03 When Your Failure Is Public, Painful and Hurts Others (2 Samuel 15)

Krisan Marotta: Thank you for downloading the wind in the word of Krisan Marotta. This is the third talk in our series on the rebellion of Absalom from the book of 2 Samuel. Today we'll be covering 2nd Samuel chapter 15. You can follow along with the lecture notes at wednesdayintheword.com slash Absalom3. So glad you joined us. I thought I'd begin today by telling you the story of two soccer referees. I see Sasha smiling. Yeah, I'm a big soccer fan. You'll probably be uh aware of these incidents. Both referees made big mistakes and they had consequences and they were very public. So the first incident was in the France versus Ireland game, which was in the buildup to last year's World Cup. And this was a two-game series in which the winner, the aggregate winner, would qualify for the World Cup in South Africa. The game finished in a draw, but since France had won the first game, they went on to play in the World Cup. The controversy was with 17 minutes remaining and extra time, the French captain, I can't pronounce the name of Thierry Henri Thierry Henri illegally handled the ball. And that was part of the buildup to the goal that tied the match. And the Swedish referee Martin Hansen missed it. And both of them later admitted they made the mistakes and that they were wrong. Well, the incident sparked this international outrage, especially in Ireland. The feedback and the controversy was so great, both uh Henri and Hansen considered retiring from the game. However, after all the investigations were done, they both publicly admitted that they their errors, they apologized and they expressed regret. And at the end of the investigation, when he was allowed to speak publicly, Hansen, the referee, said, after the game, we were sitting in the dressing room and I cried. I realized what a mistake it was. So here you have there was a mistake made, they publicly acknowledged it, they apologized, they expressed regret. The second incident came during the World Cup itself when the USA was playing Slovenia, and Team USA played an awful first half. They were down 2-0 at the end of the first half. However, in the second half, they came back with a vengeance, they scored two goals, so with four minutes left in the game, they were tied. And at that point, uh Maurice Adu scored the apparent game-winning goal off a free kick by Landon Donovan, only it wasn't. The goal went in, and the referee, and I love saying his name, Koman Kulibaly of Mali. Koman Kuliballi of Mali. Just I love saying that. He was refereeing his very first World Cup match ever, and for some reason he blew his whistle and disallowed the goal. Of course, U.S. players swarmed him, begging for an explanation, but he would not, he kept his mouth shut. He did not say anything. And after the final whistle, he still did not explain. And that is his right. He is not required to speak. And in fact, to this day, he still hasn't spoken or explained his call, even though thousands, and I literally mean thousands of soccer experts, coaches from all over the world, all different countries, have watched the video. And of course, they have, you know, 18 cameras or something. So they can see it from every angle, every player in slow motion. And all these people have watched, and no one has seen a foul or any reason to disallow the goal. So it was an apparent mistake, but he has not ever admitted it or explained what it was he saw, and that kept the USA from winning the game. So in some small consolation, he has been removed and he is no longer allowed to referee World Cup matches. Now, so you have two high-profile referees in two high-profile games, and they make two big errors, and their errors matter, they affect what happens next. So one referee comes clean, apologizes, expresses regret, the other referee stays silent. So the question we're going to ask is which response is best? Because that's the question I think that's asked by our text today. What do you do when you fail in a big way? And your failure matters. And it has consequences, not only for you, but for other people. How should you respond? Because that's the situation David's in today. He has failed in a big way. It is very public, and the consequences for him and the nation of Israel are a lot bigger than a soccer match. So that's the lesson we're going to try to learn today is how do we handle failure, especially when it's big public failure. So we're in 2 Samuel chapter 15. And let me just uh recap the story so far. And if you didn't get a handout on the way in that looks like this, it's like a map, uh, you might want to pick one up. They're outside the door. So let me just explain where we are in the story. Absalom was the third son of David by his third wife, and she was the daughter of the king of Gesher. Absalom and his sister Tamar were beautiful. 