Purpose Driven Forgiveness
Tom Shrader walks through 2 Samuel 19–22, covering David's restoration to the throne after Absalom's rebellion, including his extension of mercy to Shimei, the betrayal surrounding Mephibosheth, Joab's killing of Amasa, and David's song of deliverance in chapter 22. Shrader draws practical lessons on forgiveness from David's gracious response to those who wronged him, noting that recalling one's own need for forgiveness is essential to extending it to others. The teaching concludes with a call drawn from 2 Timothy 3 for believers to live purposefully and prepared, understanding that God places ordinary yielded people in their vocations to glorify Him until Christ returns.
“God has saved us all for a reason or a purpose. He's sovereign. He's placed you where you are for a reason, for a purpose.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: So You Really Want a King?
Recorded: 2009 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 50 min
Themes: forgiveness, mercy, restoration, betrayal, grace, deliverance, purposeful living, reconciliation, struggling to forgive, navigating betrayal, feeling wronged, returning after failure, husband, parent, new believer, mid-life believer seeking purpose
Scripture: 2 Samuel 15, 2 Samuel 15:6, 2 Samuel 15:13, 2 Samuel 15:30, 2 Samuel 16, 2 Samuel 16:5, 2 Samuel 16:7, 2 Samuel 16:9, 2 Samuel 18:7, 2 Samuel 18:14, 2 Samuel 18:33, 2 Samuel 19, 2 Samuel 19:3, 2 Samuel 19:8, 2 Samuel 19:9, 2 Samuel 19:16, 2 Samuel 19:17, 2 Samuel 19:19, 2 Samuel 19:21, 2 Samuel 19:23, 2 Samuel 19:24, 2 Samuel 19:26, 2 Samuel 19:27, 2 Samuel 19:29, 2 Samuel 19:40, 2 Samuel 19:43, 2 Samuel 20:1, 2 Samuel 20:4, 2 Samuel 20:6, 2 Samuel 20:8, 2 Samuel 20:9, 2 Samuel 20:10, 2 Samuel 20:15, 2 Samuel 20:16, 2 Samuel 20:18, 2 Samuel 20:20, 2 Samuel 21, 2 Samuel 21:3, 2 Samuel 21:15, 2 Samuel 22, 2 Samuel 22:2, 2 Samuel 22:18, 2 Samuel 22:20, 2 Samuel 22:32, 2 Samuel 22:47, 2 Samuel 22:50, Psalm 18, Ephesians 4:32, 2 Timothy 3, 2 Timothy 3:1, 2 Timothy 3:4, 2 Timothy 3:5, 2 Timothy 3:10, 2 Timothy 3:16
Theological Themes: soteriology, divine mercy, sanctification, biblical narrative, eschatology, vocation, repentance, redemption
Full Transcript
Setting the Scene: Where We Are in David's Story
Open your Bibles to the book of 2 Samuel. If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand and somebody will bring you a copy.
Let me give you the teaching schedule. I've been gone the last two weeks — one was planned, one was not. A couple weeks ago I made my annual trip back to Iowa for a football game. While I was there I was spending time with my brother and my nephews. My nephews have their hair buzzed, and I especially love to hang with the older one, hold him, hug him, rub his head. He said he felt a little warm, and two days later they were both diagnosed with swine flu.
Coming back on the plane I started to feel sick myself, and Susan has no immune system left, so she moved out. I spent eight or nine days at home alone. There would be a little ring on the doorbell and I'd go to the door and nobody would be there, but there would be food, which was kind of nice. I've been far sicker than that before, but everybody is so conscious about how contagious these things are, and Susan and some of the key staff here said I just needed to stay home — so I did. I've still got a little bit of a cold, but the fever has been gone for quite a while and I don't think I'm contagious at all. I apologize for missing, because I hate to miss, especially having already missed the week before.
