Dealing With Betrayal
This week, Pastor Gene brought us through the account of David and his son Absalom as we looked at dealing with betrayal.
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good morning welcome if you're new here among us my name is gene i serve here at c3 church as your lead pastor and i've got a question for you have you ever been betrayed have you ever experienced betrayal and if so the big question is what did you do about it we're going to look at that a little bit today we find ourselves in the rest of the story the series that we're doing where we're looking at the entire bible not just the parts we like or the verse of the day we're going a little bit just a little bit beyond that we find ourselves in a place where second samuel and first chronicles are kind of ish running in parallel the bible does that sometimes repeat stories with different perspectives not contradictions but just different angles on the story and it gives us a fuller picture i've told you in the past that sometimes there are large chunks of text that are not in others and that's kind of where we are today it can be a little bit confusing last week for example we saw that in first chronicles 20 the whole story of david and bathsheba fit right into two verses between two verses today ten chapters are going to fit in between two stories the thing about the philistine giants and david's defeat of rabbah and i know this can be confusing so i made you guys a chart i did not draw that and you can tell you can tell that i didn't draw that because cartoon gene would look a little younger if i drew it and you'd have bigger biceps so anyway i did make the chart part and if you're having a hard time seeing it like i am you can download the app and it's right there in the app so you can look at it and maybe it'll unconfuse things but if you see the red that's first chronicles 20 in first chronicles 20. all the stuff that we're going to do today is in between those two things and then i'm projecting out to next week a little bit so i hope this is helpful and doesn't make it more confusing than it already is defeating the whole purpose of making the chart anyway say bye to cartoon jean so i mentioned the app download it a c3 in your pocket there's a lot of really useful material in there we spend a lot of time working on it to help you guys get educated about the word of god so today we're going to see that things will get very very personal today we're gonna concentrate on second samuel all this stuff that's not in first chronicles we're looking at larger portions of text now in the past we've done certain series where we'll do it a chapter at a time that's okay and some people do like a verse at a time and that's not as good you can do that like the verse by verse teaching once you understand the whole story and most christians don't get that they'll do the verse of the day and i like the verse of the day it's helpful i'm glad that people are reading god's word at all but it's the best way to get things out of context it really is and so i'll give you kind of a picture of what that would look like in modern day it would look like if we watched merely 10 seconds of a movie at a time it's about how long it takes to maybe read a verse of the day right 10 seconds or so it's a long time 10 seconds at a time of a movie imagine doing that how long would it take you to get through the movie like two years something like that and if we're being honest most christians don't even read the bible in two years right so 10 seconds of a movie at a time and you're quoting the movie lines to people who've seen the whole movie they're like what are you talking about and this is what it's like to be a pastor they do the verses and stuff and i'm like doesn't mean that at all you know it's usually the opposite which is really the funny part 10 seconds of a movie at a time i'll make it worse it would be like watching 10 seconds of a movie at a time all over the place like fast forwarding to one hour and 15 minutes going back to the half hour apart jumping all over right isn't that what most christians do they jump all over the bible so what we're doing here is we're looking at larger portions of text i like to give you the whole story first so you understand it and then we kind of dial it in at bible study a little bit and go over some of the finer points we did first peter a couple of weeks ago i think i mentioned this last week read all the way through it and there were so many people even long time christians going oh like i get it now because we read the whole thing it takes a little time and it can be convicting for a lot of christians because we don't have any problems sitting down and watching a movie for two hours right so we need to start thinking about that so we're challenging you that's what we do here at c3 church some people don't like it but too bad anyway what i'm going to do is summarize this for you because this is 10 chapters it's a lot of information but here's the thing there are some finer points in here that need to be attached with the story what happens a lot of times is people just tell like the story here but something happened here that caused that story to happen and it gets totally left out and it's like i get it but when we do the whole thing in these big chunks you go oh that's who that person is and that's why they did this it's kind of like watching one of these netflix series with my wife you know i just hop in you know in the middle of it and she's