Welcome to the Liberty Baptist Sermon Archives.
The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
Church in Easton, MA. You can find out more about us
or contact us at my libertybaptist.org or just look
us up on Facebook. And now we hope that this
message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Turn back to Second Samuel chapter 18 as we read the final
verse of that chapter and move on to chapter #19 as we see
Absalom is dead. And we're going to look at
David's response as he got the words from Kushai as we made
mention of last week. And so looking forward to
getting into that here in just a few moments from Second Samuel
chapter #18 you know, when. It comes to issues of mental
health. When it comes to issues of
mental health, you don't often hear much spoken about it in the
church, and there's probably a lot of different reasons for
that, if we're honest about that this evening, first of all, is
probably because when you hear the term mental health and all
that comes along with it, there's obviously a lot of
secular influence and secular advice when it comes in this
area of mental health. The world has all kinds of ideas
of books and of therapies and all kinds of answers when it
comes the issue of mental health, ironically enough, none
of the issues the. Or rather, rather, none of the
ideas the world has about it has anything to do with Jesus
Christ. But the world does talk quite a
bit about mental health. So sometimes that might be a
stereotype that we don't want to be a part of it.
It could be that we don't talk about mental health because
there is a stigma of perhaps weakness, that if we were to
talk about the fact that there could be some issues of the mind
and of our thoughts, that perhaps we would be perceived as
being weak. So perhaps it's better not to be
spoken of at all. Perhaps it could be because
people think that Christians aren't supposed to have any of
those kind of issues in the 1st place.
Because if you're a Christian and you're saved, you ought to
just be thinking, right all the time because that's just the way
the Christian ought to be. Now, here's the thing for us
this evening, that we don't want to think like the world thinks,
Amen. We want to think as the Bible
tells us to think. But I do also know this the
Bible talks quite a bit about the mind.
The Bible tells us to gird the loins up of our mind, meaning
this that there can often be slackness within our mind that
we have to cinch up to make sure that we are thinking right.
Philippians chapter 2 tells us what let this mind be in you,
which was also in Christ Jesus. The Bible has much to do.
There's over 100 verses that you will find in the word of God
that deal with the issues of the mind.
This is not something that is just out there on the fringe.
This is not just something that the.
World would. Speak about, but the issue of
mental health, whether you want to call it mental health or not,
making sure that we have a mind that is right with God is
certainly something that's very important to God.
And should be important to us as well.
Interestingly enough about God's holy book is that there were a
lot of people who had struggles within their minds and they
wrote about them in the word of God.
If you ever read the psalms of Asaph, if you were in the. 70s
of the book of Psalms, you'll find that Asaph, who was the
song leader of David, had a lot of issues with discouragement
and issues with the deeper issues of life and sometimes
couldn't reconcile. Why is the world seemingly doing
so good and I'm suing so bad? And it caused him a lot of real
difficulties of discouragement and maybe we could even say of
despair as well. Well, what about David himself?
Well, David had some very raw and very real Psalms, where he
expressed some thoughts within him where he had great despair.
For instance, Psalm 55, verses one through 6.
Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not thyself from my
supplication. Attend unto me, and hear me.
I mourn in my complaint, and make a noise because of the
voice of the enemy, because of the oppression of the wicked.
For they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me.
My heart is sore pain within me. The terrors of death are falling
upon me, fearfulness and trembling are coming upon me,
and horror hath overwhelmed me. And listen to what he says.
And I said, Oh, that I had wings like a dove, for then I would
fly. Away and be at rest.
Call it mental. Health.
Call it despair, call whatever you want.
The Bible speaks much about the issues of despair in the mind,
and as believers, we ought not to look to the world for answers
when it comes to these issues, but rather we must ask ourselves
this. What does the Word of God say
when we have issues with what's going on upstairs?
What does the word of God say when we have discouragement,
when we have a despondency, when it doesn't seem like anything in
life is going our way? Well, ironically enough, we just
read from Psalm 55 and David's words.
And while David's words were not necessarily penned for this very
text, they certainly. Fit in quite well, because
Absalom is dead and David's going to be in great despair now
he has. A divided mind here.
Why? Because Absalom is dead.
But Absalom well deserved to die.
But he was still a son. And so I want us to look at our
text here tonight and really glean some thoughts to be able
to help us when we get into issues of the heart and mind and
how we can make sure we're thinking biblically when those
times of despair, when those times of discouragement, when
those times of great sorrow come not just in a way, but whether
they seem so overwhelming that they feel like.
We're going to drown. What do we do according to what
the Bible says? With these issues, we stand
pleased for the reading of God's Word, Second Samuel chapter 18
and verse #30. Three says that the king was
much moved and went up to the chamber over the gate and wept.