Let me give you the teaching schedule. We are in 2 Samuel, and someone who has been traveling asked me this morning if we were still in 2 Samuel — and I feel that way too, but the answer is yes. We will be in 2 Samuel for this week and two more after this. Then on anniversary Sunday we will do a special service. After that, for four weeks leading up to Christmas we will do something that builds around the Christmas theme, and over Christmas we do something a little different. I will do my annual year-end review and preview on January 3rd, and on January 10th we will start our next book study — we are moving back to the New Testament, to the book of Ephesians. That is going to be a really important study, and there are some strategic reasons we picked it that I will share as it gets closer.
The Main Characters in David's Story
We are in this story of David's life, which is a little more expanded than just David — we learn a lot about Saul as well, but we do that in the context of David. The main character, as always, is God Himself. I want to give you some context for where we are, knowing full well that unless you are deeply engaged in this story it can be hard to follow. There are a lot of names, and they are not like John and Bob and Betty and Mary — they are complicated names, sometimes sounding familiar and producing some level of confusion. We talked about that a couple of weeks ago: it can be hard to track who's who, what side they are on, whether someone is a good guy or a bad guy. So I want to make sure we get this, and then I want to look at it and pull out application that really works and applies to us here today.
Absalom's Rebellion: A Brief Recap
If you turn to chapter 15, I want to give you a little context. If you remember, Absalom — David's son — has decided he is going to overthrow his father the king and replace him. He did this by creating a sense of discontent within the people. We see in chapter 15 that people were coming to bring their cases to be heard by David, which was part of what he did as king. Absalom would intercept those parties as they came in and say, "Listen, you are not going to get a fair hearing there, but I am on your side and I will do everything I can to help you." So much so that by chapter 15, verse 6, the second part of it, we are told that Absalom had stolen away the hearts of the men of Israel.
In verse 13, word of this comes to David by a messenger, and the messenger's message is simple: the hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom, they are no longer with David. "Slays his ten thousands" is no longer their cry — now it is "Absalom, Absalom, he is our man." Rather than fight this, David decides he will simply move out of the city. He leaves a remnant behind, he leaves some concubines behind, and he gathers a group of people around him. We met some of them — Ittai the Gittite was one, a man who was following David. David said to him, "Why are you going with me? You have only been around a couple of days," and Ittai demonstrated this incredible loyalty to David.
Hushai, Ziba, and Mephibosheth
In the midst of this, we are introduced in verse 32 to a man named Hushai. Hushai says he wants to go with David, and David says, "No, you are not going to be able to come with me — you would be a burden. I am going to leave you behind, and I want you to get into Absalom's court. From there I want you to send me the information you discover."
When we get to chapter 16, we are going to meet three men, and the only reason I am going over this is because they re-enter our story today. The first is Ziba, who is the servant of Mephibosheth. Mephibosheth is Saul's son, and when David came to power the assumption was — because that is what a new king typically did —
David's Return to Jerusalem
As David makes his way back toward Jerusalem, we encounter several key figures. Ziba, Mephibosheth's servant, bows down to David and demonstrates loyalty to him, casting Mephibosheth in a negative light. Then there is Shimei, who appears in verse 5, picking up stones and throwing them at David. He cries out in verse 7, "Get out, get out. You're a man of bloodshed. You're a worthless fellow." And there is Abishai, who says to David, "Why should this dead dog curse the Lord's anointed King? Let me go over and kill him now." Remember those four figures — Ziba, Mephibosheth, Shimei, and Abishai — because they return throughout our study.
David moves toward reclaiming the throne, but war breaks out first. In chapter 18, verse 7, twenty thousand are killed or destroyed, with as many devoured by the terrain as by the armies themselves. Absalom is riding through the countryside on his mule when his thick hair becomes caught in a tree. David had left only one specific marching order with his people — do not hurt Absalom — and the text goes to great length to show that everyone knew and understood this instruction.