like i'm like well why did they do it just shut up you know what i mean like i'm trying to so that's what's happening here with the bible you really have no idea the significance of the people the dynamics and so that's what i want to help you with this morning and i want to encourage you come to bible study if you're free we stream it online too a lot of people watch it online watch it dig in a little bit grab a bible whether it's on your phone wherever it is i'll take it read it check my work yes but you know read it go through it get some of these details and just dig in a little bit as much as you would one of these netflix series right god's word people so today we're going to be in 2nd samuel 13 through 23. i'm going to summarize the last three chapters very quickly for you and encourage you to dig in on your own but we're going to look at the rest of the story here so again last week david and bathsheba it's a very popular account so we're following that now today we're going to see a fulfillment of nathan's prophecy what he told david he got one of the punishments almost immediately now there's going to be two other punishments for this affair and they're all in this story right out the gate we get one of them here so we're in chapter 13 now and we're looking at three of david's children and they're not all fully related so you're dealing with a half brother and two full brother and sister amnon this is david's oldest son i'm gonna try to make this kind of very easy to understand and get really complicated amnon is his oldest son then you have his third oldest absalom they're from different moms absalom's sister is tamar you may be going hey mar i think i've heard that name before you have it happened in genesis there was another woman named tamar it's not the same one also though equally messed up story it means palm tree just as a side note you needed to know that so here's what happens amnon is really depressed he's going around looking dejected and he has a cousin john a dad and john adab comes up with a good idea after knowing what's going on here why do you look so dejected why should the son of a king be moping around like this well i'm in love with my sister kind of weird half sister but still weird so john adab gives him an idea you ever get a cousin give you like a good idea and then you do it and it's not a good idea i see a lot of people nodding anyway he's that cousin he's that guy right so gives an idea he says well you know what pretend like you're sick and then ask your dad to let tamar serve you some food why well we'll find out so he does it he plays sick tamar comes to serve him he sends the servants out he's in bed now she's going to serve him in bed and he propositions her and she resists she says no that's stupid so he has his way with her he forces himself on her and immediately after that love turns love turns to hate he hates her and he sends her away she protests that too it's like oh what are you doing to me now she's in mourning and she goes to her full brother right so the half brother full brother absalom's house tells him about it everybody's kind of upset but what's really strange is that nobody does anything nothing happens this is a real crime here nothing weird so some time goes by two years goes by and absalom is celebrating it says that it's the sheep cheering time so in these agrarian cultures you'd celebrate like a harvest or something like that you had a successful harvest lots of sheep to shear and they have a feast and so absalom asks his dad king david he says let all my brothers come and feast with me king's like ugh that's going to be too much for your household or whatever like no but he keeps pushing him and he says what about just amnon then david says well i am none it's like did he forget he says okay we'll let all the brothers go so they have this feast all the brothers go absalom gets amnon drunk and tells his servants to kill him in revenge this happens all the brothers flee but messengers get to david first and they tell him all absalom's killed all your sons david goes in the morning this is crazy but then john adab the guy whose idea this was in the first place lets him know kind of funny twist in the story no no it's just amnon he did this absalom did this in revenge for what he did to his sister tamar so what happens is absalom takes off he escapes and he stays with his grandfather talmai for three years in gesher if we turn the page we see that joab he knows that david's upset some time goes by these three years and he's upset he wants to be reconciled with his son but of course he's convicted a little bit right killed his other son this is crazy david's in a really rough spot but joab remember he's the general who's always not so great all the time not a nice guy well he comes up with a plan to get absalom back so he's like oh we should get absalom back and he goes a really long way around to make this happen he gets a wise woman from toccoa it says and tells her to tell a story so what she does is she makes up this story she gets in morning clothes so she's pretending she's mourning and she approaches david now it's important to remember that oftentimes elders and kings they'd meet at like the town gate it's a central place and they judge cases all the time and so this is what david's doing he's judging cases he's at the town gate probably judging this case but she comes up to him like a widow in morning clothes all upset and says king i've lost one of my sons you see they had a fight in