One tiny grain of sand, turning into him, a whirling motion.
You're a beyond the furthest morning star, close enough to hold me in your arms.
And I, I lift up my heart and I cry.
My love, you are a great garbage mowering, found through my heart, free of...
Oh my, I'm not a guy.
One timid fateful heart resounds upon the rock of ages.
My jumping heart and soul becomes a song of the moon and the waves are dry.
You come across the mountains and the seas, I enter from the deepest part of me.
And I, I lift up my heart and I cry.
My love, you are a great garbage mowering, found through my heart, free of...
Oh my, I'm not a guy.
From age to age you're ready to imagine things.
When I miss the light, the night is dawning. When I'm slamming all the doors you've opened.
Hold on to me. Hold on to me.
Hold on to me when it's too dark to see you. When I am sure I have reached the end.
Hold on to me when I forget I need you. When I let go of me again.
When I don't feel like I'm worth pretending. When I'm tired of not pretending.
Hold on to me when I start to break in desperation, underneath the weight of expectation. Hold on to me.
Hold on to me. Hold on to me when it's too dark to see you. When I am sure I have reached the end.
Hold on to me when I forget I need you. When I let go of me again.
I could rest in your arms forever. Cause I know nobody wants me back. Hold on to me. Hold on to me.
Be Better Bit Parts.
So when all is said and done, after we have looked at a text that is really full of a fairly horrific event that took place, we will walk out of this room and I hope be better bit parts. That is the goal. We'll all sum up to that point. So memorize it now. I'm going to be a better bit part.
So next, maybe give me a little hoo-dah-hah or amen if you're with me. Second Samuel 13. Amen. Thank you very much. So already some of you are going, wait that sounds a little bit familiar. That reference, Second Samuel 13. We have looked at it briefly on Tuesday night recently.
But we are going to go back to an actual event. And when we were here Tuesday, I thought the Lord was leading me to this text for Sunday morning for today. And indeed he did. So we didn't read it then. But we did read what follows. So at some point in time I'll ask somebody to summarize a little bit of what follows.
So here we go. Second Samuel chapter 13 verse 1. We've got some interesting characters. Now it was after that. After what? After war settled down. A period of peace developed. Everybody went home. Now it was after this that Absalom, the son of David, had a beautiful sister whose name was Tamar.
Does anybody remember Absalom? Don't go forward in his life. Do you remember back in his life a little bit from Tuesday? Tell me something about Absalom that was here on Tuesday. Anything. Tell me something. There's one that's something. Anything about Absalom. I'm going to give you a little hint. What's the hint? No, he didn't commit suicide. He did get hung from his hair eventually. Yeah, you jumped forward in his life. What was that? He did betray David. Okay, so we know a little bit about him. But this is before all that actually happens. He didn't get hung from his hair yet, obviously, because the story is about what he's doing in his life right now. And he didn't betray David quite yet.
Absalom, the son of David, had a beautiful sister whose name was Tamar. And Amnon, the son of David, loved her. Amnon was Absalom's brother. Amnon was the oldest child. So by rights, that makes him what? He's the oldest child of David. By rights, he is what? He is heir to the throne. He is next. Theoretically. We're not there yet. Thank God David is still king. But he is theoretically next.
They are half brothers. And Tamar is Absalom's blood sister and Amnon's half sister. And she's beautiful. And Amnon, it says, loved her. Oh, it's going to be a romantic story. Or maybe not.
And Amnon was so frustrated because of his sister Tamar that he made himself ill. For she was a virgin. And it seemed hard to Amnon to do anything to her. And truthfully, there really wasn't anything he could do because in the Old Testament in Deuteronomy it says very clearly that you're not to lay with your half sister.
Now we know that David, his father, did some pretty bad things in his younger days. And we know that even Abraham took Sarai, his half Sarah, who was Abram and Sarai previously, took his half sister. Sarai was his half sister.
And so even though God had said never do that, there were those before who had done that. There was precedent for it. But it seemed to him like he couldn't have her. And he was frustrated because of his sister's half sister Tamar.
That he made himself ill. For she was a virgin. It seemed hard to Amnon to do anything to her. But Amnon had a friend whose name was Jonadab. He'll become a very important character before we're through. So remember that name. Jonadab.
He was the son of Shimeah, David's brother. So that makes him cousin. So this is a cousin. So he's in the same household, same family. He's in the king's household. But he's a cousin. Not really in line for the throne. Maybe like 15th or something.
Jonadab was a very shrewd man. He was wise. He could figure things out. He could get things done. Verse 4. And he said to him, Oh son of king, son of the king, why are you so depressed morning after morning? Will you not tell me?
And then Amnon said to him, I am in love with Tamar, the sister of my brother Absalom. So basically he's just exposed his dark secret, if you will. That which is causing him so much frustration and messing with his health.
And he exposes it to Jonadab. Verse 5. Jonadab then said to him, lie down on your bed and pretend to be ill. When your father comes to see you, that's his father David the king, say to him, please let my sister Tamar come and give me some food to eat and let her prepare the food in my sight that I may see it and eat from her hand.
So he's been not eating. He's been sick to the point that he's not eating. And it's kind of a thing for wealthy children who are possibly descendants of the king to refuse to eat. Like if they're not getting their way. It's actually a thing that happens. Look it up. It's happened thousands of times historically. They refuse to eat because they have everything.
So they punish themselves so that people go, oh but Amnon's sick. What are we going to do for Amnon? Everybody have a pity party for them. And Amnon's been making himself sick and he's not really eating. So he's being advised to tell David that she should come, Tamar the one that he is in love with, that is forbidden fruit if you will.
She should come and prepare the food in his sight and then he'll take and eat. So he's going to get his way. So Jonadab advises him. Verse 6. So Amnon lay down and pretended to be ill.
