Consequences

HBI - Sin consequences are far reaching, God’s love reaches farther still through His correction and His Grace.

Climax - 18:18-19:4 The Emphasis of the passage - the devastating human cost of rebellion and sin as seen in David’s grief.

Resolution - 19:5-8 - Joab confronts David, Calls Him out on his attitude and David takes his seat once again as king.

Gospel message -Forgiveness is offered in our perfect king who is coming again to His throne.

all of Samuel goes back to Deuteronomy 17:14-20

Turn in your bibles to 2 samuel 18-19. I have learned something this week as I was taking my class, the only perfect word you are going to hear today is the word of God. It is all there for a reason so I am not going to paraphrase it for you today but work through the whole thing as we dive into the word of God.

Sin has consequences, this is what David and us has been learning, but God is faithful still.

Argument for the original people - This is something the original authopr wanted to get accross to the people at the time, which is similar to the messsage for us today. and that is that:

The consequences of rebellion remain painful even as God shows us His faithfulness.

This goes all the way back to the warning and prophecy Nathan gave to David and his family for his sin, though this particularly pertains to the sin of Absalom. This also goes back all the way to Duet 17 and the warning even then given to future kings, that actions have consequences. But what we are going to see for ourselves today is that

Argument for my people -

Never underestimate sin's consequences, and never doubt God's faithfulness.

Illustration

You see, for the most part, All actions have conequences, sometimes good, sometimes bad. I remember somethings I did that could have had consequences that thankfully went well. Like the time me and my friends went to Millar and one of my friends had just bought a mountain sled and he thought it would be a good idea to ride it on the russel creek resevoir near Pambrun. Not a big deal you think? well this was during the fall when there was no snow or ice yet. No boat launch, just a jump into the lake and hopefully ride it back onto the land.

It was not my sled, I was all for this awesome plan. so we went out there, my friend donned his Helmet, positioned the sled and said “hey everyone, watch this”. and proceeded to launch the sled onto the lake. Many things could have gone wrong that day, he could have sunch the sled, he could have hurt himself. But what happened was awesome to behold.

Did you know riding a snowmobile on water is similar to riding a jet ski, but with worse consequences?

Consequences of Sin -18:1-18

Read the Text, Explain the text, Illustrate the text, Apply the text

2 sam 18:1-18

There are two things that stand out to me here - David still loved his son, and the people Loved David.

It was inevitable that the two armies clashed it would appear. David gathered his armies for the war that was going to break out. The reason it was inevitable is that Nathan prophesied that this was going to happen after David’s sin, and yet Absalom was still guilty for what he was going to do.

Absalom hung from a tree - in the end his pride was his death. Hanging from a tree was a curse.

The people feared the death of David, so out of ove for him they said please stay back, David feared the death of his son as he still loved him and asked them to spare his son.

The rest hear is easy enough to figure out, it was war after all. Joab ends up killing Absalom and he gets what the Lord said was going to happen to Him.

Illustration - We all love our kids, even though they make stupid mistakes sometimes we still love them though we may not always agree with what they are doing. But sometimes we can not keep them from the consequences of the stupid things they do.

But Jesus can give us freedom from our bad choices. What happened here was the result of sin and it’s consequences but what we learn is that

application - Though sin produces death Jesus offers us life.

The cursed tree of Absalom and Jesus dying on a cursed tree. His pride (hair) gets him killed

This is the conxequences of sin in our lives, death. We all deserve death for the sin that we have committed but Jesus offers us eternal life. All that we do usually has some sort of consequence, some good, some not so good.

The consequence of a life given to the Lord and lived for the Lord are good ones, we will be in eternity with Jesus. The opposite is true for a life lived in sin. In James we are told that leaders and elders and pastors will be held to a higher standard in the end then the rest of you. Honestly that scares me.

But we do not have to fear because we can recieve the free gift of eternal life. Dont let the consequences of sin reign.

Loving Correction - 18:19-19:7

Read the Text, Explain the text, Illustrate the text, Apply the text2 sam

18:19-9:7

This is where what you would call the climax of the story is told. things slow down and we see a few things:

They feared to tell the king.