A man who finds Absalom hanging from the tree does him no harm and reports it to Joab. Joab asks why he did not kill Absalom, and the man answers that the king had commanded otherwise. Nevertheless, in verse 14 of chapter 18, Joab grabs three spears and drives them through Absalom's heart, and Absalom dies.
David's Grief and the Road Back
David's response is recorded in chapter 18, verse 33. The king is deeply moved. He goes up to his chamber over the gate and weeps, and his words reveal the full weight of his grief: "Oh my son Absalom, my son my son Absalom, would I had died instead of you. Oh Absalom my son my son." David is overwhelmed by these circumstances.
In the midst of this, Joab, his chief of staff, comes to him and tells him it is time to pull himself together. It should be a moment of celebration, at least for the army if not for David himself. In verse 3 of chapter 19, the men are sliding back into the city almost embarrassed, when it should be a time of triumph. David collects himself and agrees to move forward.
There is quarreling and bickering in the city, visible in verses 8 and 9. David decides not to return directly to Jerusalem but instead to go back to Judah, the land of his people, and begin the process of restoration from there. All of that is background for what happens in verse 16.
Shimei's Appeal and David's Mercy
As David approaches the Jordan, Shimei and Ziba come out to meet him again. Shimei — the man who had thrown stones and called David a worthless dog — comes hurrying down to David in verse 16. In verse 17, he brings a thousand men of Benjamin with him. Ziba is there as well, with his servants and his sons. And Shimei falls down before the king with an entirely different message.
His plea is found in verse 19: "Let not my Lord consider me guilty, nor remember what your servant did wrong on the day when my Lord came out of Jerusalem, so that the king would take it to heart. For your servant knows that I have sinned; therefore behold, I have come today, first of all the house of Joseph to come down." He presents his coming first as a sign of recognition and remorse.
Then Abishai re-enters the picture in verse 21. He asks whether Shimei should not be put to death for cursing the Lord's anointed. He had been ready to kill him before, and he is ready now. Yet David answers in verse 23, "You shall not die," and the king swore it to him.
The Principle of Mercy
This is the moment where we step back from the story and bring its principles into our own lives. Shimei is, by any fair assessment, a guilty man. Abishai says what many of us might say — let justice be done, let's deal with him. And David says no. On this occasion of celebration, he chooses to extend mercy and forgive.
This is something that comes up every time a long narrative like this is taught. You find yourself thinking, what is the point of this? Where does this apply to me? So here is an assumption worth making plainly: in your life, people have sinned against you. That is a given. And, it should be noted, you have sinned against them as well.
Cultivating Grace Toward Those Who Sin Against Us
When people have sinned against you, how do you go about demonstrating the kind of extraordinary grace, and even forgiveness, that David extends? In his biography on David, Chuck Swindoll offers four pieces of advice that are helpful in relationships. Let me share them with you.
The first is simply this: cultivate a thicker skin. Make sure you are not offended by everyone or everything. You do not need to take every statement to heart, calm your responses, and avoid being hypersensitive. People are going to sin against us, but we need to be careful.
The second piece of advice is to try to understand where the person who sinned against you is coming from. Look beyond the offense and try to understand what is really at play. What are their motives? Swindoll offers this simple observation: sometimes we make things more complicated than they really are. Maybe the one who sinned against you has been saving up their own offenses and has chosen this moment, and you just happen to be there as the punching bag — the piñata, so to speak. They wake up angry, and they swing at you.
The Jockey and the Race
I was home alone for eight days, and I could not really read — I would get through a paragraph and have no idea what I had read. So I had the television on, the radio on, and music on constantly, and I watched a great deal. One of the things I saw was the movie Seabiscuit, which I had seen before a couple of times.
There is a scene in that film where the story begins with the jockey as a young boy during the Depression. His parents could not provide for him, so they essentially sold him to a trainer who used him. Years later, he is riding in a race, and his instructions are clear: hold the horse back and wait until you see the other horse move — when that horse moves, you move.