When the king came to see him, Amnon said to the king, Please let my sister Tamar come and make me a couple of cakes in my sight that I may eat from her hand. Then David sent to the house for Tamar, saying, Go now to your brother Amnon's house and prepare food for him.
So Tamar went to her brother Amnon's house and he was lying down and she took dough and kneaded it, made cakes in his sight and baked the cakes. She took the pan and dished them out before him. But he refused to eat.
And Amnon said, Have everyone go out from me. So now he's going to be alone in the room with Tamar and they probably think they're going to have a private conversation or that he doesn't want anybody to see him eat or whatever.
So everyone went out from him and then Amnon said to Tamar, Bring the food into the bedroom and I may eat from your hand. This is not looking good.
So Tamar took the cakes which she had made and brought them into the bedroom to her brother Amnon. When she brought them to him to eat, he took hold of her. He didn't take the cakes, he took her. And he said, Come lie with me, my sister.
But she answered him, No, my brother, do not violate me, for such a thing is not done in Israel. Do not do this disgraceful thing. As for me, where could I get rid of my reproach?
And as for you, you will be like one of the fools in Israel. Now therefore please speak to the king, for he will not withhold me from you. So her plea to him is, Don't take me, don't rape me, don't force me.
Don't ask me to do what's completely illegitimate because there's no peace for us after that. And she said, But ask David and if there is a way, he'll make it happen. So that's her plea.
Verse 14, However he, that's Amnon, wouldn't listen to her, since he was stronger than she, he violated her and lay with her. Then Amnon hated her with a very great hatred, for the hatred with which he hated her was greater than the love with which he had loved her.
And Amnon said to her, Get up, go away. But she said to him, No, no, because this wrong in sending me away is greater than the other that you have done to me. She's like, You're going to send me away now after you raped me? That's even worse.
Now I'll be living in reproach for the rest of my life. Basically if he had claimed it, if he had owned it, maybe there's something could have been done, but she's begging him.
Yet he would not listen to her. Then he called this young man who attended him, called this young man who attended him, Now throw this woman out of my presence and lock the door behind her. Now she had on a long sleeved garment.
From this manner the virgin daughters of the king dressed themselves in robes. So it was very clear that they were not to be touched. They even had long sleeves all the time.
Then his attendant took her out and locked the door behind her. And Tamar put ashes on her head. And she tore her long sleeved garment. She's no longer a virgin through violence. She tore her long sleeve garment which was on her.
And she put her hand on her head and she went away crying aloud as she went.
Then Absalom her brother said to her, this is Absalom who will later betray David. We understand that. Guy with the beautiful hair. Absalom her brother said to her, has Amnon your brother been with you? But now keep silent my sister. He is your brother. Did not take this matter to heart.
So basically he's telling her to just sweep the whole thing under the rug. So Tamar remained and was desolate in her brother Absalom's house.
Now then King David heard of all these matters and he was angry. But Absalom did not speak to Amnon either good or bad. For Absalom hated Amnon because he had violated his sister Tamar.
That's through verse 22. And the story that some of us know from Tuesday picks up there in a minute.
But before we do that we're going to look at these verses and I'm going to pick out a few things. Everything I'm about to share with you the Lord laid on my heart as a heavy burden to bring it today. So I hope you'll take this very seriously.
The first one we kind of already know and that is that there is a tendency to accept kinds of love. I mean the story started out with Amnon saying I love Tamar.
But does everything that we just read look like any kind of love that you think is love? That he would rape her? That he would make him sick wanting her so badly?
Himself sick wanting her so badly? That's not love. That's not biblical love. We know that. We've studied that.
But it happens that people declare different kinds of love. They say I love you when really what they mean is I desire to control you.
They say I love you when really what they mean is I want you over somebody else. And usually physically.
It happens. It happens that people define love in a variety of ways. And if we accept it we open the door to great problems.
And we're going to look at some of those problems before we're through. The first one is this.
How do we follow the commands of God to love? And God's commands to love are many. In fact Jesus sums up the Bible essentially by loving your neighbors, yourself, love the Lord, your God.
Love the Lord, your God with all your heart, mind, and soul and then love your neighbors, yourself. That's how he sums up everything.
But it's all over scripture that we are to love as God commands us. How do we do that if we lose God's intention for the word love?
If we can't figure out what love is based on God's standards and we know that that's how God is commanding us to love.
He's not commanding us to love some other kind of ways. He's commanding us to love by his standard.
If we can't figure out what that means then how are we going to enact the command to love that God has given us?
And I guess the answer is not well. You may be hit or miss. You may get it every once in a while but you're not going to get it if you allow for all these other definitions.
How do we love as God intended someone who is engaging in loving with another kind of love?
So if they have another definition of love then how do we love that person? You've heard the old illustration of the five love languages, right?
People have a different kind of love language. Some people love through words of affirmation. Say kind things to others. That's how they show that they're loving.
They receive kind words, words of affirmation. They know they loved. So loving for them that's their love language, right?
And so they go around telling people nice things and saying good things to people because that's how they show them that they're loved.
And there are five different love languages that have been identified in that book, the five love languages.
But if this person's definition of love, if they're loving with another kind of love, then how do we love them as God intended?
Well, it's going to bring into conflict the love that God has told us to have with the love that they say they have.
If we love them the way God has told us to love them, then the conflict is going to exist.
They're going to say, but that love you're loving me with, that's not the kind of love I love with.
But the kind of love they love with is not the kind of love that God gave us or told us to love with.
And so there's going to be a natural conflict, right?
The third thing is when the dust settles, the question will linger.
In other words, if we accept that there are other kinds of love, then when the dust settles, the question will linger.