2 Samuel 14, 25 through 27 says, All Israel praised Absalom's beauty, and there was no blemish on him from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. His sister Tamar's beauty was equally stunning, and she attracted the attention of David's firstborn Amnon, who ended up raping her and then hating her afterwards. So Absalom, as Tamar's brother, waited for their father David to punish Amnon for dishonoring his sister, but David fails to act. He gets angry but he takes no action. So after two years of waiting, Absalom decides to take matters into his own hands, and he kills Amnon in full view of all of other of David's other sons, and then he flees to Gesher to his grandfather, and he lives in exile there for three years. And then last week, as we saw through the political scheming of Joab, Absalom is allowed to return to Jerusalem, but he's not allowed to see the king for an additional two years, and even that takes some more scheming by Joab to intervene to get him back into David's presence. And that's where we're going to pick up the story today. So Absalom's been restored to David's presence. They have been publicly reconciled, the father and son, but as we talked about last week, there was probably neither true repentance nor true reconciliation. So now that Absalom's back in his father's good graces, what does he do but plot to gain the throne? Great son, right? So with innuendo and insinuation, he seals the hearts of the people and he begins telling tales of how life would be, how great it would be if he, the young, gorgeous, charismatic son, was king rather than the old, decrepit, aging father. Now, I suspect as we go through this, this was probably one of the lowest point of David's life, if not one of them, but maybe the lowest, because it's very likely he recognized this is his own sin come back to haunt him. Amnon has repeated his sin against with Bathsheba by sleeping with his half-sister. Absalom repeats David's sin of killing Uriah by killing Amnon, and then both these princes were the results of foreign wives, which David was counseled not to do. So now here he is, one of his sons has killed another, and now, as we see today, is plotting to kill him, and there's no way this situation can end well. When all this is over, one of them is going to be dead. Either David will be dead or Absalom is going to be dead, and there's really no other solution. So he can look at this and say, this is not going to end well, and he knows his own sinfulness brought him to that place. So it's hard to imagine life getting any lower than that. It's likely that he also wrote Psalm 143 at this point. So if you haven't read that one, I'd encourage you to read it. We're not sure exactly, but a lot of the details seem to fit, and a lot of scholars think that Psalm 143 was written during this period. So we're not going to cover that today, but if you have a chance, you might want to look at it. Alright, so turn to 2 Samuel 15 or look in your in your handouts. There are two major divisions in this chapter. The first is verses 1 through 12, which is the rebellion of Absalom, and then 13 to the end of the chapter, which is the exile of David. So let me just get us into the text. So 15 1 starts like this. After this, Absalom got himself a chariot and horses and fifty men to run before him. And Absalom used to rise early and stand beside the way of the gate. And when any man had a dispute to come before the king for judgment judgment, Absalom would call him and say, From what city are you? And when he said, Your servant is of such and such tribe in Israel, Absalom would say to him, See, your claims are good and right, but there is no man designated by the king to hear you. Then Absalom would say, Oh, if I were judge in the land, then every man with a dispute or cause might come to me, and I would give him justice. And whenever a man came near to pay homage to him, he would put out his hand and take hold of him and kiss him. Thus Absalom did to all of Israel who came to the king for judgment. So Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel. And at the end of the four years, Absalom said to the king, Please let me go and pay my vow, which I have vowed to the Lord in Hebron. Okay, so we last week we ended the chapter with Absalom face down before the king, and now we see him acting as if he is king. So in verse 1, when it says he got himself a chariot and horses and 50 men to run before him, what it's telling you is he's acting like a king, because these were the trappings of king ships. This is like saying he got himself a secret service detail, a black limousine, and a plane called Air Force One. So he's saying, Look, I'm gonna act like a king, I'm gonna show you I can be a king. That's what's going on here. And then he places himself upright at the entrance to the city gate, and this position allows him to intercept all the people that are on their way to the king for a legal ruling. Now, David functioned as kind of the Supreme Court of the land. So whenever there was a legal case that was particularly thorny or tangled and was beyond kind of the confidence of the