help but realize that David crossed over this brook in order to save his life. But Jesus crossed over the same brook to prepare to lay his down. David left to save himself. Jesus went across that same brook to prepare himself to return to that city to voluntarily die in a cross for all of us. David fled because of his sin. Jesus wept on that Mount of Olives because of ours. And Jesus entered back into the city so that they could put him on a cross ultimately and so that he could die. David, as he looks at the city of Jerusalem and I wish there were some way we could understand the passion and the pain that he was experiencing at that moment, this beloved city. As he's there with all of these people, weeping out loud as they're crossing that brook and they're leaving into a wilderness, sin always leads you to a wilderness. It always does. It always does. And it always results in pain and suffering even for the innocent when we fail. It does because no one as it's been said is an island unto himself. Every one of us affects somebody else. And your failures may seem inconsequential to you but they are not to the ones who love you the most. And so what we try to do is we try to realize that we can impact others for good or for evil. I for one like you, I'm grateful for the mercy of God, the grace of God because all of us being imperfect, all of us could be reaping consequences eternally. But what God has done is God has washed those consequences away eternally in the sense that my sin at one time separated me from God but now it's been taken care of by Jesus Christ. Now, can I reap the consequences of poor choices that I make today? Yes, I can. Do those consequences enter into eternity with me? No, they don't. I can make some poor choices and reap the consequences. I can commit adultery and reap the consequences. I can commit adultery and get an STD and I will reap the consequences. I can go before the Lord and be washed and cleansed to God forgive me, I committed adultery. Lord forgive me and God will wash me and will cleanse me and will renew me. He will because he's a gracious living God. But does that mean that that venereal disease is disappearing? No, it means that I have a venereal disease that I got that's a result of a sin that I committed. Yes, I could go in backslide, I could go and get depressed and drink some beer or some wine or some whiskey or mixed drink of some sort and I can climb in my car and drive and I can hit a car and I can injure myself or injure that person in that car, maybe even kill them. I can go to trial, I can do time in jail. Does God forgive me of my sin? Yes, the minute I cry out, God forgive me, I am so sorry, forgive me. Do the consequences continue? Absolutely. Because sin has consequences. Now does that keep me from going to heaven? No, I've been washed by the blood of Jesus Christ. I enter into the kingdom of God and I thank God as a forgiven sinner and even as Ezekiel 36 tells us and I loathe my sin for what I've done. But do I reap consequences here on earth? I can and I do. In the case of David, David loved God. He was washed and cleansed, he was forgiven, but the sword did not depart from his house and his own son hated him enough to try and get him killed. Consequences of sin. So what we need to do is we need to learn our lessons as we read this and say, God be merciful to me. I don't wanna take this path. I wanna be wise not to enter into something that has this kind of result. It may seem tempting and good right now, but it has consequences I will pay for later on. Like they used to say, if you're gonna dance, you will pay the piper. If you wanna go and party, you will reap the consequences. You will. For me, I wanna learn not to do that so I have less to regret as I'm growing older and the Lord.