And as he went thus he said, Oh, my son Absalom, my son, my son
Absalom, would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my
son. Now beginning in chapter 19, it
says, and it was told, Joab, behold, the king weepeth and
mourneth for Absalom. And the victory that day was
turned into mourning unto all the people.
For the people heard say that day how the king was grieved for
his son. And the people get them by
stealth that day into the city. People being ashamed steal away
when they flee in battle. But the king covered his face
and the king cried with a loud voice.
Oh my son Absalom. Oh Absalom, my son, my son.
And Joab came into the House of the king and said snap out of
it. No, that's not there case.
You thought I had one of those easy reading Bibles here.
That's not what I'm saying. But in essence, he's going to
give him some hard truth here. Say what you want about Joab,
and Joab is the enigma of all enigmas, but certainly Joab here
has some good counsel for him, and we'll look at that in just a
moment. Thou has shamed this day the
faces of all thy servants, which this day I've saved thy life,
and the lives of thy sons, and of thy daughters, and the lives
of thy wives, and the lives of thy concubines, and that thou
lovest thine enemies, and hatest thy friends.
For thou has declared this day that thou regardless neither
Princess nor servants. For this day I perceive that if
Absalom had lived and we all died this day, it pleased thee
well. Now therefore rise, go forth,
and speak comfortably unto thy servants.
For I swear by the Lord, if thou go not forth, there will not
tarry one with thee this night, and that will be worse unto thee
than all the evil that befell thee from thy youth until now.
Then the king arose and sat in the gate.
And they told unto the people, Unto all the people, Behold,
saying, Behold, the king doth sit in the gate.
And all the people came before the king, for Israel had fled
every man to his tent. You may be seated.
David is pained in his heart. David is pained in his mind.
There's no doubt about that from what we just read.
But yet could we also equally say David's not thinking
straight? And there are times within our
own life, because of the issues of life, we're just not thinking
straight. How do we deal with that?
You know, I don't care what the psychologists say or the pH DS
say or those so-called scholars say, let's ask ourselves this
question this evening. What does the word of God say?
We get into a situation where we're in such great pain, we
could end up making some very, very bad decisions because we're
not in the place we ought to be. Heavenly Father, be with us here
tonight. Help me to be able to talk about
this subject in a way that's compassionate, but also that
hits the point that hits the mark as your word says it.
Be with us this evening. If there's someone here that's
going through this great season of discouragement, depression,
the issues of the mind, Lord, help them not necessarily to
feel shame, but rather help them to realize that first and
foremost, they need to run to you to be able to bring these
things to you first and foremost.
And that you can be the one that takes care of these things in a
way that the world who offers so many answers often falls far,
far short. Or be with us tonight as we get
into your word and we ask it in Jesus name, Amen.
What do we find in verse #33 David receives the message from
the hands of Kushai and he is in mourning.
You can feel David's grief. You can feel David's pain, even
just from the way this is written for us here.
Oh my son Absalom. My son.
My son Absalom. Would.
God, I had died for thee, Oh Absalom, my son, my son.
And here is David, where he is pained in his heart because he
wishes he would have died in the place of Absalom.
That's how great his grief is here in this moment.
Now Joab hears of this news. Why is that?
Well, because David was mourning in a very public place.
You may have noticed at the beginning verse #33 when it
says, and the king was much moved and went up to the chamber
over the gate. Remember that he was in that
city called Mahanam. And there he was sitting at the
gate, and he was looking for a place that was private to be
able to mourn. And the best he could find was
to be able to go into a chamber that was over the top of the
gate. So what does that mean?
That everyone that's coming back from the battle can hear David
wailing and weeping as soon as they come into the city?
David has no pretense. David's not hiding anything.
Everyone can hear David in his great morning.
And so the word has come to Joab.
And Joab is told, listen, you got to talk to David because
here's what's happening. People are coming back into the
city, and they're hearing David crying like this.
And they're hearing David. All he's talking about is
Absalom, Absalom, Absalom. He's giving no regards for the
people who the men who hazard their lives to win the battle,
Ephraim would that day. He's giving no regard to the
fact that now he and his people are safe.
All he can think of is Absalom and everybody can hear it.
In fact, it says that the men who are coming back from the
battle, when they heard David, they didn't feel great joy for
the victory. Now they felt ashamed.
In fact, it said that they kind of slunk away like men who are
trying to escape from a battle. You know, when men are in a
battle and, and they are deciding that they're going to
cut and run, that they're going to hightail it, they do so in a
way that is without honor. That is what it is when men
would run away from the field of battle, there is no honor there
to be able to do so and to leave your brethren to be able to
fight the battle that you're supposed to be shoulder to
shoulder with. But yet the word of God tells us
that the men felt great shame, just as if they were running
away from the battle because look at what they had done to
David. They love David, they went to
battle for David, and yet here is David weeping.