During the race, the other jockey starts to go after him, and the jockey starts to fight back. The race gets away from him, and he ends up not winning. The trainer screams at him in the barn afterwards. Then the owner asks him a penetrating question: why are you so mad? He had the wisdom and insight to see that it was not simply about someone violating him in that moment. The real question was: what did that bring out in you?
I have learned a great deal from that. People will lash out, and they will want a reason to explain their behavior. They will fabricate something or seize on something, and you just happen to be the one who is there when they wake up. What Swindoll is saying, and it is genuinely helpful, is that things are not always as they appear to be.
Things Are Not Always as They Appear
I remember teaching a Priority Living study when a man in about the second row fell sound asleep. I can handle a lot of things — someone who is not interested and someone who is deeply pondering what you have said can look exactly the same when you are teaching. I have learned that when someone has a certain look, you simply do not know whether God is convicting them of something you said or whether they are just disinterested. But when someone is asleep, they are just flat asleep.
Since it was a flat-floor room and he was close, I could not leave it alone. I kept teaching, making my points, banging on the table, but this poor man was just battling to stay awake. Finally, I gave up and let him go.
After the session was over, he came up to me and said, "I don't know if you noticed, but I was asleep." I said something like, "Man, where were you sitting?" And then he explained. He said his neighbor had shown up the night before around bedtime and told him his wife was leaving him. He had sat up all night with that neighbor. And even though he was exhausted, he loved being in the Bible study so much that he came anyway and apologized for falling asleep.
That is the point. Not always, but oftentimes when you are dealing with people, there is much more beneath the surface than what appears. What reaches you is often the end of a long chain reaction that started somewhere else entirely.
Recalling Your Own Need for Forgiveness
The third piece of advice in this whole idea of forgiveness is to recall times when you yourself have needed forgiveness, and then apply that same sense of grace toward the other person. This is the heart of Ephesians 4:32: "Be kindhearted, tender toward one another, remembering how God in Christ has forgiven you." It is very hard to be harsh and difficult toward someone else when I truly understand what God has forgiven me.
That thought led me to a digression within the digression — if you were outlining this, we are now on about sub-point Q — and it has to do with memory. Every Iowa game, all the kids and grandkids get together in one place. The girls had started last March or April working on Susan's Christmas gift, and they gave it to her yesterday at halftime, partly because they were afraid they could not keep the secret any longer, and partly because they were simply so happy with what they had done.
They had spent months working on a memory quilt with twenty-five squares. I had stopped by Sarah's house a time or two and seen parts of it, but I did not fully understand what they had made until I saw the whole thing laid out. It is a beautiful quilt. When the second half kicked off, though — priorities are priorities — we watched the game, and then we went home last night.
A Quilt of Memories
Yesterday at Haley's, we went home last night and Susan had this quilt laid out. She was just studying it, and I was looking at it, and I was really struck by this — and this is now parental. The girls had 25 memories on it, and some are so predictable. There's one of Susan and me being married, one of each of the girls in the wedding, the kids being born, the fingerprints and hand prints — the ones you would kind of expect, the highlights.
But it really was this incredible picture. We lived for 22 years in the same house, really the only house the girls remember living in, and there was the house on the quilt. There was a cheerleading square you would expect. There were the girls in the pool, and when I looked closely at the suits, they had the little logo from the swim team they were on.
There was one of them in dresses and jellies, because that's all they would wear — they'd only wear jellies, and they always wore dresses. There's one of clearly Susan pushing a shopping cart, and the two of them walking in sequence behind her, Sarah and Haley, each with a book, working their way through the grocery store, because that's how they'd shop — they'd read as they followed her through. There was a square from East Valley Bible Church, one from Sea Ranch, an elaborate Christmas one with trees and a gingerbread house and the mangers they made.
There's one that you'd have no way of knowing, but when you see it, it's me standing there with two stools, Sarah on one and Haley on the other, and we're looking at babies. I used to take them about every other Saturday to the hospital to see the newborns, walk through the hospital, and eat there — I had some whole strategy behind that. There's a little square for each of the professions they had chosen. We've essentially vacationed at the same place for 18 years, so there's one from Sea Ranch.