local elders, or if it was a complaint against the state, like a federal complaint, those cases would go to David. So they would be the most difficult cases and the least obvious to render a verdict. So Absalom would intercept these cases and offer himself as an alternative, and he would sympathize with the plaintiff and say, Oh, if only I could decide your case, I would give you justice. Now notice he didn't actually have to decide anything. All he had to imply was, unlike his father David, who of course neglected justice for his own daughter, Absalom's justice would be perfect, fair, and complete, and most likely whatever the plaintiff wanted to hear. So, and then 15.5 it says whenever a man came near to pay homage to him, he would put out his hand and take hold of him and kiss him. These are gestures of equals. So he's putting himself and the whoever's coming before him on the same social status. So here you have the gorgeous young crown prince treating every kind of lowly farmer and merchant as an equal, which would of course endear him to them, and then telling them exactly what they want to hear. So in 15.6, when it says Absalom stole the hearts of the men of Israel, that's the result. But that phrase has the idea that he tricked them. It's not, it doesn't carry the idea that now they were emotionally attached to him, it's that he tricked them or deceived them. It's the same phrase that's used in Genesis 31, verse 20 and 26, and there it is actually translated tricked. And it's that's when Jacob tricks Laban so that he can flee and get away. So that that's the idea, is that he deceived them or he tricked them. So we've seen that Absalom is a very patient man. After four years of waiting, he and flattering the men of Israel and undermining his father's in authority. He sets his plan in motion and he asks David if he can go to Hebron to keep a four-year-old vow. Now, that should have raised a red flag for David. He should have thought, four years you've been waiting to keep this vow? Why four years and why Hebron? And Hebron, you'll recall, is a very significant place. Genesis 13 tells us it's where Abraham settled after separating from Lot. Genesis 23 says it's the only piece of land Abraham owned at his death, and he bought it to bury Sarah. Genesis 35 says it's the place where Jacob buried his father Isaac, who was, of course, the son of promise who would produce the line of God's people. And Joshua 14, we learn Hebron is given to Caleb because he wholly followed God. And in Joshua 21, it's given to the Levites to become the priestly city for them, where, and of course the Levites were the people who were responsible for teaching the rest of the nation the law. And then you'll recall from 2 Samuel 2, this is the place where David is first anointed king over Judah. So now Absalom wants to go to this very significant place to keep a four-year-old vow, and David lets him go. But you would think that this would have raised a red flag, but if it does, we're not told. So in 9 through 12, the king said to him, Go in peace. So he arose and went to Hebron. But Absalom sent secret messengers throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, As soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then say Absalom is king of Hebron. And with Absalom went two hundred men from Jerusalem who were invited guests, and they went in innocence and knew nothing. And while Absalom was offering the sacrifices, he sent for Ahithop the Gilanite, David's counselor from his city, Gilo. And the conspiracy grew strong, and the people with Absalom kept increasing. Now, heaping further injury on David, one of his wisest advisors goes with Absalom. We're told in 2 Samuel 23, 31, and in 11.3 that Ahithophale is the father of Elion, who is the father of Bathsheba. So assuming that all these names are the same people, that would make him Bathsheba's grandfather. And he is probably ticked off at David for what happened to her. So he switches, it could explain why he switched sides. But this is a great blow. This is like General MacArthur defecting to the Nazis during World War II. So this is a huge thing for David. Then a messenger comes to David and says, The hearts of the men of Israel have gone after Absalom, and so David decides to flee Jerusalem. So when he learns that Absalom has declared himself king and that the men of Israel are following him, David flees, and that's a kindness on his part because he's sparing the city the ravages of war. He can bet that Absalom is going to pursue him, and if he remains in the city, Absalom will come and level it, and all the inhabitants will either have to flee or be killed. So by David fleeing, he's sparing the city. But more importantly, and we're going to talk a lot about this in a minute, David never reached for the crown in all his life, and he does not start now. So rather than cling to the throne and remain in Jerusalem, he flees, trusting that if he's going to remain king, God is going to be the one who's going to