And they realized we did this to David and they had this reaction
that really was not a good one. Well, Joab comes to David verse
#4 he continues and it says he continues with a loud voice.
Oh my son, Absalom, oh Absalom, my son, my son.
Do you see a theme here? Absalom, my son, my son.
Absalom, oh, my son. Absalom, my son.
My son. O over and over and over again.
And Joab comes and gives him a hard truth.
He's what's the matter with you. You make it sound like Absalom
is more important than the people who risk their lives for
you. In fact, if you don't get it
together, here's what's going to happen.
All the trouble that's befallen you from your youth until this
day will pale in comparison to what's about to happen, because
those same men will turn on you when they realize you don't
value their lives. All you did was value Absalom.
And David, to his credit, said you're right.
And what did he do? He cleaned himself up.
He came down from the chamber above the gate.
He sat at the gate, which was the place of leadership, and he
watched his men come back. And his men came to realize that
David did truly appreciate that which they hazard themselves
through the battle there that day and even the days before as
they escaped from Jerusalem and made it out over across Jordan
in the first place. Now, I'm going to be honest with
you here this evening as I've been in preparation for this
message for several weeks. And that's one of the beauties
of going through a text and going chapter by chapter and
verse by verse. You always know what's coming.
It's not a surprise to me what text is coming when we study in
this way. And for weeks, I was very
prepared to lay it on heavy and be very, very negative against
David. Because here's the thing.
David, what's the matter with you?
David, why are you crying? For this guy.
Do you realize what he put you through?
Do you realize what he put your nation through?
And I was getting ready to get up here and for 30 or 40 or 50
or 60 or however long minutes to be able to get up here and just
tell you what a louse David is. To be able to react like this
and like David, snap out of it. You're acting like a baby.
Act like a man and react in a way that's appropriate to the
situation. This is the way I wanted to
preach the message, but I have to be honest with you when you
really get into the text and. When we read the Bible, I want
to remind you some of this Eve. I know you know this, but I'm
going to say it anyway because in my contract I have to say it
when when we read the Word of God, we're reading about real
people, OK? This isn't a storybook.
This isn't a fantasy. This isn't something provided to
us by Walt Disney. You know, these are real people
who went through real situations.
And because of that, those real people had real emotions.
Now let me ask you are your complex?
Are your emotions complex? Yeah.
Oh, we like to think we're pretty simple minded in some
ways. But really, let's be honest, our
emotions can be very complex. And if that's the case for us,
would that be no different for David here in this case?
As I started to really think about what David was going
through in that moment, the flood of emotions that come
across him at that time had to have been overwhelming to think
about this. His son's dead.
His son. Say what you want, but there is
a bond that comes from fathers and mothers and their children.
And whether this young man had acted appropriately or not, he
was still a son. And for five years this son had
been the focus of his life. Whether he had had him close by
or whether he was at arm's length, there was probably never
a day where David didn't have Absalom on his mind.
And now Absalom was gone. I wonder if David in that moment
is morning because he has to wonder if Absalom's death is his
own fault. He's made some bad choices.
He allowed things to get out of hand.
So how did he let other things get out of hand?
Well, the issue with Ammon and Tamar, David was supposed to
have handled that. He didn't handle it.
What happened? A snowball effect took place
that ended up with Absalom hanging in a tree and dying at
the hand of Joab. You think there's some guilt in
David's mind, thinking this was a totally preventable thing from
happening if I had just acted appropriately as a man and as a
king. I imagine he's physically and
mentally exhausted from his flight from Jerusalem and from
all that's taken place over the last few days.
Understanding what's happening in Jerusalem, understanding
what's happened to his concubines.
No doubt word has gotten out, because remember, that all took
place under the sun. Absalom in public, humiliated
and raped his concubines. And David understands all this.
He's mentally, physically exhausted again.
Maybe guilt over that as well, The guilt of dragging all Israel
into his own family's business. There's at least dozens of his
own men who died trying to protect David in a battle that
never should have taken place in the 1st place.
And really? If you want.
To trace this all the way back to its genesis, you can go to
Second Samuel chapter #11 when David didn't go to battle at the
time when kings went to battle. And David went out onto that
porch. And what does he see?
Well, he sees Bathsheba. And instead of turning around
and saying this, it's not for me to look at, he calls his men,
says, who's that woman over there?
And just the fact he asked that question opened the door to be
able to have what happened take place.
This isn't my message tonight, but can I take a moment and
remind you when it comes to the issues of lust, you don't know
where the harmless sin of lust will take you in the end.
Well, it's just a look. Well, what turned for David as a
look ended up destroying his household, end up destroying his
Peace of Mind. And don't tell me that David in
that moment as he's crying, oh, Absalom, Absalom, my son
Absalom, Absalom that he's mourning for Absalom and maybe
in his mind feels like Absalom somewhat of a victim because of
his own sinful decisions. No, he's in bad shape here.