Did we orchestrate the undoing of all of the people who bought into that other kind of love?
If I teach my daughter that loving is keeping your mouth shut while somebody abuses you, like Absalom trying to teach Neymar, right?
Then she's going to grow up not knowing how to love people.
And when she finally figures out that that thing I taught her is a lie, it's a falsehood, it's an evil, it's a wicked, you don't keep your mouth shut when someone's abusing you ever, right?
That never is allowed to pass because that's not love.
In fact, it's not loving of you to allow somebody to abuse you, you understand?
Love does not act unbecoming, right? Love is kind and patient and so on.
So we know these things, we've studied these things, and when the dust settles and that person comes back around to understanding that we have taught them is a form of wickedness,
then they're going to wonder, did we orchestrate their undoing? Did we set them up to fail?
I'm not going to say any more about that right this second, but we'll come back to it in the third point of the sermon.
Right now we're talking about the problems that arise out of accepting other kinds of love.
The solution to this, we have studied love at length in recent months and the audio programs are online.
You can go back and listen to the lengthy sermon series that we did through the love chapter, and we already know the solution.
It is that we must know the difference between real, godly, everlasting, commanded and demonstrated by Christ love.
If you're following Jesus, you're going to follow his example of what love is, and it got him killed.
We're going to know the difference between the kind of love that God calls us to and the kind of loves,
the many kinds of love that the world is pointing us to, and we're going to enact the kind of love that God is calling us to every moment in this life,
every time, every opportunity, which of course is only possible by a miracle of God like being born again.
And then we're putting ourselves fully at his mercy because as I said, when Jesus enacted that kind of love, it got him killed.
When Paul enacted that kind of love, it got him beaten within an inch of his life many times and once, probably killed,
after which he got up again and when it enacted that kind of love again, after they checked him and found out he was dead, he got up again.
And so this love goes even beyond death.
We're going to have to fully put ourselves at his mercy, which by the way is the only safe place to be.
This miracle of being born again is offered freely through Christ and with it comes accepting God's definition of words and concepts.
So we're talking about how men mar the word love, but the truth is how many of them are there?
Mercy, kindness, forgiveness, self-defense, all words that are redefined.
And we're going to see a lot more before we're through today that there are concepts and words that are being redefined to meet somebody else's purpose.
And we cannot embrace them. We must adhere to God's definition of words and concepts.
And so that leaves us no place to accept these other kinds of love as the legitimate loves that God has for us to be part of.
The second thing that really came to light in this text for me was that there is in here a dying on the way to the battle line.
And I could have been king. I mean, you know, David had half a dozen wives, right? He's good to be king.
I mean, I don't know that that's good. It's probably these are the problems that arise because now you have half brother and half sister in the house.
And there's a there's a certain thing that God built into when men and women who are the same family live in the same house.
Like I've raised two daughters going on three and I've never had romantic feelings toward my kids.
You understand? And it shouldn't be like that. And my daughters have never had romantic feelings toward my son.
Even though all of my daughters and all of my sons are beautiful and extremely intelligent and shrewd and creative and so on.
So there's a certain thing that's built in. But when men start to have multiple wives, now you have half brothers and half sisters that don't share the same DNA living in the same house.
And it can arise that a half brother falls in love with his half sister and start thinking, hey, she's pretty hot, which is exactly what happened.
Amnon fell in love. His version of worldly love fell in love with Tamar, his half sister, to the point that he made himself sick.
He had to have her. They should have been living in the first house first place because they were living together.
It was always going to be a potential issue because they were not technically of the same family.
So had Absalom become king, he could have had a half dozen wives.
Do you think there were any other beautiful women living in Jerusalem? I submit to you there were dozens.
I'll bet there were more beautiful women than Tamar. Many of them.
And Amnon could have had tons of them on his way to becoming king as king.
Probably did. I submit to you that by the time he raped Tamar, he probably slept with a dozen women minimum.
And some of them multiple times. And some of them were more beautiful than Tamar.
He didn't want her because she was beautiful. He wanted her because she was forbidden fruit.
And this is the problem that young people face.
And so when you put young people, men and women in tight, close quarters, and she's kind of cute and he's kind of handsome, he starts thinking, I've got to have that.
And she starts thinking, I've got to have that. And listen to me, it isn't true. It's a lie.
And you'll wind up dying on the way to the battle line. Are you married in this room?
Is being married easy? Is loving your spouse after they make certain decisions that offend easy?
Marriage is the battle line. And so many young people already are dying before they ever get to the battle line because they fixate on something in the opposite sex that they think they have to have.
And then after you have that, you get married and you wind up comparing your spouse to everybody you were ever with before.
Not even consciously. Because consciously you prepare yourself. You think about the right things. You focus on the right things.
You make vows. You intend to never look at a member of the opposite sex other than your spouse again.
You're not going to have, if you're a boy, you're not going to have close friends who are girls because that's not appropriate because now I have a wife.
And if you're a woman, you're not going to have close friends who are men because that's not appropriate because now I have a husband.
And the battle ensues. But you already lost.
But as born-again Christians, we don't have to fall to that.
Let me illustrate it this way. And we have a couple of veterans in here who can attest to this.
Soldiers get their physicals prior to going to basic training. The first physical is conducted before they ever go to basic training.
In fact, not only do they go get their physical before they go to basic training the first time, but they also typically train before going to basic training.
So you get your weight in line. You get your diet in line. You get your sleep in line. You get your hydration in line. Why do we do that?
Why do you need to do that? You go to basic training. In basic training you're going to do all of that.
So why do you need to get a physical and get training before you go to basic training? Michael, why?
Prepare? Why? Why do you got to prepare? You're going to get basic training. That's preparation, isn't it?
Because what? So you're ready when you get there? Yeah, because listen, basic training will kill you if you're not ready for it.