a field and one of them killed the other one and now my family wants to execute my only remaining son i don't have any other heirs my husband's dead don't let this happen she's pleading for mercy so he says okay you know i'll take care of it for you it's all good fast forward a little bit and she says you know by making this judgment you've condemned yourself because you've deprived israel of one of your sons remember absalom's in line here to be king kind of funny because he goes did joab put you up to this he kind of knows interesting right so she's in a tough spot where she thinks she is anyway so she says you're as wise as an angel of the lord compliments him you get killed he's just criticized she's just criticized the king so he says now okay fine sends for joab joab's like oh i finally found favor with you he says yeah go get absalom that's fine but here's the thing he is not to be in the palace around me so he's still an acting judgment on him still punishing him you go to his house he's not in exile but not fully restored yet interesting so what happens here and you got to remember this this is a part of looking at the larger portion of text what happens here is it gives this kind of like sidebar description of absalom and it's funny he has some unique traits says he's really handsome very very handsome guy and he only cuts his hair once a year and that's because it weighs five pounds it's a little heavy on him so he cuts his hair once a year remember that so this is a guy who's he's like basically like bon jovi so there you go i'm old anyway it says he has a daughter named tamar interesting well yeah bon jovi cut his hair i forgot about that anyway i'm old anyway he has a door named tamar not the same tamar named after this sister who was violated there and it says he has three sons he's not allowed to see david and what he starts doing he starts trying to pester joab this general he's pestering him pestering and job's not paying attention so what does he do he lights his barley field on fire what else that gets his attention so job comes to him and he's like look this is the same thing as being in exile i want to be reconciled to my dad job speaks up for him to david and now david lets him into his palace and so just kind of that chapter ends that way if we turn the page chapter 15. absalom very handsome guy he's reconciled to his dad he's now led into the palace and all that all right but he's killed the heir to the throne david's oldest son now absalom decides to start playing the judge he gets up early and goes to the town gate every day and he starts judging these cases oh sounds like you have a really good case here too bad i'm not the king or i'm not the judge i basically is schmoozing i'd judge in your favor and when they bow to him he's royalty he's a prince no no no no he picks them up and he kisses them so he's really working it he's doing this for a long time it's kind of interesting it's easy to just glance over this since he's doing this for about four years a really long time some older versions say 40 years but math doesn't really add up four years this is going on he's constantly schmoozing the people finally he asked his dad he says you know what i made a vow when i before i came back here and was reconciled that if i got reconciled and could come back into jerusalem i'd make a vow at hebron paying attention hebron was the original capital city for david before he took over j boos and it becomes jerusalem later so he's going to go there but while he's there absalom that is david lets him go while he's there he starts sending out messengers and starting a rebellion it's not good he calls for one of david's advisors a hitherfell is his name fun to pronounce so he's getting some of david's people to side with him he's going to start this incite this rebellion now it's interesting david hears about it and he flees jerusalem why the stated reason is that well for our safety and the safety of the city he wants to protect the city it goes under a seed you could get all wrecked and so he leaves but remember this he leaves his ten concubines those are like secondary wives behind to take care of the palace remember that as well so now you get this procession all these people mourning as they're leaving jerusalem they're weeping and mourning it's a it's a bad deal you know and there's all these people that are loyal to him interesting sidebar 600 men from gath you remember king akish when david was hiding with the philistines from saul same number of people they're loyal to him he says ah you're foreigners go back you're fine no they still stay loyal to himself all these people are loyal to david they're marching out of the city they're weeping it's this bad scene zadok and abiathar the priests they're carrying the ark appropriately giving sacrifices and things like that as they leave town but david says you know what they get a certain distance across the kidron valley and he says go back into town go back into jerusalem because he's got a plan he's like you're going to be spies for me we're going to find out what's going on there so david's thinking he's got his resources he's gonna use them he sends the ark back and the priests back he runs into this guy and this will be important later push i the archive at the mount of olives remember that place if you can it's going to be interesting some foreshadowing here he runs into him and he lets him know the plan zaylak and the bayathar there you're not going to come with me you'd only be