keep him there. And that's going to be made more clear when we get to 25 and 26. But before we talk about that, let me just point out a couple more details. Absalom has the support of the men of Israel, as we learned from 1513, but look at David's support. He has servants and foreigners. Look at 17 and 18. And the king went out and all the people after him, and they halted at the last house. And all his servants, so he's got servants passing by him, and all the cherithites and all the Pelophites, and then the six hundred Gittites who had followed him from Gath passed before the king. So Absalom's got the men of Israel, David's got servants and foreigners. And he leaves the palace, which is the highest point of the city, and descends into the Kidron Valley, where the Garden of Gethsemane is located. And at this point, he's encouraged by Ittai, who's also a foreigner, a Philistine, but he remains faithful to him, unlike Ahithophel, who's an Israelite, and his own traitor son. Now apparently Ittai had pledged his loyal recently to David, and David cannot bear the thought now of taking him back into exile. So that the situation is that Ittai was a foreigner wandering in exile, and he recently found sanctuary in David's court. And David looks at him and says, I can't drag you back into the wilderness. So he says, Go back into Jerusalem, throw your lot in with the new king, which probably looks like the more promising, the winning side at this point. And when he tells Ittai, Mercy and truth be with you, he's releasing him from his vows. But Ittai strongly rejects David's author at 1521. He says, As the Lord lives and my and as my lord the king lives, wherever my lord the king shall be, whether it be for death or for life, there also will your servant be. So Ittai invokes an oath to say, No, I'm standing by the king, whether in life or death. So you have this irony of here is a foreigner who only recently came to know David, who's promising to stay with him forever, while his own flesh and blood is seeking to kill him. And this is where you might want to look at your map. From there, David climbs the Mount of Olives weeping. And what I want you to notice about this journey is I didn't make this. I got this from Brian Morgan, who's a pastor in California, and I actually think one of his students made it. But he chronicles how the geography of David's journey follows his emotional highs and lows. So he hits a low point, then he begins climbing, then he hits an even lower point. And this journey is the same journey that Jesus will take when he makes his triumphal entry in Jerusalem, only in reverse. Jesus makes the reverse journey. So you that's in Luke 19. So there's an interesting parallel there. David's leaving, going up the Mount of Olives weeping. We see Jesus coming back, weeping in the Garden of Gethsemane and following back into Jerusalem. So okay, so the turning point of the scene, or the climax, I think, is in verses 23 through 29. And this is the point I want to I want to dwell on. Let me read that to you. And all the land wept aloud as the people passed by, and the king crossed the brook Kidron, and all the people passed on toward the wilderness. And Abiathar came up, and behold, Zadok came also with the Levites, bearing the Ark of the Covenant of God. And they set down the Ark of God until all the till the people had all passed out of the city. Then the king said to Zadok, Carry the Ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back, and let me see both it and his dwelling place. But if he says, I have no pleasure in you, behold, here I am, let him do to me what seems good to him. So the Levitical priests bring the ark to David, and he's faced with a choice. Do I take the ark with me or do I send it back to the city? And what I want you to remember is way back when we talked about 1 Samuel 4, remember the Israelites, his ancestors, faced this choice before him. So let me just remind you what happened in that story because we're going to contrast it with what David does now. So in 1 Samuel 4, this is before the rise of Saul. The Israelites are about to face, or they've just faced the Philistines in battle and they were soundly defeated. So they have a prophet in the land, Samuel, but they don't consult him. The elders come together and they ask the right question. They say, Why has the Lord defeated us? But they don't wait for an answer. They don't seek out Samuel. Instead, we're told they say, I know, he wasn't with us, let's go get the ark. So without reflection, without confession, without prayer, they propose a solution that profoundly involves God without seeking his opinion, and they decide to go get the ark and bring that into battle with him. So they don't deal with their sin, which is of course the root of the problem. We're told that they have been mixing other other religions into the religion of Israel. So they don't deal with their sin, they don't confess, they just decide to take the ark. Now you'll remember that the ark was