Based on past experiences of people who told the king sad news they thought should make him happy, they likeyl feared death especially since they where told to spare Absalom.

The king grieves for His son at the expense of all else going on

David is distraught over the loss of His son, knowing that he had not been a good father and all this came from not dealing properly with the sin in His own life.

In his grief he forgets all else. even his own people. and because of this.

David’s Cry - I wish I could have died instead of Him. Jesus can die for us, David could take his guilt.

Joab corrects the king.

David needed this correction, he needed to be told he was wrong in what he had done. We must remember that the main argument we see in all this was the culmination of the consequences of the sin of David and His family.

Joab’s correction was saying, do what you where called to do!

we have seen that actions have consequences, sin in our lives undealt with produces deathbut a life given to Jesus gives eternal life. But going back to the consequences of sin we need to learn that sometimes.

application - Jesus often restores wandering believers through loving correction.

David's grief was understandable, but it became consuming. He became so focused on what he had lost that he lost sight of what God was doing and what God had called him to do.

Sometimes our sorrow, disappointment, guilt, or even our own sin can narrow our vision until we lose sight of God's faithfulness, God's people, and God's calling on our lives. In His love, Christ often uses correction, conviction, and discipline to bring us back.

and not only that we need to remember that God’s Salvation also comes with God’s judgement. God’s love also sometimes needs to come with his correction. To pray for someone to come to the lord is often to pray for God’s correction in their lives.

Jesus restores through correction. But it is when we do not listen to that correction that we will learn the other side to the salvation of God, His judgement.

Davids cry - wishing it was him that died - looks to Jesus who could take on our wrath that we deserved.

The result of Faithfulness - 19:8-43

Read the Text, Explain the text, Illustrate the text, Apply the text

2 sam 19:8-43 read

The turning point we see in 19:8, the king once again takes his throne. He was corrected, he returned to where he belonged, and that is on the throne. Joab though was not a very noce guy and dint do this the best way.

it starts out with the people taking some time to accept Him as king.

he starts out with Shemei, the man who was cursing him and forgave him. Then Meph and ziba, and kind of gave them a test remeniscent of the test solomon will give later. He offered everything to them both and Meph said ziba can have it all.

Barzillai was one who helped David, And he was honored for what he did.

He starts to forgive those who had wronged him. Even though they may not have deserved it, he forgave them. And honored those who helped him.

application - Forgiveness and restoration is through King Jesus

"O my son Absalom ... would I had died instead of you!" David wishes he could die for the rebel son. Jesus actually does die for rebels.

Forgivenessis offered through the blood of Jesus, and only because Jesus is King. Forgiveness is offered through Jesus alone, through repentance and faith in Him. So we have a choice to make. we do not deserve it, like the people here didnt.

In David’s grief, he realized he had been neglecting what God had called him to do, he still had a family to lead and he turned around. I believe turned to God for strength. forgiveness and restoration to the family of God is offered through Jesus. So we too must offer forgiveness and restoration to those around us who have wronged us. Jesus forgave our horrible sin, so we must forgive others.

Now What?

So we look forward and remember the argument we have been trying to show through here.

Now What? Never underestimate sin's consequences, and never doubt God's faithfulness.

Sin has consequences as we have seen here, we have seen through the consequences of the life of David but also what we have seen is that there is the hope of restoration, we do not have to stay lost. and one thing we can learn is that in every book of the bible we look to the gospel and what that teaches us here is that.

Gospel message Forgiveness is offered in our perfect king who is coming again to His throne.

The King was restored to the throne and offered forgiveness to the people who wronged him even though they did not deserve it. we look forward to the promise of Jesus returning to the throne. One day He is coming back and will establish His reign for eternity. This is the final hope in the gospel.

Jesus forgives us even while we where sinners, He absorbed our sin. But if we refuse to accept this message with the hope of eternal salvation comes also eternal Judgement. They run together.

But it is a message of hope that we end with today. Maybe you are right now dealing with the consequences of your bad choices. maybe you think that what you are doing will not hurt anyone so it is not a big deal. Maybe God is using loving correction to get your attention? There is hope in Jesus coming to one day again claim His throne, but we must be ready and prepared.