You'll die on the way to combat. A person who can't breathe, who can't eat right, can't sleep right, can't drink right, who's 50, 60, 100, 200 pounds overweight, whatever, will literally not be able to complete basic training.
Why waste the time? Why pay for the bus ticket? This guy can't do the job. So you do basic training before you go to basic training because otherwise you die on the way to the battle.
We don't need soldiers who die in basic training. We need soldiers who can fight. And so you undergo efforts to improve yourself in preparation so that when you really are being trained,
so you're really getting ready for the fight, you don't die in the process. The soldier who is not fit for training is definitely not fit for fighting because the soldier who is not fit for training may well die in the training.
I ask you, when the serpent was talking to Eve, did she demonstrate something about a willingness to sin against God before she actually fell into sin that would stick to mankind forever?
So the sin was eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And Adam ate, and it's really Adam's sin right, that sticks to us forever. It says through that one man we all have sin because we were all present in him.
But did Eve demonstrate something about a willingness to sin before she ever took the fruit and ate of it? Now if you know your Bible at all, you know she absolutely did.
She was looking, she looked at the tree and started to praise, oh that looks good for wisdom. All the tree in the garden tastes good. All the trees in the garden eat their fruit, it's good for nutrition. But here is a tree that's good for something more.
And she started to think about that. And when the serpent said, did God really say you can't eat of any tree in the garden, or eat of any tree?
And she said, no, God said we just can't touch or eat of the trees in the center of the garden. But is that what God said? No, that's not what God said. God just said they couldn't eat of it.
They were supposed to tend to every tree. You know who tended the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? Well apparently not Adam and Eve. At least not from the moment that Eve said they weren't allowed to do that.
So already in her was the ability to fall before she ever reached the battlefield. I submit to you that she demonstrated her lack of integrity when she misquoted God. When she looked on that forbidden fruit and saw how useful it was for knowledge.
Now that's not inaccurate. It was useful for knowledge. It was good. But it was still very much wrong. And she knew it.
In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul writes this beginning in verse 1. He says, For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink.
For they were drinking from a spiritual rock which followed them, and the rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not well pleased, for they were laid low in the wilderness.
Now these things happened as examples for us so that we would not crave evil things as they also craved. Do not be idolaters as some of them were as it is written. The people sat down to eat and drink and stood up to play.
Nor let us act immorally as some of them did, and twenty-three thousand fell in one day. Nor let us try the Lord as some of them did, and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor grumble as some of them did, and were destroyed by the destroyer.
Now these things happened to them as an example, and they were written for our instruction upon whom the ends of the ages have come. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he does not fall.
No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common demand, and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with temptation will provide the way of escape so that you will be able to endure. Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
So what is idolatry? Therefore, after all of that, all of that is summed up. He says therefore, flee from idolatry. So what is idolatry? It's entering into a loving relationship, quote unquote loving, by somebody's definition of love. A loving relationship.
A declaring the worth of anything at all other than God, and letting that thing stand in the presence of the living God. Now we have to be careful here because when I say thing, what part of speech am I using? If it's a thing, it's a what? It's a noun.
So immediately we think idolatry only pertains to nouns. So it's a person, place, or thing. So we can only worship a person, place, or thing. But that isn't true. It's anything. So it includes verbs.
Give me a verb that could be idolatry if you enter into a loving relationship with her, you begin to declare its words. Lust. Now lust can be a noun, lust is a thing. But lust as a verb is idolatry.
Lust as a noun is idolatry if you declare the worth of that thing. So there are no verbs that also cannot be idolatry. So I'm glad it stops there. But what about adjectives? Is there an adjective that can be idolatry?
Watch out for this because we have a whole bunch of this in us and we could very easily have it as idolatry if we're not careful. How about handsome? You with me, Haley? How about pretty? These are adjectives.
Can handsome or pretty become idolatry? Can we enter into a loving relationship? I'm so worried about looking good that I'll let it interfere with my ability to do good or to be good. You understand?
How about old? If a person is old, they automatically deserve respect because you must respect your elders. Right? But be careful because if being old is the standard, it's really easy to make it idolatry.
To love the old, to love being old, to enter into a respect relationship with people just because they're old. And the list goes on. How about adverbs? An adverb is something like this. Quickly. Oh my goodness.
We live in the days of idolatry of quickly. We want everything quick. I'm working on my computer and it takes 47 seconds to load the next file and I'm flipping out. What is going on?
Or you go to the McDonald's and you go through the drive-thru and they ask you to pull forward a little stop and you're like, is it fast food or not? We're living in the day of idolatry of adverbs. Why?
Because it's pretty clear to us that if we worship people, places, or things, that's idolatry. And the enemy knows that we are forewarned, forearmed against worship. People, places, and things.
So now he's going to get us into worshiping adjectives and adverbs and verbs. You think you're strong, suddenly your strength becomes your idol. You think you're smart, your smartness becomes your idol.
You think you're capable or incapable. You start making excuses for yourself. You have a diagnosis. My diagnosis tells me I can't, therefore I don't. God tells me I can't. I'm sorry God, you're wrong. I can't. I have a diagnosis.
We are living in the day when Satan has crafted all of these wonderful plans that he has been working on for millennia to create in us a form of idolatry that is the very thing that Paul was warning against and the very thing that resulted in the death of the Hebrews as they came out of Egypt.
And they wandered in the desert until they died. After having a first-hand experience with God and his son Jesus Christ. I didn't say it, Paul said it.
Careful, we ought to take heed lest we who now stand by his grace should fall. Idolatry is entering into a quote unquote loving relationship where I'm declaring the worth of anything type relationship at all other than God.