the symbol of God's rule on earth. It was a symbol of his speaking to his people, his forgiving his people. It was a gold box that contained the Ten Commandments, among other things. And so they say, look, if we bring the ark into the battle, then God will be forced to deliver us because he would never let something bad happen to the ark. If he did, his reputation would be trashed. So naturally he won't do that. So we'll take the ark with us and then we'll win. And that began the taking versus waiting theme that we've been developing over the whole both books of 1 Samuel of do we take matters into our own hands or do we stop and wait and trust God to deal rightly by us? So in 1 Samuel 4, their concern is not to seek God but to control Him. They don't want to submit to God, they just want to use Him and they are not interested in repentance, they're only interested in success. And of course, the battle resumes and the unthinkable happens. The Philistines annihilate the Israelites. The human loss is more than seven times the previous battle, and the ark is taken into pagan custody. And Eli's two sons are killed. Now we're back in 2 Samuel 15, and David has essentially the same choice. He's about to go into battle too. Only this battle is with his rebellious son and against his fellows. Israelites and he knows that victory will be given by God. He understands the importance of the ark as a symbol of God's presence. But listen to what else he knows. He knows he's been promised the throne. He's been anointed king three times. I mean, if anyone has the right to claim the ark and all that it represents, it is David. He's been reigning for many years. He's been anointed three times. He's heard the fabulous promises of the Davidic covenant, which we looked at in 2 Samuel 7, which of course climaxed, this is 7.16, and your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. So doesn't that justify taking the ark? I mean, after all, it's been promised to him. God owes it to him because he's promised him this. And wouldn't it make God look bad if the Divinic Covenant was threatened? If God has promised that his throne will be established forever, and now there's a traitor and an upstart trying to kill him, and it looks like the throne is in jeopardy, wouldn't that make God look bad? So why doesn't he take it with him? I think that must have been incredibly tempting for him to cling to the security of the ark. But what listen to what he says. He says, Carry the ark of God back into the city. If I find favor in the eyes of the Lord, he will bring me back and let me see both it and his dwelling place. But if he says, I have no pleasure in you, behold, here I am, let him do to me what seems good to him. So he waits. He says, It's not up to me to keep the throne, it's up to God to keep it for me. And that restoration to the throne depends on God's grace, not on God's furniture. So if he finds favor in God's eyes, then God will bring him back. So unlike the Israelites, his ancestors in 1 Samuel 4, he realizes having the ark doesn't guarantee anything. What counts is having the grace of God. And how do you get the grace of God? You humbly confess and fall before him with a broken heart. And that's what David has done. He has never seized the kingship for himself, and he doesn't start now. And I think that's to his credit. Remember, he had two chances in 1 Samuel to kill Saul and claim the throne, and he refuses both times. And now, probably in the climax of that, he has another chance to claim the kingship for himself at probably the darkest point of his life, and he says, No, if God wants me to have it, it's up to him. And with that, the scene begins to shift, but he doesn't know it. You can see from your map, at that point he stops physically descending and he will begin ascending the Mount of Olives. And he sends the ark back to Jerusalem along with the two priests and their sons. And those, and we'll see in the next chapter, the priests will become spies for David, and their sons will be instrumental in bringing about Absalom's downfall. At this point, he hears of Ahithophel's treachery, and it prompts this one-line prayer or plea in the text, but it also prompts Psalm 3 that Libby read earlier. And then in the next verse, he meets Hushai, another foreigner who, unbeknownst to David, will be the instrument God uses to answer that prayer. So he sends Hushai back to Jerusalem, and Hushai becomes a spy in Absalom's household, who God will use to defeat the rebellion. So what I want you to see is the tide has already turned in David's favor. He expresses these words of faith, he sends the ark back, and he doesn't know it, but life has changed. All the networks that are going to bring him back are starting to fall into place. All the instruments that God is going to use to get him back to the throne, we see happening, but David has doesn't have a clue. Now, I think that's instructive because a lot of times we pray that God will uh help us or release us from some