I can't come to you tonight and, and, and say the things that I
wanted to say about him. Why?
Because I can understand if we give ourselves an honest look at
this text and really try to understand the mind of David, we
can see where he's coming from. Could we maybe even put it this
way this evening? In fact, the title of my message
is this. David has a breakdown.
It's almost as if he's having a mental breakdown here.
There's no conversation to be had.
There's nothing other for him to say other than Absalom, my son,
my son. And I know I was poking fun at
it just a few moments ago, but you're literally looking at a
man on the edge. You're looking at a man who has
lived from calamity to calamity to calamity for five plus years
now. And it's all come to a head and
he's been given the bill of sale for all the bad decisions that
he has made. He's seeing his son dead.
He is seeing all that has the wreckage of what's taking place
and it's coming crashing down on him now.
When dealing with issues of depression, heartbreak, or
feeling that you're on the edge, it is very easy to make
decisions in the short term that are ungodly, that are unwise,
and those short term decisions could end up changing you for
the long term. This is what David's on the edge
of here and doesn't even realize it.
He doesn't realize in this moment if he doesn't shape up.
The Kingdom that he just regained, he's going to lose
again because those men are going to turn on him.
Now, the issue is for David that in the moment when he is on the
edge, the last thing that a person wants to do is to think
biblically. Now, let's say that again, when
you were on the edge, the last thing you want to do is to think
biblically. But here's the issue.
It's not the last resort. It should be our very first
thing to do. No one will readily admit
something here this evening. I'm not a healthcare
professional. I know a lot of your surprise
about that tonight. I'm not a healthcare
professional. There are sometimes that there
are things in the body, there are things that are taking place
in the body that can affect the mind.
This is scientifically proven. This is not something that
should be a surprise to anyone this evening.
Sometimes it can be as simple as something as a UTI, which can
cause someone to have extreme mental distress, and sometimes
it could be something as complex as hormones that can cause
thoughts that would not normally be there.
Sometimes there can be complications, medications that
you might be taking that might cause very dark thoughts that
would not be there. I'm not a physician, I'm not
your doctor, I'm not APA. I've been in the hospital a few
times. That's all I can tell you.
So I'm not trying to tell you what you need to do in these
areas, but I will say this. God has created us as physical,
mental, emotional, and yes, spiritual beings.
And those are all delicately intertwined and we cannot
pretend that they do not affect one another.
And I'm not here to tell you tonight.
Well, listen, you don't need a doctor.
You just need to get right with the Lord.
I've heard that kind of preaching before, and it can be
dangerous. That's not what I'm here to
preach tonight. You don't need the doctors, you
just need Jesus. Well, listen, Jesus gave us
doctors, and I'm thankful for some of them.
So you didn't catch that. I'm thankful for some of them.
I am. But I also say this what we also
need to be careful of. As that we don't run to medicine
first before we run to the Lord first.
There was a king in second Chronicles chapter 16 named ASA
who is diseased in his feet thoughts not pleasant, but what
does the Bible say about in verse number 12A said are in his
thirty and 9th year of his reign was diseased in his feet until
his disease was exceeding great. Here's the issue.
Get in this disease. He sought not the Lord, but to
the physicians. Is the issue the physicians?
No. I know we all make jokes about
physicians and doctors, but the issue is not that.
The issue is this. When you seek the Lord before
the physicians. When you do not seek the Lord
while you're seeking the physicians.
When you don't seek the great physician as you're seeking the
physicians. I'm not here to tell you
tonight, if you're struggling in your mind that you should never
be able to get outside help as long as that outside help is
within the bounds of the Word of God.
That's not what I'm here to tell you tonight.
What I'm saying is this, before we go to those extremes, before
we go to those places, should we make sure that we're thinking
biblically? Shouldn't we make sure that
we're thinking right? You know what, David?
He needed here more than anything, was just a good dose
of the Word of God. What David needed here more than
anything was someone to look him in the eye and say, David,
you're not thinking right? And that's what he received.
What do you do when you're on the verge of a breakdown?
Say, pastor, I will call you. All right, Well, that's fine.
You can call me. But you know what I'm going to
tell you? I'm going to tell you these
three things, and they're found in our text here tonight.
The 1st is this. I want you to realize this and
recognize this tonight. Feelings can be faulty.
Feelings are not your enemy in
and of themselves. Aren't you glad God gave us
feelings? Without feelings, we wouldn't
know the joy and rapture of life.
We wouldn't know how to appreciate the beauty of the
creation that He's put around us.
I'm thankful for the emotions of which He has gifted us with, but
our feelings are not always to be trusted.
Feelings are like funhouse mirrors.