And letting that thing stand in the presence of the living God. You catch that? I didn't say, people always say, well I'll never put my, let's insert my recreation, my sports, my money, my relationships, my looks, my boyfriend's looks, my social media.
I'll never put that above God. That's not the standard. Above God is not the standard. Baby if you think idolatry is putting something above God, repent now.
Because you are missing the teachings of scripture. The standard is when something rises into the presence of God. That's why when the Ark of the Covenant was put into the temple of Dagon, Dagon fell down overnight.
And they went in and oh no, Dagon fell down. They put him back up again. They go in the next day and he fell down overnight again and he broke into pieces on the floor in front of the Ark of the Covenant.
And they put him back up again and they called all the craftsmen and they put the statue together again, fixed it all up the best they could. You can see where it broke and stuff, you know.
But they fixed it all up the best they could. And then they had to create a tradition that said you can't step on the threshold if you are a faithful follower of Dagon.
They didn't stop following their idols. They just said we're also going to follow God. We're going to follow God and Dagon.
And people are doing the same thing now. I'm following God and whatever, whatever it is that's a big deal in your life. And when that big deal begins to take on a presence, when it matters.
If there is some reason that you can fathom, a logical extension, right now, if you go right now, this is what would keep me from worshipping the Holy God collected with the body.
That's your idol baby. You better be careful because it may get you killed before you ever reach the battlefield.
This is the royal before me in the Ten Commandments where God says you will have no other gods in my presence. That's what he means.
He says you shall have no other gods before me. Don't wimp out on the modern English to put something before somebody means above or ahead of them because that's not what it meant.
It means if you have somebody, anything, something, a verb, a noun, an adverb, an adjective, anything at all, timeliness, victory, freedom, respect, honor.
Any of those things begin to rise up into the vicinity of our God. That's idolatry and it very well could result in your dying before you ever reach the battlefield.
James 4, 4 to 8 says this way, you adulteresses, written to Christians by the way, you adulteresses.
Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? That's why it's so dangerous that we live here on planet earth serving God because all around us are all kinds of things.
That if we have friends with those things, we become friends with those things, then that's hostility toward God.
Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Make your choice Christian. Who are you friends with?
And if you're friends with the world, understand that you're making yourself out to be an enemy of God. Shall I read the verse again?
Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you think that the scripture speaks to no purpose?
He, that's God, jealously desires the spirit which he has made to dwell in us. But he gives a greater grace. God gives a greater grace.
Therefore, it says, God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. Submit therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
That is the battlefield. Draw near to God and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
And so we must not willingly waste the presence of God in us, nor dismiss his willingness to abide in us.
The battle line is where we represent God in his eternal effort to win souls. That's the battle line.
If you haven't gotten there yet, it's possible that you died along the way and you need Jesus Christ to rebirth you again and to begin to live for the Lord like you said you would.
If you haven't gotten to the battle line yet where we represent God in his eternal effort to win souls, then it's possible you died along the way.
There, at that moment, we will go toe to toe with demons and evil spirits. Let me say it again.
We will go toe to toe with demons and evil spirits to free souls of the lost and to capture the value of another day lived for a holy and gracious and insert infinite possible positive adjectives there.
God, are you living this day that way? God says this, the battlefield is where the light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot comprehend it.
But if we are faithful to God, we may just go in there and carve off another serving of darkness. And God may make that darkness into light as well.
You got that picture in your mind? If we are found faithful to God, we may go into the darkness where the darkness cannot understand us because we are the light.
John 1, the light, we are not understood. So we go into the darkness, people can see they are probably going to be against us because they are the darkness.
They don't understand us. And if we are lucky, we just might carve off another serving of darkness and God will turn it into light.
The battle requires wholeness. It requires us 100% submitted to God. And God gives that wholeness at rebirth and builds it daily in us so that we can stand in the day of evil.
Piece by piece we reach new heights in Jesus until seemingly bigger and bigger monsters fall when sent against us.
And ultimately we are ushered into glory by our death or by Jesus coming again. This is no game.
Souls are at stake. Our experiences build us up when we are walking in Christ and only serve to undermine us and give us another opportunity to fail to glorify God when we are not walking in Christ.
I run role playing games for the Christian games team and I did that all the way back before I ever got saved.
One of the games that I run, there is a character called a Cavalier and basically it's a knight like a knight from, you might be familiar with Sir Lancelot or King Arthur.
And the knight must wear the best available armor. And if he does not wear the best available armor during one of his adventures, then he gets no beneficial experience.
Which means no matter what he does, he can kill Satan himself or conquer dragons or save damsels in distress and he gets no beneficial experience.
So he's not going to get more strong, he's not going to go up in levels, etc. We are like that.
Take up your armor daily and when you face the great big demons or difficulties that others have, when you lead souls to Christ, you will gain from the experience.
But let's say you go into a conflict, you're not reading your Bible, you're not praying, you're not serving, you're not giving, you're not doing the things that God would have you, you're not exercising your spiritual gifts, you're not part of a local church, you're not worshiping together faithfully.
The list goes on. You've got your idea of what it means to be a Christian, you're following the Lord the best you know how to on a daily basis, but you're not doing all of these other things that Scripture has taught us that we're supposed to do.
If you manage to slay Satan himself by running a sword through his chest, which would be impossible. But if you manage to, you would benefit by it in no way at all.
Hence, our works of righteousness are as filthy rags because they are our works of righteousness.
But Jesus' single work of righteousness where he sacrificed his life on the cross is sufficient for us and it calls us to the battle line.
And we must wear the armor, we must understand the words and the concepts that Jesus is teaching us and put them into application to serve the Lord on the battle line.
Do not allow your temptations or your idolatry or your lusts or your desires or your own definitions of words to stop you from ever getting there.
The third thing in the text then for you to see, that was a big one, you are a bit part in most people's lives.