temptation or struggle, and we think he's not answering. And we think, oh, nothing's happened. But unbeknownst to us, all the wheels could be already be in motion. Because that's what we see with David. And we don't know the timeline. We don't know if it was weeks or months before he was brought back, or maybe years. I don't think it was years, but at least he doesn't see it yet. And I think sometimes that's that's the tool God uses. He may already be answering the prayer, but we don't see it yet, and our job is to learn to trust him. At this point, all he can see is his own failure and its consequences. So that brings us back to the question we started with. What do you do when you fail publicly and miserably? And what can we learn from David about how to respond in that situation? Hopefully, none of us will have to face that in the near future. But what do you do? And I think one thing we can learn from him is take responsibility. So admit it. And David has admitted it. Our first reaction is to deny it, to say, no, no, you know, we have all the excuses. It wasn't my fault. You know, I was tired, or um, you know, we look for someone else to blame. It was just bad luck, or it was the wrong place at the wrong time, or maybe it was a faulty education, or you know, maybe it wasn't my parents' fault, you know, they didn't bring me upright, or you know, we always have someone to blame to shift responsibility, and sometimes we blame God Himself. And we can see this going all the way back to uh Adam and Eve when they fell. I think it when God comes to them in the garden and says, What happened? You notice how they blame everyone else. Eve says, It was the serpent, you know, he deceived me, it wasn't my fault, it was him. And Adam says, No, no, it was the woman, it wasn't my fault, it was the woman, and the woman you gave me, by the way, God, you know, kind of casting the blame on God that it wasn't my fault, you gave her to me, and I sinned. So that's the mistake. If you're continually looking for someone else to blame, you can't ask the Lord for help or forgiveness. You've got to get over that, take responsibility before you can ask for help. And so, as long as we're trying to play the blame game, we will not stop and ask God for help. And I think that's the thing to learn. Fess up. Just it's uh especially if it's a big public sin, you might as well take responsibility. James makes the same point in James 1.13. He says, Let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil. He himself tempts no one. The idea being that moral failure is our own fault. We've we sin because we are sinful people. And it is not that God has tried to ensnare it, it's that we are sinful people and we will fail. It's the same lesson Paul talks about in Romans 7, where he says, Who will save me from myself? I do the thing I don't want to do and I don't do the thing I want to do. So the first step is humbly and honestly admit your sin. The second step, I think, is to recognize that we can't manage this problem on our own. So notice that David accepts the loyalty that is offered to him wherever it comes. He accepts Ittai's support and encouragement. He counts on the loyalty of the or the Tirahites, the Pelophites, and the Gittites. He sends the priests and their sons back to the city, and he cannot know it yet, but those are the instruments God will use to restore him to the throne. So he recognizes he made a mistake, he publicly admits it, and then he accepts the help and encouragement that is offered to him. And I think that's valuable because sometimes we we want to try to muscle it out on our own, you know, to prove that we can overcome this stiff upper lip and all, um, we can handle it, we don't need anyone's help, we're just fine. And I think that's what we've got to say. No, actually, we need help. We need each other, we need the encouragement of our brothers and sisters in Christ. And sometimes we need someone to come along and to say, I understand, you will get through this. So, how are we doing on time? Okay, so when you find yourself facing public humiliation, don't blame others, especially God, and don't be deceived into thinking you can face the situation on your own. Instead, like David, humbly and publicly, if necessary, admit your mistake. So, David, um, deal with your sin, which is of course the mistake that the Israelites did not, they made in chapter four, they didn't deal with their sin. So, first we have to admit it. How do you deal with sin? You admit it, you confess it to your heavenly father who un who can forgive you and is the only one who can bring light out of darkness, and you throw yourself on his mercy, saying, I don't deserve your grace, I'm the only way I'm gonna get out of this is if God you forgive me and change me. And you may need to publicly confess your sin. And then hopefully in his grace, God will comfort you with an itai, someone who will come along and say, I understand, I forgive, I'm still loyal to you, I'm still your friend. And I