They'll give you all the information, but they're going
to put it in ways that do not accurately represent that which
is before you. Your feelings cannot be trusted.
Say. Well, Pastor, did you have some
examples in the Bible? I'm glad you asked, Esau.
I'm so hungry. I'm going to die.
Look it up. That's what he said.
I'm going to die. Esau, you're not going to die.
You're hungry. There's Jacob, literally and
metaphorically. Stir in the pot.
You know what I'm saying? He's stirring the pot.
He says, Esau, I'm gonna wait for you.
Hey, he says, I'll be glad to give you some of this, to give
me your birthright. And Esau said this.
What goodwill that birthright do me if I die?
May I reiterate, Esau, you will not die.
In that moment, his feelings were this I am so hungry.
Nothing else matters. And what did he do?
He ate that bowl. He was satisfied and probably he
felt like you. And I feel when you eat a whole
carton of ice cream and it feels so good till you get to the
bottom and then you realize when your stomach is gurgling for the
next 6 hours that you made some very bad life choices.
But I'll tell you this, the consequences of eating a whole
gallon of ice cream have nothing even close to what he saw and
gambled away that day or traded away that day.
Why he trusted his feelings. Elijah was a great prophet.
Can you imagine Mount Carmel? I love if there was something I
could replay in the Bible when I get to heaven.
I want to see the instant replay of Mount Carmel and the fire
fallen from heaven and Elijah standing against.
All those prophets of Baal. But afterwards, when the fire of
God came down and the rain of the heaven came down to break
the 3 1/2 years of no rain, Jezebel says if you're alive
tomorrow, he said the gods do so more, more and even more to me
than I'll do to you if you're still around.
What did Elijah do? He got scared, He ran.
He was on the edge that he told God.
I'm the only one that serves you.
I'm the only one. That's left, and God had to deal
with him in a very unique way because of how he felt David's
feelings with Bathsheba in that moment when his hormones are
raging and he sees this woman in a state of undress, he knows, he
knows in his in this moment that there's only one course of
action, and that's to call that woman to his chambers.
Well, that's not the only course of action.
In fact, that's the only thing you're not supposed to do, do
anything but that. So don't call her there.
But feelings can be faulty. You see, feelings often make us
focus on a pixel instead of the big picture.
It makes us focus on one little part, Esau said.
I don't have any food, Esau. There's food everywhere.
Just make something like a man coming home.
Well, what's for dinner? There's nothing around here.
And wife says we'll just go grab something.
There's about 1000 things in the pantry.
Just go grab something. I'm hungry.
Feelings work, right? I'm the only one.
Esau knew that there were other prophets he had met other
prophets that had been in hiding.
He knew that Israel together had come and called upon the Lord
there a Mount Carmel just the day before.
But in that moment, all he could see was just that little bit,
that he was the only one supposedly, and missed the whole
fact that, well, God was at work in a major way, in a way that
God hadn't been in work in Israel for a very long time.
But all he could do was focus on that little bit.
David here in our text saw a dead son, but he forgot the 10s
of thousands that were still alive and that his Kingdom was
preserved. What happens?
Feelings cannot be trusted. Proverbs 28 verse 26.
He that trusted his own heart is a fool.
But whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.
Our feelings are often strong, but just as often they are
wrong. Our feelings, oftentimes in the
moment, seem like the most wise course of action.
But yet when we step away from that moment of passion, we
realize we acted the fool because we were just thinking
about this one thing instead of looking at all that takes place
now. There would be some preachers
who would tell you something like this.
You know your feelings aren't real.
Your feelings aren't real. I'm here to tell you something
tonight. Whatever you feel is real, OK?
I'm not here to try to explain to you with some kind of voodoo
that you know whatever you're feeling doesn't actually exist.
Your feelings are real. Whatever you are feeling is
real. But I want to be just as clear
with you tonight. Just because you are really
feeling it doesn't mean it's valid.
Just because you're really feeling it doesn't mean it's
right. Your old rotten flesh.
Will bring up all kinds of feelings and all kinds of
thoughts and all kinds of mental types of issues, and they'll
bring these to the forefront as if they are the Bible itself.
But yet it's not real so well, how do I know which ones are
real and which ones aren't? You know what you got to do?
Take some time, slow down, and inspect it according to the word
of God. Here's what James 125 says.
But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and
continue with therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a
doer of the work, this man shall be blessed indeed.
Compare your feelings to the word of God.
And I just heard this, and it's true.
Trust in the Lord with all thine heart.
Lean not unto thine own understanding.
In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy Pratt.
Proverbs 3, five and six. That is very true.
You know, being in Scotland a couple weeks ago, we had cash.
I've never had pounds before, but these, these pounds, I had
them and they, you know, got into change, you know, their
money look more American. That's all I got to say.