There's one up in the corner that says Alaska on it, but when you look at it, what it is is the point of a ship. It was the last night on our last cruise with all of us together before there were any grandkids. We were out there on the deck at the end of the day, and we'd all seen whales except Haley. You never saw whales at the back of the ship — they were never following the ship, and you never saw them very close — and we're all in the back. They had on their long dresses after our formal dinner, and we were out there cold, the only ones outside.
Haley starts to pray and she said, "God, I'm the only one that hasn't seen a whale. I would love to see a whale, and I know You have bigger things to do, but I would love to see a whale. Amen." She said amen, and this whale came right off the back of the ship, as if to high-five her and say hi.
Memory Cuts Both Ways
I'm looking at this quilt and thinking, isn't it amazing? Susan and I were talking about some things this week, and she said there's a sense in some periods of our life where we're seeing events kind of close on that page, and there's a sadness to it. There's a beautiful memory, but there's also the harsh memory too. That memory cuts both ways, doesn't it?
One of the things I find extraordinarily helpful in my own life is to remember my own sin and my own unworthiness — not just to remember who I was, but who I am. Somebody this summer said, "You and Susan get to get away for a whole bunch of time. That's really good. You deserve it." That's not true. We don't deserve this. God has given us so much more than we deserve.
There used to be a little plaque in the back that said, "Considering we deserve hell, anything other than that is a pretty good day." But that's what I deserve. I know what I deserve. And all of a sudden, as you begin to deal with other people, you run into one of the fundamental principles of relationship: when I'm sinned against, I tend to respond sinfully.
There's a lady here at the church — she usually comes on Sunday night — and I was talking about being a servant. She's in the service business, and she said, "It's so easy to be a good server until you're treated like one." It's easy to serve people until they treat you that way, and once they respond, you respond. Isn't that how it goes in relationships? We just escalate it.
David's Graciousness and the Importance of Spoken Forgiveness
What this is saying is that it's really important, as you're dealing in these situations — and I'm sure Abishai went to his men and said, "I don't get this David at all. How can we do this? How do you forgive like that?" — it's really important to verbalize that forgiveness. It's not enough to just think it. I need to say it. I need to speak it.
David does that. He demonstrates incredible graciousness, and I'm sure Abishai doesn't get it. And then David has a kind of a flip — David is an interesting character to me.
Mephibosheth and Ziba
Now Mephibosheth comes back into the scene in chapter 19, verse 24. He hadn't cared for himself — he hadn't trimmed his mustache, hadn't washed his clothes, hadn't done his nails, hadn't done anything. He's a mess. David said, "Why didn't you come with me?"
Mephibosheth says to him in verse 26, "Oh my lord, the king, my servant deceived me." His servant was Ziba. Ziba had absolutely done him dirty — thrown him under the bus. Mephibosheth says, "Here's what he did: he slandered you to me, and he lied to you about me. I was on my way to come" — that's what he says in verse 26 — "I had my donkey saddled, I was ready to go. But at that moment, Ziba said, 'Listen, you're infirm, you're lame, let me go, I'll—'"
Mephibosheth, Ziba, and David's Judgment
"He slandered your servant to my Lord, the king, but my Lord is like an angel, therefore do what's right. For all my father's household was nothing but dead before my Lord, the king." Mephibosheth acknowledges that by the custom of the day, his entire household should have been killed, yet David had spared them. Because of that, he is willing to trust whatever David decides. Whatever the king chooses is fine enough with him.
David then makes an odd and frankly inexplicable decision. In verse 29, he simply declares that Mephibosheth and Ziba are to split the land. There is no clear explanation for it, and then the story moves on.
Crossing the Jordan: Tribal Rivalry and a Power Vacuum
David continues moving toward Jerusalem. By chapter 19, verse 40, he is crossing over the Jordan. As he does, two factions emerge: the men of Judah, David's own kin and family, and the men of Israel, representing the other ten tribes.