I learned this the hard way by the way. I went to visit a woman who had just accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior at one of our block parties.
And as I was sitting there and I was witnessing with her and trying to get her in church, trying to get her to move forward in her faith, that kind of thing, her teenage daughter was 17 years old and pregnant, unmarried.
She was in the kitchen and she was listening in. And I was sharing this with the Gospel with this woman.
I was sharing from the Bible why it was important to get moving in your faiths similar to what we've just seen in this text.
And she just basically said, okay, maybe, maybe, maybe, maybe. She kept saying maybe.
The whole time her daughter was listening from the kitchen, 17 years old, probably 7, 8 months pregnant. She was big, big as they come in the middle, about ready to pop.
She was listening intently. Finally I said, come in here. And the mother started talking.
And I said, if I could just ask you to be quiet for a minute because we just talked for 20 minutes and you said maybe, maybe, maybe.
And I'm cool with that. That's where you're at. So that's fine. But I need to talk to her. It's okay if I talk to her for a minute.
She said, it's fine. The 17 year old daughter, 7 or 8 months pregnant, comes out of the kitchen and she's got tears on her face.
I don't know what she was crying about before, but if it was what I was talking about, that's pretty cool. But maybe not. I don't know.
Maybe she had tears on her face. She started talking. I shared the Gospel with her and she accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior a few minutes later.
She's 17 years old. She's off and on living with a guy and we're talking about it very bluntly. And she said, we're regularly having sex.
I said, well that's going to be a problem. And she said, what do you mean? I said, well do you think that's what Jesus wants you to do?
You just accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. Do you think that's what Jesus wants you to do?
And she said, no, that doesn't sound like something Jesus wants me to do.
She's been saved for all of like two minutes and she already knows it doesn't sound like something that Jesus would want her to do.
And I said, so what are we going to do about that? And she said, well, I need him in my life. I need my boyfriend in my life.
And if I tell my boyfriend that we're not going to have sex anymore, he's going to dump me in a hot minute.
And I said, really? I said, well, you know, you're going to have his child. So that's something.
You know, he's just going to walk away. She goes, yeah, he doesn't care. He doesn't care about the baby.
And the truth is, I don't really think he cares about me.
And she says, I don't know what's going to happen, but I'll talk to him and I'll tell him we're going to have to stop having sex at least until we figure out what's going on.
Between us, are we going to get married or whatever? At least we until we get married or part ways.
That statement was made roughly, I'd say, 11 minutes after she got saved.
Now, seriously, come on, you're in this room. Teenagers, the rest of us still got the strength after weeks or months or years after accepting Jesus to say Jesus is your Lord.
Do you still have the strength? Are you still proceeding toward the battlefield so that you understand that many activities that the world might push you toward, tempt you toward, lead you toward, bring you and I to their knees?
They're not acceptable by God's standards. Are you willing to say God says I should not do that, therefore I'm not going to do that?
You know, God doesn't even say you can't do it. You're still physically capable of doing all kinds of things, stealing, lusting, sex outside marriage, quitting your job when you don't have another job, not knowing how you're going to pay your bills, holding back your tie, lying to get your way.
You're still capable of doing all of those things even after you're saved. You shouldn't. You're still capable of doing all those things after you're saved.
Jesus is not meant to be a bit part in your life and I don't want to be a bit part in your life.
And I don't want you to be a bit part in my life. But the truth is we come into some of these lives and really they just make a pause.
The older woman I share the gospel, she never did come to church, not once. And I never saw that young lady who accepted Jesus Christ that day in person again.
She messaged me later I think on social media and she was living like in California or something and they did not stay together by the way.
But the point is I was just a bit part in her life. But my bit part was to bring the gospel and Jesus is not a bit part.
Notice that your motivations will be questioned at every turn.
Salesmen are trying to sell you something. Spam calls are trying to get under your skin to get you to buy this, that or the other thing or get access to your credit card information.
Clickbait online wants you to click because they get paid if you click.
Commercials, once you go buy your product or begin to at least yearn for your product so eventually you'll buy their product.
Sales that end today are designed to rush you out there so that you'll go buy it before the sale ends when you probably don't even need it right this second anyway.
People will distill your entire life down to the little bit that you played. They're going to, whatever they know about you.
And if that points to a question they will probably think the worst.
They'll say well he only did that because he was only like that because she only did that because she only said she was a follower of Jesus.
But I see all these times when she really didn't follow him so I don't really have to listen to the truth that she's teaching me and so on.
Now you're looking at this story, the story of Amnon and Absalom and Jonadab and Tamar and you're going like where is he getting that from exactly?
Where does it come from out of the story? Well the truth is what I read it kind of doesn't.
But right after this, right after what I read beginning in verse 23, it's two years later and there's a certain sheep shearing incident.
Now if you're here on Tuesday you kind of remember this incident right?
So Absalom who hates Amnon because of what he did to Tamar asks David that all the king's sons will come out to the sheep shearing.
That would include Amnon who is in line for the throne.
And we know Absalom hates him and the scripture says he hates him because of what he did to his sister.
At first David says no, no it would be too much of a burden for you.
And he says well just let Amnon come.
And then David relents and he says okay all the sons can come.
And at the sheep shearing an incident takes place that involves Absalom and Amnon and Absalom's men.
And Alex what was that incident? What happened at the sheep shearing? Do you remember?
Amnon was there, got a little drunk, Absalom was there. Jason can you help him?
What happened at the sheep shearing? Amnon was there. You were, it was this Tuesday.
Caleb go ahead. No that's a different story. Go ahead RJ. Wait maybe, maybe you got it?
What happened at the sheep shearing? Were you there? You got it? They killed him.
Who did they kill? Come on we all know this one. Amnon, right?