All right, I know I don't want to make, I don't make other
countries into America. I'm just saying it'd be a lot
more helpful if their coins and bills looked a lot more like
America. That's all I'm saying.
Because every time I was paying with cash, I found myself like a
child pulling this wad of change out of my pocket and going like
this. And, and because there's,
there's a A1 cent piece, 1 pence, there's 2 pence, there's
5 pence, there's 20 pence, 50 pence, a dollar coin and a $2.00
coin. Like this people, these people
got way too much precious metals.
They don't know what to do with. All right?
It's like why you have so many coins and I'm pulling them out
and I'm, I'm literally reading each coin and I look like a
fool. There was at one point I, I
stood in front of a woman at a cash register and I said, take
what you need because I didn't know what to do.
And I was so frustrated. I just take it, you know, she
could have taken it all. I wouldn't even said anything
because I didn't know. But you know what I had to do in
that moment because I was unfamiliar with what was in
front of me. I had to inspect each one
carefully. When you have feelings that are
unfamiliar to you know what you need to do stop, inspect each
one carefully record in the word of God.
David in that moment needed a time out.
He need a break. I didn't say you need a safe
space. We're not Co opting the stuff of
the world because a lot of that stuff is lunacy is what it is.
What I'm saying is this, you know what you need to do.
He is stop and say how do you think about what the Bible says?
Now you may not always have your Bible with you.
Now I will argue you probably do if you have your cell phone
because you probably always carrying the Bible with you in
an app on your phone, but you may just need a moment to stop,
breathe, pray, ask the Lord in this moment, help me think
biblically. Am I thinking rightly?
And people don't do that. You're right, they don't.
And that's why we get ourselves in so much trouble.
That's why we get ourselves in so much trouble.
What do you do? You understand your feelings can
be faulty #2 when you're on the edge, you determine your
desires. What's most important to you in
that moment. I think verse #6 is telling.
We look at it again with me. It says in that thou lovest
thine enemies and hatest thy friends.
Just stop right there. Now, was that the way David
really felt? No, but it was that the way
David was presenting himself, It looked like David cared more for
the rebels that he did his own men.
And Joab says your desires look like they're out of whack.
You got to care more for your men than you did for the rebels.
Dave's mains desire, David's main desire was on his kid and
not on the Kingdom. And if he wasn't going to get it
right, he would lose that very same Kingdom in a moment.
You know, there are times that our hearts are broken because
our desires are wrong. You know, sometimes we get our
desires out of whack and they get our mind out of whack.
You know, kind of like a, a washer that gets out of balance.
You put too much in the wrong place and it's not balanced.
What ends up happening? It sounds like your house is
about to fall apart because it's out of balance.
A mind that is not balanced properly with godly things will
end up getting you into a very, very bad place.
When your desires are out of whack.
There could be the problem of unfulfilled expectations.
Well, God, this is what I thought you were going to do
with my life. God, why aren't I farther along?
God, I was supposed to be at this place within my job.
God, I thought I was supposed to have more money than this.
I thought I was going to have a family.
I thought that my life was going to be totally different.
Proverbs 13 verse 12 says hope deferred maketh the heart sick,
but when the diet cometh, it's the tree of life.
We have to be careful what we put on our expectations in life.
Can I help you with something? You don't know what God's going
to do with your life. You may think you know where
God's going to take your life, but you don't know where He's
going to take you. You know what your expectation
should be. God's going to take care of me
today. Didn't Jesus talk about that in
the Sermon on the Mount? What is he going to do?
He'll provide for you today. Look, you plan for the future as
best you can. I'm not saying to be unwise in
your planning. It's good to plan for
retirement. It's good to plan your finances.
It's good to plan where you're going to be in six months, a
year. It's good to plan those things.
But if God overrides those things, let it be.
Let it be unfulfilled expectations can really 'cause
the mind to turn. Let's just be honest.
Sinful longings. Did David, sinful longing for
Bathsheba cause some real problems?
Absolutely. James.
For one through 2 From whence come wars and fightings among
you? Come They not.
Hence even of your lusts, that war in your members.
You lust and you have not. You kill you desire to have and
can it obtain you? Fight and you war.
Yet you have not because you ask not.
He says there's some of you that you're not mentally right
because all you're doing is thinking about doing wrong.
Some of you aren't mentally right because all you're doing
is setting your mind on that which is destructive within your
life. Really, we can put it this way,
that the double minded man is unstable in some of his ways.
Oh, some of you quoted it the right way.
I was trying to make sure you're paying attention.
The double minded way. The double minded man is not
unstable in some of his ways. That's the way we'd like it to
read. So the Bible says he's unstable
in all his ways and sinful longings, having those desires
out of whack. When you have more desire for
sin than for righteousness, you think that's going to work out
well. Unfulfilled expectations.