a burden you're going to go back because he's an advisor and you're going to counter a hitherfell's advice and then we're going to spy we're going to find out what's going on so david's got people in absalom's inner circle and what's going to happen is the priest's son jonathan and jaimez they're going to go back and forth as like little messengers so that's going to go on if we turn the page we see that as david continues he experienced blessings and curses zeba if you remember him from last week mephibosheth's servant he blesses him with some food where's mephibosheth this is saul's grandson he's like oh he stayed behind i remember that shimya there's this guy who curses david it's a crazy scene he's throwing rocks at the king and his soldiers and cursing him as he leaves and david has a very interesting response they want to kill him no don't kill him the lord told him to do it maybe the lord will bless me for receiving these curses david has an interesting attitude so now a hitherfell back in jerusalem advises absalom david's son did the rebellion first piece of advice get your father's concubines those 10 concubines and sleep with them out in public put a tent on the palace roof and sleep with your dad's secondary wives yeah bad yes nuts the fulfillment of the prophecy so what did what did he say to david nathan the prophet so the sword is always going to be through your household well we see that happening clearly and someone else will sleep with your wives but not in private like you did with bathsheba in public and so this you just let it wow yes let it sink in this is massive betrayal upon betrayal on top of betray think about it his son rapes one of his daughters then another son kills the son who did it then that son stages a rebellion chasing you out of the city then sleeps well i hope none of you here have more than one wife sleeps with your wife nuts totally crazy when you think about it so if we turn the page then hit the fell gives more advice it's really the better advice he says look let's get 12 000 men we'll go get david we'll try to take him out sniper type of attack and then we'll bring back all the troops everyone will be reconciled to you absalom is not going to go in hithaphel's plan if you're paying close attention well what does hushai the architect say remember he's that spy counselor he said i don't think so hit the fell is wrong this time not a good idea you see david's angry he's like a mother bear robbed of her cubs he's going to get you and then your men are going to be afraid of him so i think we need to muster the whole army of israel now this at first would sound bad for david but it's not take some time to do that and that gives enough time for the spies to get the messages to david so he can make his moves appropriately interesting sidebar we can talk about a bible study there's the sons of the priests they have to hide in a well and a couple hides them it's a quick sidebar story so david flees even further to this town mayonnaise where eventually he goes to kind of hide out and it's interesting because ahithafel the advisor had the good advice hangs himself another quick sidebar story why well he knows if he's a really smart guy that absalom followed the bad advice so their side's going to lose he might die anyway or get blamed for it interesting name mesa he's appointed general of absalom's army it's going to be important names are important here he's appointed general it's interesting because he's david's nephew and joab the other general david's general his cousin so a lot of people are related here we'll see what goes on so remember a mesa too so now we have this big battle in the forest of ephraim it's all going down they say david you stay behind we don't want you out in this mess and getting killed so you can see he's getting the good advice absalom goes out mistake bad bad error on absalom's part david orders them deal kindly with my son absalom that is the officers or the generals deal kindly with him so now we have this battle that ensues and 20 000 people lose their lives it says more lose their lives to the forest than to the sword that's interesting so it's this really dangerous place i guess it's almost alive and indeed what happens is some of david's troops see absalom and absalom tries to bolt tries to get out of there he's on like a mule or a donkey but it says his hair gets caught in a tree and the donkey keeps going man i wanted to cut his hair once a month it was really interesting as a sidebar here is that i told you guys in the series and if you you weren't here for it you can go back and watch like the intro to the series and you'll see i explain it to you a lot of people think that the bible of the early church was in hebrew it's actually in greek the old testament of the early church is all greek it's all continuous flow makes sense logic right the new testaments in greek they're quoting the greek old testament why would they do two different languages it's all in greek and it really reveals some interesting stuff if you can read the greek it actually says not head or hair it says head his head got caught on a tree so he was stuck on a tree between the heavens and the earth think about it he's the son of david what is jesus called a lot son of david hanging on a tree between the heavens and the earth not that jesus is anything like absalom but there are a lot of pre-figures of christ especially in the greek version just want to point that out kind of nerd out there for a minute anyway the