think the temptation is to think that if I confess, I will be isolated. You know, that everyone will shun me, everyone will, you know, say, Oh, we can't deal with persona anymore, look how badly she fell. But it's it's the holding the sin in that isolates you. It's the you know, trying to solve it all on your own that is isolating. When you confess, then you give someone else the chance to say, I see your sins, I love you anyway, I trust you, let me help you get through this. There is forgiveness. And we won't ever know that kind of love until we are broken and vulnerable. If you fight it, you don't find it. There was uh I I we were, I was had occasion to remember this as weekend. This actually was a turning point for me in my relationship with my husband. As we were in that getting to know you stage, there came a time when I I can't even remember now what it was, and I really don't want to. But I did something completely, totally selfish, selfish and thoughtless and just humiliating. And my husband, who was not my husband, we weren't even dating at that point, he pointed it out to me, and he was right, and it was like, oh, you know, here's this guy that I liked, and he sees me at my worst. How could that possibly happen? But he risked our friendship to point it out to me because of course he had no idea that I wouldn't just fly into rage and refuse to ever speak to him again. He pointed it out to me and then he said, But I like you anyway. And he stood by me. And at that point I thought, I'm gonna marry him. So I thought if he can see me at my worst and love me anyway, this guy is worth keeping. So it took him another year to get to that point. But but I knew then, I thought, okay, this is the one. So that I think when we when we admit our sin, then we have the chance to accept that love and grace from someone else. And it gives, now, hopefully, none of us will be in the position to be the David where you have to publicly confess our sins, but you may be in the position to be an Ittai for someone else, who when they sin or when they fail in a big way, you come along beside them and you say, you know what, the blood of Jesus covers this too. There is no exception or fine print that says this sin isn't covered, we've all fallen short of the glory of God. Um, and we should be quick to run and embrace a prodigal who is coming back with a broken and humble heart. So maybe you'll have a chance to be that kind of encouragement in someone else's life or to accept that kind of grace in your own. Now, before you say, Oh, I could never do that, I could never publicly confess to a grievous sin. Think about what Jesus did for us, because he took that kind of humiliation on himself through no fault of his own. And it I wondered, what did he think when he saw David's route as he went through the Old Testament and saw it foreshadowing his own route to the cross? So the triumphal entry, as I mentioned, this is Jesus takes the reverse journey when he comes in on the back of a donkey and went um making his triumphal entrust entry into Jerusalem. It's reverse. So the spiritual spiritual journey is the same though. Jesus exits the upper room, he ends his journey in the Garden of Gethsemane weeping as David was weeping. He's at the foot of the Kidron Valley, he uh sweats great drops of blood as he begs for some other way other than the humiliation of the cross. But of course, there is no other way. And of course, for Jesus, there was no Ittai. There was no one there to comfort him or pledge loyalty or encourage him. No disciple stood by him at that moment. And so he faced humiliation for sins he did not commit, and there was no one next to him to encourage him, unlike David. So, what kept him going? The writer of Hebrews says, for the joy set before him, he endured the cross, despising the shame. That's Hebrews 12, 2. He said, It's worth it because of the joy of the kingdom, and the joy of the kingdom is set before us as well. That's the promise of faith in the gospel, that thanks to the cross and the blood of Jesus Christ, our sins have been forgiven, and we too will be made perfect and complete and whole, and all that is broken will one day be set right, and all the darkness will be banished by the light, and that's the joy set before us. So that's what you have to keep in mind when you face this situation that thanks to the cross and the blood of Jesus, nothing can separate us from that joy. All right, let me pray for us and I'll give you a chance to ask some questions. Father, thank you that you loved us enough to die for us. And that we know that we are sinful people and that left to ourselves. Without your grace, we will continue to pursue that sin and to fall into error. We just pray that when we do, that you would give us the humility and the faith to own up to our sins and to confess, maybe to a sister or someone who knows us well, to seek that encouragement, to seek that help, to seek from you and uh your grace, knowing that we cannot get over this on our own.