The men of Israel say to the men of Judah, "Why is the king with you?" The men of Judah respond that David is simply their man. The men of Israel push back in verse 43, pointing out that there are ten times more of them. What follows is bickering, fighting, quarreling, and arguing.
Here is a great life lesson embedded in that moment: when there is a vacuum of leadership, somebody will fill it. In verse 1 of chapter 20, a worthless fellow named Sheba happens to be there. He tells the men of Israel they will get nothing from following David, and urges them to follow him instead, with an ultimate plan to come back, attack, and defeat David's forces.
Amasa's Delay and Joab's Treachery
David responds to the threat by making a change. In verse 4, he calls on Amasa, ordering him to gather the men of Judah within three days and bring them back. Amasa goes to carry out the order, but he delays. For anyone who is a Civil War buff, he is something like the George McClellan of his day — given the power, but unwilling to use it. The story goes that Lincoln, at one point, said to McClellan: if you are not going to use that army, why don't I borrow it for a season?
So in verse 6, David turns to Abishai. Abishai is the man who had been ready to deal swiftly with Shimei and others, so he has a certain disposition in him. He is also Joab's brother, which means David is effectively replacing Joab with his own brother. David makes the stakes clear: Sheba is more dangerous to them than all the other threats they have faced. Abishai gathers his forces and moves out.
In the midst of all this, Joab joins the march. Then comes verse 8. Joab is dressed in full military attire, with a belt and a sword in a sheath fastened at his waist. As he moves forward, the sword falls out. Most people who know anything about warriors noted immediately that this would never happen by accident to a man like Joab. The sword was hanging loosely. It was calculated.
Joab approaches Amasa in verse 9 and says, "Is it well with you, my brother?" He reaches out, grabs him by the beard, and kisses him — the custom of the day. Amasa is completely off guard. The sword has been picked back up, but because it had appeared to fall by accident, there is no suspicion. Then in verse 10, Joab strikes him in the belly with it and Amasa's guts spill out all over the ground. And Amasa dies. Joab has now effectively reclaimed command of the army.
The Wise Woman of Abel
In verse 15, Joab leads the army to besiege a city called Abel Beth Maacah. Rather than kicking in the gates, they do what armies of that day would do: they begin building a siege ramp to overwhelm the city walls while fighting off resistance.
As they build, a wise woman appears in verse 16. She may have been a city official, perhaps even the mayor. She calls out to Joab and asks whether he is really Joab. He confirms it. She asks him to speak with her.
In verse 18, she challenges him: Why are you trying to destroy this city? This city has been a stronghold of the nation of Israel. Why are you trying to devour it, to swallow it up? In verse 20, Joab responds that he has no desire to destroy the city. All he wants is Sheba. Hand that one man over and he will leave.
The woman's reply is matter-of-fact: "Behold, his head will be thrown over the wall to you." She goes back in, gathers the right people, and explains the situation — all he wants is this one man, and the whole siege can be called off immediately. They cut off Sheba's head and throw it over the wall. Joab gets what he came for, and it is finished.
A Flashback: David and the Gibeonites
When we reach chapter 21, the narrative shifts into something of a flashback. David has a moment where the situation with the Gibeonites comes to the forefront. Saul had destroyed them, and David wants to make amends. In verse 3, David asks what can be done.
The King Who Delivers
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I'll take refuge, my shield, the horn of my salvation, my stronghold, my refuge, my savior. You saved me from violence." When we reach chapter 22, we find a song nearly identical to Psalm 18. David is reflecting back over his life, and we see provision after provision of how God has delivered him. "He delivered me from my strong enemies, from those who hated me, and those that were too strong for me." In essence, David is saying what Paul says: when I was really weak, You were really strong.