messengers see it they go back to joab like we see we saw absolutely because they remember they heard what was said by david jill jally so they don't kill him he's like why didn't you kill him i would have given you ten pieces of silver or hero's belt they're like if you give us a thousand pieces of silver we're not touching absalom david it'll kill us so job says enough of this he grabs three daggers in this really super overkill move while he's hanging absoluments hanging there stabs him in the heart and it says 10 of his young armor bearers finish him off kind of overkill isn't it interesting so then some messengers go back you can read that part of the story there's an interesting thing there i don't have time for it this morning they tell david david goes into deep mourning deep morning absalom my son o absalom my son on and on yeah the second one of his sons who's dead now but joab finds out about it and he says cut it out the people they just want a victory for you yeah he's your son but he's the enemy no get back at the gate stop this so david agrees there's a dispute between israel and judah about welcoming him back but they do they welcome david back he's on his return from jerusalem and all of a sudden all the people that were mean to him are approaching him chimiere the guy with the rocks he's like oh i'm the first to welcome you back king david's kind to him interesting his response in betrayal mephibosheth shows up and he's like where were you this whole time well zebel deceived me his servant i didn't just stay behind he left me there he's crippled so he just left me there i'm loyal to you and david doesn't know who to believe so he splits it 50 50 with him saul's inheritance he's not sure who's telling the truth but mephibosheth says give it all to zeba so maybe he's telling the truth but david's kind to all these people he could have stayed behind and betrayed him there's an argument over the king between judah and israel it's going back and forth and it sets the stage for this guy if we turn the page named sheba or shiva if we're reading a jewish version here he starts a rebellion so think about it if you're david you're like really again yup down with the dynasty of david so he blows a ram's horn he gets all of israel against him now he appoints david a mesa absalom's old general the enemy general as a general why diplomacy remember abner david's really good at it and so he appoints him generally he also wants to distance himself with what joab did again right joab killed his son so he's like he makes job like a secondary general a mace of the top general round up the troops you have three days but mesa doesn't do it so now david has to default to joab who killed his son okay go out so they all go out but there's a point at which at gibeon they meet and again remember abner joab doesn't like a mesa they're cousins but he's a rival general same type of thing he pretends to drop his sword or drops his sword and as he goes to pick it up a mace is near him hey cousin he goes to grab him by the beard actually this way he goes grab him by the beard he stabs him in the stomach just like he did the abner but this time it's really gross it says his guts all spill out so the soldiers are like passing by looking at him so they ditch the body and they go after shiva they arrive at a town named abel and there's a wise woman there says whoa don't destroy the town they're ready they got the siege towers out they're going to go for it why destroy it it says ah talk to the elders about this they said we'll give you his head we'll throw the head over the wall and so they throw shiva's head over the wall joab secures the victory now i'm going to summarize quickly for you because i want to get to our application 21 we see an account of avenging the gibeonites we can save that for bible study there's a backstory there remember the giants now here we are and first here we are in 1st chronicles 20 towards the end 22 there's a song of praise david is a psalmist and so that's in here and i show you where it lines up i believe psalm 18 chapter 23 we're going to save that for a couple weeks so here's a good example of like the bible jumping around a little bit it gives us david's last words but david's not dead yet we're going to see more accounts about him his mighty warriors and now if we get to next week we're in alignment first chronicles 21 and chapter 24 of second samuel some details when david leaves jerusalem upon hearing of absalom's betrayal this rebellion as he ascended ascended the mount of olives he's weeping he's weeping i told you there morning in this procession second samuel 15 30. david walked up the road to the mount of olives weeping as he went his head was covered and his feet were bare as a sign of mourning and the people who were with him covered their heads and wept as they climbed the hill on the night jesus was betrayed he too went to the mount of olives and wept jesus is anointed at bethany and then before the last supper it says this mark 14 10 then judas iscariot one of the twelve disciples went to the leading priests who arranged to betray jesus to them they were delighted when they heard why he had come and they promised to give him money so he began looking for an opportunity to betray jesus if we keep reading mark 14 32 they went to the olive grove called gethsemane on the mount of olives my insertion there that's where it is and jesus said sit here while i go and pray he took peter james and john with him and he became deeply