Sinful longings. Wrong priorities.
Luke 14 verse 26, as if any man come to me and hate not father
and mother and wife and children and brother and sisters.
Yeah, His own life also He cannot mean by disciple.
You know, Jesus wasn't asking for you to hate those who should
be the closest to you. There's far too many
commandments that tell us we're supposed to honor those people.
But what Jesus was saying is that you're longing for him
should be so great, and so great in comparison to those that it
would seem to the world that you do hate those.
And when we love the Lord as we should, it puts everything else
into its proper perspective. That's why it says in James 4
verse 8, draw an eye to God. He'll draw an eye to you,
cleanse your hand, you sinners, and purify your heart's you.
Well, there's that word again, double minded.
Set your affection on things above, not on things of the
earth. Colossians 3 verse 2 when you
have a breakdown, you need to understand first of all,
feelings could be faulty. David's feelings, we're not
giving him the proper view of the situation.
Determine your desires. It seemed like he cared for the
rebels more than he cared for the people of God.
And 3rd and finally here tonight is this.
Welcome, unwelcomed counsel. Welcome, unwelcomed counsel.
It takes courage to give a rebuke.
There's no doubt about that. But I also say this, it takes
courage to receive a rebuke as well.
Joe AB, what do you even say about Joe AB?
You're cheering him one moment and he's stabbing people in the
5th rib the next. What do you do with this guy?
He he dispatched Absalom in a way that David really should
have endorsed in the 1st place, but yet also you see him
dispatching people who had no business.
Dying in the first place. But David or Absalom here or
Joab, absol job. Joab.
He does something really good here.
He gets in his friend's face and he does two things.
He tells him what he's doing wrong.
Was it very clear? Here he was telling him he was
wrong. He wasn't mincing words.
But he didn't just tell him what he's doing wrong.
He tells him what to do right. Did you catch that?
Look at, look, look at verse #7 he says, Now therefore rise, go
forth, speak comfortably under thy servants, for I swear by the
Lord, if thou go not forth, there will not tarry one more
with thee this night, and that will be worse unto thee than all
the evil that befell thee from my youth unto now.
He doesn't just say, David, snap out of it.
He also says, this, David, here's what you need to do,
because I know you're not thinking right.
Clean yourself up, blow your nose, go downstairs, sit at the
gate and speak comfortable words.
These men who were willing to give them their lives for you
this last day. And Joab in that moment gave
good counsel. I'm not saying that Joab was the
world's greatest counselor in that moment.
He gave good counsel. And David exhibited A
characteristic which he which he shows many times throughout the
Scriptures, and that's this. When someone tells him he's
doing wrong, he takes it, Nathan says.
Thou art the man he said I am. Joab says you're acting the
fool. David says I'll do what you say.
David says number the people. Joab says I wouldn't do that.
He says I said go number him. And the Lord brings him word
that he'll be judged. And David accept the judgment
that could possibly also include him where the others would have
sheltered him from judgment. He's willing to put himself in
harm's way because he realized he was the one who did wrong.
David had this incredible ability to be told he was wrong
and accept it. Now I've got this thing as a
pastor that when people do wrong, I got to tell them
they're doing wrong. Isn't that fun?
I got to tell them they're doing wrong.
I don't like it. I'll be honest with you.
I don't enjoy it. But there are times it has to be
done. You say, let's take courage,
pastor, to be able to do so. It does to a point.
But I would say the courage really lies on the fact that the
one who has to receive it, if they're getting biblical
counsel, they need to have the courage to listen and follow
through with that counsel and to do what they're being told
biblically. Not because it comes from me,
who am I, but because it's coming from the Word of God.
Are you in a place where you welcome unwelcomed counsel?
I have several examples here in my notes.
And forsake of time we won't turn there.
But I think of I think of King, I'm sorry, King Jehoshaphat.
And Ahab. And Ahab gets all of his
favorite prophets to come and they're all saying everything he
wants to hear. And Jehoshaphat, who really
shouldn't have been what they have in the 1st place he.
Says Isn't there someone here to speak?
For the Lord. And Ahab says, well, there's
one, his name's Makaya, but I didn't call him.
And Joe Joseph says, why? Says why?
I hate him. He never tells me what I want to
hear. And Joseph says, you know what?
I like this guy, bring him over here.
And Makaya gave the word that Ahab would die on the field of
battle and sure, shooting. And I mean that seriously
because an arrow just says at a venture, just a man just
literally went in the air and it happened to fall right in the
exact spot of the joints of Ahab's armor.
You can't hide from God. And Ahab died.
King Uzziah was told that he couldn't offer incense on the
altar. But King Uzziah got to the place
where he was so successful in his Kingdom that he felt like
the rules didn't apply to him anymore.