They killed Amnon. You got the revenge against Amnon. Absalom told his men when he's drunk,
I'm going to tell you when, and you go and kill Amnon. Right? Were you there?
No. No you missed that one? Oh you were with the preschoolers? Okay that happens.
Alright so the point is at the sheep shearing when he's a little drunk, Absalom has his men kill Amnon.
And the story could stop there right? Revenge has been taken. Sounds good.
Absalom did that. But guess what?
The part of the story you may or may not have focused on when we studied it is David receives news of what happened.
The first news he receives is that all of his sons have been killed by Absalom. That's the first news right?
But then there's a guy there and he says not at all. It really, I guarantee you it wasn't all of your sons.
It was just Amnon. Absalom had Amnon killed because he was mad over the rape of Tamar. Right?
And then the message comes and the servant or the person who was there said,
See I told you and then the sons come and he says, See I told you, I told you it was just Amnon who was killed.
And guess who that person was that was telling David it was just Amnon who was killed?
No. It was the cousin, Jonadab.
How do you think Jonadab knew that it was only Amnon who was killed at the feast?
Now we don't know but you see how you can distill their motives?
And by the way Jonadab, real good friends with Absalom.
Oh and who was it that advised Amnon to pretend to be sick and have Tamar come and make the bread?
Who was that? Jonadab.
So Jonadab advises Amnon to go right to the brink. He never advised him to rape her.
But to go right to the brink and have her make bread in front of him.
Then Amnon takes it upon himself and he rapes her.
Fast forward, Absalom, two years, Absalom has him killed at the feast and Jonadab is there to comfort David and say,
See I told you my lord, I'm the one who was right. I'm your wise servant.
I'm the one who told you that it was only Amnon not all of the king's sons who were slain.
See how you can distill that all down to was there a plot between Absalom and Jonadab to lure Amnon to the point that he would rape Tamar?
Oh and by the way who was Amnon again? Heir to the throne.
And who was Absalom third in line for the throne and now suddenly second?
And he eventually is able to take the throne. Now he dies because of that right? Ultimately.
But my point is you can look at it from here and see did Jonadab arrange the possibility that Amnon would rape Tamar? Maybe.
Did he then put himself in the right position to report that it was only Amnon that was slain, not all the king's sons so he could gain favor with the king? Maybe.
You see how we do that? We look at people's motivations and people are doing the same thing to you.
I want to know what are you about? What are you up to? But the truth is they think they can figure you out.
Theologian and historians the world over question if maybe the whole thing was in an orchestrated plot on behalf of Absalom and Jonadab to have Amnon killed so that Absalom could ascend to the throne.
And we know that he wanted to. In this case it kind of makes sense right?
Remove a competitor from the throne. Reason it can be like no one can fault him for wanting to kill Amnon for raping Tamar because it was wrong that he did so.
He had a right to seek justice didn't he? Oh and by the way when he rises to the throne what is the platform he stands on?
He stands at the city gate and judges people's and he says I will judge for you and he doesn't let people go to David.
He judges their court cases right? He says I am a man of justice. So it all makes sense.
Charles Dickinson wrote in the book Oliver Twist he says to do a great right you may do a little wrong and you may take any means which the end to be attained will justify.
But James the brother of Jesus wrote whosoever keepeth the whole law and yet offends in one point he is guilty of all.
You see what happened? Justice is redefined. Well there's a lot of people who want justice. In fact doesn't everybody?
Well not everybody who knows what they would get if justice were served. If justice were served to me I would spend eternity in hell.
How about you? Do you realize that if justice were served to you you would spend eternity in hell? That would be just.
Did you sin against God? The Bible says we all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. So we would suffer in hell for eternity if justice were served.
But justice was served. It was served in the killing of Jesus and he died for us and now we can have that grace.
When they examine you when they distill you down to a cup of what was Haley or a cup of what was Michael Brister.
When they distill you down to a cup of what was that what will they find?
Will they find that you live your life so that what they see there will be about Jesus and not really about you at all?
Because that is what we're called to. That's what it means to live the life and to live it in the world where the world can see it.
That's what it means to be salt of the earth. That's what it means to be the light.
Then they will glorify our Father when at Jesus' next coming.
Did you try to take no responsibility and hide behind your small part in others' lives?
Will you say, well they'll never know that I didn't tell them about Jesus? When you go out to eat and you're kind to the server and you give a nice tip but Jesus is never mentioned?
What if you stand in heaven in front of the throne and Jesus says, here I bring to you all the waitresses, whoever served you that you never talked to about Jesus.
Here's your mailman, the long line of them that served you the whole time you lived in your house. Seven of them.
One after another. Some of them came to your house every day for ten years straight and you never did anything about making sure that they had the chance to know Jesus.
Here they are. Here's the ten guys or gals that you never said a word.
You see, if they distill it all down to a cup of you, what will they find? Will they find Jesus or will they find you?
We must be about Jesus through and through and never compromise on any idolatry or the world system.
And that would include this idea that they'll never find out that we never mentioned the single most important thing that could ever be mentioned.
They'll never find out that we never mentioned the person who lived in us.
Oh, they'll find out. They'll find out when they go to hell because nobody talked to them about Jesus.
Right is not to be taken lightly. When we are saved, our names are written in the book of life and there will likely be no entry describing our lives.
But our name itself will represent everything that we are and everything that we've ever done.
Good, bad, and ugly. And ultimately that we were called a child of God.
So the question is when your name is written in the book of life, what will it represent?
When Chris McRory is read out in the halls of heaven, will it represent he packed a lot of packages or he pulled a lot of stock or he fixed a lot of cars or he paid the bills?
He took care of his children. He protected them from themselves and from others.