troubled and distressed he told them my soul is crushed with grief to the point of death stay here and keep watch with me he went on a little farther and fell to the ground he prayed that if it were possible the awful hour awaiting him might pass him by abba father he cried out everything is possible for you please take this cup of suffering away from me yet i want your will to be done not mine like david or jesus we too often experience betrayal from within our inner circle our family there's nothing that we can do to reverse it once it's done but the question is how should we respond what do we do you see like absalom or a hitherfell judas died by hanging and like a mesa judas's guts spilled out you see our betrayers will cause their own demise their pride will catch up with them they'll end up hanging by their own accomplishments like absalom by the hair for our part we must trust the lord will deal with it for us let them be undone by their own doing and know in the end it is jesus who will deliver the justice it's not our job if you're in the book of romans you may know this good example of why you really need to sit down and just read the whole book 16 chapters it's not too bad you can read it in a pretty short period of time maybe in two hours like a movie in those 16 chapters if you read it in full you get the point paul has a reason for writing there's a point paul doesn't sit down and say oh i think i'm going to write the greatest theological work ever written not even close hebrews is probably closer it's not the point the point is like pastors today paul has churches that are bickering they're fighting with one another so in this case it's the gentile christians versus the jewish christians it's not the republicans or the democrats but it could be i'm better i have the more righteous position than you do no i'm better i have the more righteous position than you that's basically what's going on and so he spends the first three chapters saying you've all sinned all y'all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of god there's not one of you who has a religious or political affiliation that makes you better than the person sitting next to you you're wrong they're wrong it's all wrong the world's messed up it's always been that way read romans chapter one sounds like he's talking about today exactly the same stuff he says i don't care you're all wrong that's not a popular thing to hear in church but it's the thing that all the writers of the new testament are constantly saying to the church over and over and over and you're wrong you're wrong we serve the kingdom of heaven not the kingdom here all this is garbage it's all going to be wiped away if we're believing what it says in the word of god it's not permanent our permanent home is there so paul spends 11 chapters doing this he gets to 12 and it turns therefore everything i just said therefore therefore we are to be a living sacrifice that's how we worship did you know that a lot of people don't know that a lot of christians think worship is like singing a bunch of lies in church on a sunday it's not it's loving people implicitly dying for them that's worship it says that in the old testament too isaiah 1 amos 5 take away from me the noise of your songs if you're in sin i want people to know that romans 12 read it yourself that's worship being a sacrifice holy and pleasing and acceptable to god and you know what else do not be conformed to this world yet be transformed by the renewal of your mind that's important that's for all of us do not be conformed to this world stop fighting with everybody but be transformed as a living sacrifice by the power of the holy spirit that's how we and i'll continue that is how we love our enemies that's how we love our enemies by being a sacrifice for them our enemies chapter 13 authorities pay your taxes says that what did jesus say he's just repeating stuff jesus said that's it why is that important to you why are you greedy i don't get it 14 love and honor those you disagree with doesn't matter even if it seems like it's important let it go and just love people that's it so romans 12 14 going back says bless those who persecute you sounds like jesus right it's a little redundant actually in the new testament bless those who persecute you persecute what that means what they're going through who persecute you don't curse them pray that god will bless them be happy with those who are happy and weep with those who weep live in harmony with each other don't be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people and don't think that you know it all i think a lot of people need to hear that don't think that you know it all never never pay back evil with more evil never do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable do things in such way that everybody can see your honorable do all that you can do everything you can to live in peace with just the people that agree with your political affiliations it does not say that everyone everyone do all that everything possible to live in what peace peace with everyone dear friends never take revenge leave that to the righteous anger of god for the scriptures say i will take revenge i will pay them back says the lord quoting deuteronomy 32 35. i hear this a lot what are we gonna do nothing no love people i don't know which is love you know what i mean it drives me nuts if you really know this i don't try to be at peace with everyone everything i say everything i do that's what god told me to do what