And he went to offer incense at the altar.
The priest says, you can't do that.
That's for the priest to do. And he told him, stand back.
And immediately as he did so, the Bible says that leprosy came
and latched onto his head. Now, do you think there's
something symbolic about that? I sure do.
The fact that he thought he was so much better than everyone
else. And where's the place that the
leprosy clung to his head? And immediately everyone said,
whoa, who's I? You can do whatever you want.
We just don't want to be near you.
And that was the last act of Uzziah because he died as a
leper. Why?
Those men were trying to help him, but he thought, I'm too
good for this. When it comes to the issue of
counsel, heed the counsel of the Word of God.
Heed the counsel of your pastor. I'm not perfect, but when I sit
down with you, I want to talk to you from the Word of God.
And you can take it or you can leave it.
If you take it, take it because from the Word of God, if you
leave it, you find out for yourself what the word of God
says and why you're right and I'm not.
And then you follow what the word of God says, but you follow
the word of God. Welcome unwanted, or rather
unwelcomed, maybe unwanted counsel.
You know what we should do as believers within a church?
You know, I'm not saying to be self-righteous and go around and
telling people off, but there are times when you see people
that are hurting. There are times you see people
who are discouraged, and maybe you just need to go up to him
and say something like this. Hey, man, it seems like you're
struggling right now. Not you in particular, but it's
just, it seems like you're struggling right now.
You know? Is there something I can help
you with? There's something we can talk
about. And if somebody says that and
you really are struggling with something, don't do this.
Well, no, I'm fine. Yeah, you're not fine.
Just just say, you know what, brother?
I'll be honest with you. I am struggling a bit.
Can we talk about it again? We don't do that very often, but
we shouldn't. We do that as believers.
Isn't that what we ought to do? David had a friend in Joab, and
again, this friend was up and down, but at this moment he was
as good as gold. But he's because he told David,
get with it. There's danger if you don't get
this right. And what did David do?
David got it right. Am I saying that David felt
great the next day? Probably not.
His son was still dead, but he had someone help him to get it
right in his mind. What do we do with these issues
of mental health? I I was actually go to one of
ASAP Psalms and we don't have time to do that tonight.
I'd encourage you. Psalm 73, Psalm 77, These would
be great psalms for you to read. Just read it.
Read the struggle of ASAP, but every time ASAP struggled.
Psalm 88 is another one where it talks about the great struggle
of man. Every time you see these psalms
where someone struggles, it always comes back to this.
They remembered and recognized that God was good.
They came back and they recognized.
In fact, ASAP says it's Psalm 73 and it's when I went back into
the House of the Lord. I went back into the sanctuary.
He got back with God's people. He got back in God's house and
things got into focus again. I'm not a medical professional
here tonight, nor do I pretend to be 1.
There are some very real medical issues, as I've mentioned
before, some short term, some long term, some acute, some
chronic, that you might need to talk to a medical professional
about because of very specific things.
But be careful when you run to everyone else for the answers
and you forget there's a Lord in heaven who created you and knows
every hair on your head and He knows you from the end to the
beginning. And maybe you want to seek Him
first out before anyone else when you're on the edge.
Don't trust your feelings, they are faulty.
Compare them to the Word of God. When you go through these
issues, check out what you desire.
What are your desires? Are you desiring to get closer
to the Lord or is your desire more?
Anything that gives you the latest dopamine hit of feeling
good you're charging. That credit card isn't going to
make you feel better. Going on another vacation is not
going to make you feel better. Eating more is not going to make
you feel better. None of those things are going
to make you feel better. They might in the short term,
but boy, it goes away and it pays with interest.
And then what do we see? Last and foremost, welcome
unwelcomed counsel. Whether it comes from a trusted
Christian friend, but it comes from your pastor.
If it's biblical counsel, take it.
Well, I don't. I don't take counsel for
everybody. Well, there's a word for you,
Proud. Proud.
We all need it. We.
No, I said we all need it. We need someone to shoot
straight with us and tell us from the word of God what we
need to do. Welcome it.
We've all been on the edge before.
It doesn't happen in a moment. Did it happen in a moment for
David? You say what happened in a
moment because Absalom died. Now this has been brewing for a
long time. It just came to a head when
Absalom died. Does it go away in a moment?
No, you keep thinking biblically.
You keep your desires right for the Lord.
You keep taking counsel, good counsel in your life, and God
can bring you healing in your mind, so you can let this mind
be in you, which also is in Christ Jesus.
Thank you for listening to the sermon from the pulpit of
Liberty Baptist Church. If this message was a blessing
to you, or if there's any way we can serve you, please let us
know by contacting us at info@mylibertybaptist.org.
Or you can visit us this Sunday at 800 Washington St. in Easton,
MA. May the Lord bless you as you
grow in His Word.