Will it represent those things? Will it represent he was a bearer of the image of God?
He stood up when no one else was stood up. He said what needed to be said.
He represented Jesus in all kinds of crazy situations where most people would not even want to be.
Is that what your name will represent when it's written in the Lamb's book of life?
It's written there because of the saving blood of Jesus, not because of your works.
You can't earn it being there, but if it's there then when they distill you down, when they judge you for the small bit parts you played in their life, you only saw them once ever.
Don't kid yourself. If a person sees you once in this lifetime, then is going to hell, standing at the right, right throne of judgment.
And there you are dressing your pretty white robe. They're going to pick your face out of the crowd and say, I met you just once back in 2015.
We were there for five minutes. We talked substantively about football or health.
We talked about the weather, but you never mentioned Jesus. How could you do that to me?
That was your bit part, five minutes in 2015. Now they want to know.
You only had five minutes of my life, but you couldn't bring up the single most important thing.
And now I go to hell for an eternity because you couldn't be bothered to mention the guy that was walking around living in you day in and day out.
People are distilling our lives and judging us and they just the same as we can judge Jonah Dab and wonder, oh, it's pretty suspicious.
Just the same as we can look at Absalom and think even here, oh boy, he's better. He's going to die before the battlefield for him.
The battlefield was trying to keep his kingship and he lost it.
And Amnon pushed close to the edge, played with temptation and then ultimately gave in and raped Tamar and two years later died.
Probably didn't even die because he raped Tamar, probably died because he was first in line for the throne and had no integrity.
That brings us to our conclusion. You need to accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior now.
A Lord is a person who tells you what to do when you do it.
A Savior is a person who is the only way your sins can be forgiven, the only way you can go to heaven for eternity.
It's no game. There are no extras, no clauses, no subtext, no Roman numerals, just Jesus as Lord and Savior.
And then having accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, you will live by God's definition of words and concepts day in and day out.
You say, well I don't know all gods. No, it's a journey. You grow a little more, a little more. That's what Reaching New Heights is all about.
We will study our Bibles together. We will spend time doing the things that God has called us to do together.
We will walk out to the best of our ability in whatever place that we are at that time what it means to be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ,
including accepting the definition of words and concepts that He gives us when that is extremely inconvenient in the world.
And they hate you for it. If you take the light into the darkness and the darkness does not comprehend you
as it did not comprehend the light that was Jesus, then they just might try to kill you just the same as they did Jesus.
And He said, when they hate you, do not be surprised for they hated Me first.
Also He said, in this world you shall face trials and troubles, but fear not, for I have overcome the world.
Never dismiss His presence from being the primary consideration in every decision.
Everything you think you want to do, every time you think I might want to do this, I might want to eat that, I might want to watch this,
I might want to play this for a few minutes longer, every time you think of anything you want to do,
you need to take into account the fact that the God of the universe through His Holy Spirit and Jesus' personality is living in you.
That's what it means to have Jesus as Lord and Savior.
You can't sleep with your boyfriend, and you can't not pay back your debts, you can't disrespect other human beings,
you can't lie or steal or cheat, even though technically you can, but you won't. You will not allow it.
That's the battlefield. You will fight there to do the things that God would have you to do, to be the person that God would have you to be,
and your primary consideration will be the fact that the God of the universe is in you, that He has offered His presence,
that He has authored His presence, and that He is preparing you for the battle of your life.
If you're still alive here, you will face a bigger enemy before you are done.
And just the same, if you do not die in facing that great big enemy, whatever it is that God's pitting you against,
then you will spend eternity with God in heaven immediately.
Following, if you do die, or afterwards, you'll be able to say,
Oh, it's good. I have learned. I have grown. I am stronger. I am salt. I am light. And the enemy has fallen at my feet today.
Be prepared for the battle of your life, which if given the opportunity, he will win in and through us.
When Jesus handed us over the keys, He expected us to take these things into account,
to understand that accepting other kinds of love will bring about other problems,
and that we are called, commanded to love the way He would have us to love,
that dying on the way to the battlefield will ensure that you will not win the fight when the time comes.
And the surest way to ensure that you will die on the battlefield is to give in to the temptations of idolatry, such as they are,
and to realize that you are just a bit part in most people's lives.
But sometimes the bit part is the part. It's the part that brings the gospel. It's the part that brings salvation.
It's the part that wins souls. It's the part that stomps demons into the ground.
That's the kind of bit part I want to be. That's the kind of bit part you want to be.
And you're going to have to put down some things, and you're going to have to pick up some things, and Jesus will show you what they are.
Repent today, and if you're not a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ in earnest, become one.
And if you are one, then say, I will today live according to that decision, that act, that time at which God may be born again.
I got off track somewhere, but I am going to today and tomorrow, and every day that I am the decision maker in my head,
I will make the decision to represent my Lord. And we will not embrace the concepts of this world.
We will not become friends with the world system, because we are not of that kingdom. We are of God's kingdom.
And He wants to live in us. And believe me, I want nothing more. You want nothing more.
So we will take into account in every decision His presence.
I ask the praise team to come forward at this time. We're going to close with a hymn, a song that we've prepared.
I'm asking you today, have you made this decision? Have you turned yourself over?
There's lots of good things in life. I get that. There's lots of good things.
But if it's a good thing and it's not of God, it's not a good thing. It doesn't matter how good it looks.
If it's a good thing in your eyes, but not a good thing in your soul, then it's got to go, because Jesus is there.
Don't force the God of the universe to sit with you while you watch things you shouldn't watch, and do things you shouldn't do,
and be a person you shouldn't be. Rather, invite Him in. Embrace His concepts and His words, and live eternally in Christ.
Would you stand with me if you're comfortable and able to do so, and as we sing this song, Alicia's going to lead us.