do you mean what are we going to do read your bible that's the first step because it says this like over and over and over and over again hyper redundant what are we going to do here's what we're going to do keep reading romans 12 20 if your enemies are hungry instead by the way if your enemies are hungry feed them if they're thirsty give them something to drink in doing this you will keep burning coals of shame on their heads want to get revenge love them like crazy don't let evil conquer you but conquer evil by doing good remember david shimier the guy throwing rocks he's cursing david david amazingly says that's from the lord do we ever consider our part in this where we might be wrong where we might be getting a i punishment know no everybody else is wrong this is nuts he's the king this guy's throwing rocks at him maybe it's from the lord you know what else he says is amazing second samuel 16 12 and perhaps the lord will see that i'm being wronged and will bless me because of these curses today wow first peter we're wrapping up first peter we went through first peter two weeks ago at bible study and i read the whole thing i think i said this already got the point of it you cannot read first peter and get the takeaway all the way through that we should be enacting revenge on people or talking back or being rude you can't do it there's just no way to read through it's so and everybody at bible study if you were there it was like i heard a lot of like oh you know yeah yeah so background context fiery trials the early church it's getting worse gold nero's burning christians alive i've told you this in the past probably last week but it's worth hearing right we've got to hear things a few times to get it they're burning christians alive what do we do so peter tells them listen this is all people your kids are being taken from you and birth what do we do well here's what you're going to do suffering means you're being molded into the image of christ remember he died on a cross and suffered so he's your example that's just the first thing so what have you got to complain about now sets the tone and then he says some things we hate he says honor all authorities honor the emperor who's that the guy burning you alive honor him honor all authorities that's not an excuse in other words below their minds and there were so many early church fathers that gladly went to their deaths and won people over to christ like roman soldiers philippians right paul's in prison the whole roman guard's hearing about the gospel this is a good thing it's awesome that i'm in prison here because i'm just going to keep preaching the gospel and all these roman soldiers are turning into christians yeah it worked not that the holy roman empire was a great thing but it worked they eventually converted it took a few hundred years that's jesus strategy he keeps going like slaves that's crazy says this first peter 2 18 you who are slaves must submit to your masters with all respect do what they tell you to do not only if they are kind and reasonable but even if they are cruel for god is pleased when conscious of his will you patiently endure unjust treatment you patiently endure unjust treatment then god's pleased with you of course not ever going to be the verse of the day of course you get no credit for being patient if you're beating for doing wrong but if you suffer for doing good and endure it patiently god is pleased with you doubling down on the point just in case you might have missed it for god called you to do good even if it means suffering just as christ suffered you he is your example and you must follow in his steps you do not get off the hook he never sinned nor ever deceived anyone he did not retaliate when he was insulted he did not retaliate when he was insulted nor threatened revenge when he suffered he left his case in the hands of god who always judges fairly do we get the point i hope so because i'm running out of time and my throat is a little sore but he continues same thing with wives same thing with husbands on and on all christians first peter 3 9 don't repay evil for evil don't retaliate with insults when people insult you have we heard that don't retaliate with insults when people insult you this is the word of god don't instead pay them back with a blessing sound familiar we're getting redundant here that is what god has called you to do and he will grant you his blessing we must love like jesus we must trust that he will bring justice david writes a lot of the psalms and so sometimes these intersect and overlap like first chronicles ii samuel and so here we have a place where david is writing about his betrayal we get a window into his heart how he's processing this what is he going to do so he writes these songs these poems about it they're beautiful they become worship songs in the early church so this morning again i would like to end by praising god with a psalm this morning psalm 3 oh lord i have so many enemies so many are against me so many are saying god will never rescue him but you o lord are a shield around me you are my glory the one who holds my head high i cried out to the lord and he answered me from his holy mountain i laid down and slept yet i woke up in safety for the lord was watching over me i'm not afraid of ten thousand enemies who surround me on every side arise o lord rescue me my god slap all my enemies in the face shatter the teeth of the wicked victory comes from you oh lord may you bless your people and all god's people said amen