The second part of verse 20 reads, "You rescued me because you delighted in me." Verse 32 asks, "For who is the Lord besides the Lord? Who is God? Nobody's God but You. Who is the rock beside my God?" — You are my fortress, You are my strength. Nobody can possibly replace You. Verse 47 declares, "The Lord delivers me and blessed be my rock. Exalted be the God, the rock of my salvation."
This reflection drives David to a conclusion. In verse 50 he writes, "Therefore I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among all the nations. I will sing praises to Your name." He is the tower of deliverance to his king. He shows loving kindness to His anointed. God is the one who delivers. God is the one who shows loving kindness. And just as He did to David, He will do to you and me.
What Does Any of This Have to Do with Us?
So what is the point of all of this? Heads are flying over walls, men's guts are falling out — what difference does any of that possibly make to us sitting here in Gilbert in 2009? I want to go back and pull together things we've talked about over the last two or three weeks, with the overarching point that many commentators suggest this Old Testament picture of the king who was here and left and now is returning is a picture of Jesus — who was here, who died, who left, and who will come again.
I'll be honest: I've never been particularly intrigued with the when and the how — the horns and the four-headed goats and all of that. It's not to diminish it; it's simply to say it doesn't have to be everybody's focus. But I know this: He is coming again. He said He is. And whether I'm alive when He comes or not alive when He comes is, in this sense, somewhat irrelevant. Either way, I am going to stand before the King again. All of us are going to face that, one way or the other.
Be Prepared
So here is the takeaway. Number one: the King is coming again, one way or the other. Number two: be prepared. We saw a T-shirt on vacation that read, "Jesus is coming again — look busy." Be ready. Ask yourself: what does He have me doing? Why did He leave me here?
He left you here for a reason. I have become somewhat obsessed with the idea that you need to understand that what you do is as sacred and as important as what I do. I honestly believe that people who teach and stand in pulpits sometimes try to build a gap between themselves and the congregation — between laity and clergy. That is simply not true. If a very successful businessperson decides to go to work for a church or a non-profit organization, we tend to assume that job change makes what they do more important. That is not true.
God has saved us all for a reason and a purpose. He is sovereign. He has placed you where you are for a reason. He has given you the family you have, the neighborhood you have, the church you are in, the city you are in — all for a reason. Be prepared. Be busy about this. Let your actions reflect that truth.
Introduction: Living Like It's Your Last
A week ago, after a University of Connecticut game, one of their defensive backs was at a school-sponsored function — not off at some bar somewhere, but a school-sponsored function. A fight broke out and he was stabbed to death. He died in the arms of two of his teammates. Imagine being the coach of that team, getting them prepared to play West Virginia, and then after the game, heading down to Florida for the funeral before preparing for another game. The reporters asked the coach: what did you say to them? How do you get a team ready for that? He said, "Here's what I told them: I want you to coach every play today like it's your last, and play every play today like it's your last."
Now, that sounds cheesy and trite, and it's impossible to do. But the thought process is right. You don't have the promise of tomorrow, and that's what life is all about.
I love college football. We were watching last night, down with 15 seconds left, first and goal at the seven. Incomplete, incomplete, incomplete. Two seconds left. The quilt's in one room, Susan's over there, grandkids are all around. They come out, and whoever the Michigan State defensive coordinator is, we owe him great gratitude — he decides to blitz. I'm watching the TV going, oh my gosh, they've got man coverage on the corner. All they have to do is slam him in. This is a touchdown. And he steps back, makes one move, he's all alone — bam, touchdown. We scream. The grandkids don't know what happened. They're crying. We're screaming. It's absolute chaos. I love college football so much.
And then I have to go in and say — and I mean this, not to try to minimize anything — I wonder if I love Jesus as much as I love that play I watched yesterday. I really do. It's been a long time since I've been that far down, going, if you just move him over here, I can get his heart there. But to live with that reality — not to minimize college football, not to minimize what you do or what I do — why do we do what we do? We do it for the honor and glory of God. God has you in the business you're in for His honor and glory.
Why Your Business Exists
Not to make money — though I am pro-making money. I am pro-free market, pro-capital — you've got it. But that's not why business exists. I started meeting with a group of business CEOs and executives a couple of weeks ago, and the fundamental question we're starting with is: why does your business exist? Your business exists for this reason: to glorify God. Profit is good — not neutral, but good. Competition is good. All of those things are good because in all of them, we glorify God in what we do and how we do it.
That principle — that Jesus is coming again — is what jumps off the page at me. And if we were to flip to the New Testament, to the book of 2 Timothy, I want to show you why that matters.
2 Timothy: Living in Difficult Times
Paul is writing to a man he loves dearly. He writes it against the backdrop of knowing he is dying, and that gives it a seriousness. I've always said 2 Timothy is my favorite book. Part of it is because it's driven so much by the fact that Paul knows the end is near.
He writes to Timothy and says this in chapter 3: "Realize this, that in the last days, difficult times will come." Let me paint the picture again. You and I are left here for a reason: to glorify God. We are swimming upstream. It is counterculture. If you are a follower of Christ, you are contrary to the culture. There will be times when you run well together with the culture, but overall your basic fundamental philosophies are different. If you talk about God, everybody's fine. If you talk about Jesus, now you have the dividing issue.
I recently did something through Priority Living on this very issue — when my convictions are challenged, do I have an alternative besides caving in or endlessly fighting? If you go to prioritylivingaz.org, you can find that message. But against this backdrop, I want you to understand what your best asset is.
The Character of Difficult Times
Here is the backdrop Paul describes. Difficult times will come, "for men will be lovers of self and lovers of money. They will be boastful" — that is, they will brag — "and arrogant," which is more internal. Some of these people come off as humble but inside they are filled with pride and ego. They are revilers, disobedient to parents, and because they are lovers of self and lovers of money, they are ungrateful. They are unholy. They are unloving.
That word — unloving — means they don't have natural affections. The most natural affection I can think of is a mother for a child. Yet to this day, we have a million and a half mothers who don't just abuse but kill their babies every year. "Irreconcilable" — doesn't that feel like where we are? Nobody can get along. We speak to each other through our lawyers. "Malicious gossips" — and it's not just gossip. Sometimes we think gossip is acceptable.
God Uses Ordinary People
They are malicious gossips, gossiping in a way that is hateful and hurtful. They are without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, and conceited. Then comes a key line in verse 4: they are lovers of pleasure. Notice the next word — "rather." It is not that they love pleasure more than God. They love pleasure instead of God. Pleasure is their God.
This is a very significant distinction. There is no competition going on between pleasure and God. Their God and their pleasure are the same thing. Yet as verse 5 tells us, they still hold to a form of godliness — they are still religious. Walk into any secular bookstore, a Barnes & Noble, and you will find a large religious section. People are very spiritual, but they deny the power of that godliness. And what is that power? It is the power of the cross. Paul's instruction is plain: avoid men such as these. Walk away from people like that.
Where to Find Direction
So where do we find direction in the midst of all this? Verse 10 says to follow sound teaching, and verse 16 tells us that all Scripture is inspired by God, profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, and training in righteousness. The purpose is so that the man or woman of God — those of us remaining in these last days — will be fully equipped for every good work.
Just as David declares that God is his rock, his shelter, the One who directs him, spares him, and makes him strong when he is weak, that same God is there for us. This is really important: it is the same God. He does not exclusively use extraordinary superstars, because there are not that many of them around. He uses ordinary people, yielded to Him, and He works through them in extraordinary ways.
Some of the most concrete examples of that are David's mighty men, and we will pick up with them next week and follow that up the week after. Let's pray together.
Father, thank you for this amazing truth. Take it and knit it into our hearts as we walk out of this place. Remind us that Your Son Jesus is coming again, and if not, we will go and meet Him. Prepare us for that. Let our actions reflect this truth and invest our lives in things that really matter. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.