We continue on with David's struggles with his family. David was told by Nathan the prophet upon his adultery with Bashiba that trouble and the sword would be in his family from then on. And we see that that is in fact the case, and we see absolute behavior here, and it teaches us through very hard things that we see in Scripture. Things not to follow, things that communicate to us, where God communicates to us, you're going to be disappointed in this life. You're going to be disappointed in the church among the people of God. You're going to be disappointed even among the best, having the best of leaders. That's to be our expectation because we're not in the new heavens and new earth yet. But we're going to look forward to that time when Jesus comes. So this passage teaches us about this, and as David deals or doesn't really deal with Absalom as he should. We begin this morning with, if you like to fill up blanks and an outline, you're welcome to do that. And if you want to just listen, that's fine too. We got to teach us in this passage, your number one, here, that leaders in the church, and you are to run, are to run from sin, and to provide justice in the church into those around you. Now we've talked about this a little bit in the last couple of weeks, but we see it here again, the trouble it causes when we go into sin. Sin is not disconnected from life, and sin that we commit has consequences, and sin that our leaders commit have consequences upon us. And when there's not justice, a chaos happens as well. And so we see this in chapters 11 through 15 of 2 Samuel here. David's sin, and his lack of providing justice in Israel, which was his job to do as King, and he was the equivalent of the Supreme Court, as most kings were in those days. He doesn't provide justice for his people, and so people start taking justice in their own hands, and one thing leads to another, which leads to another, and there's lots of chaos there. David's not so great here in this part of his life. He's not so great in regard to his personal sinfulness. He's not so great in his providing justice in the nation. So we read this morning from Numbers 35, and Deuteronomy 19, how David should have handled these matters, how both his first son, Amnon, deserved death for his rape of Tamar, Absalom sister, and his half sister. But then we see how Absalom also then commits murder, and it's in the funny phrase that we see throughout Numbers 35 and Deuteronomy 19, with malice, a forethought. In other words, it's premeditated murder. That's what we call premeditated murder in the United States, where you don't like someone and you plan to kill them, and that is murder one, premeditated murder. And so you see God making this distinction in Numbers 35 and Deuteronomy 19 between murder, which is killing someone that you don't like, and you're planning to do it. And that's a capital offense. And that on the one hand, and manslaughter, what we call manslaughter in our country, which is not a capital offense. Manslaughter, when you kill someone unintentionally, like when you're in a car wreck in the person in the other car dies, that's vehicular homicide, right? It's manslaughter. It's when you don't intend to bring about someone's death, and this was not a capital offense in Israel. It was still something great to be mourned and to be marked. And God provided cities of refuge throughout Israel in a geographical spot at around Israel so that people could get there before someone would take vengeance in their own hands, the avenger of blood. You killed my brother. I'm going to kill you. The person who had accidentally killed somebody could flee to this city of refuge and be protected. And so we see these elements going on with Absalom. Now Absalom, we see, was not a manslaughter or, that's a fun word to say. He was a murderer. Now, we saw in the previous chapter that he held a grudge against his brother, Amnon, all these years, and that he called together a feast and told his servants, kill Amnon. And so this was flat out murder on the part of Absalom, but David doesn't do anything. He doesn't do anything about it. He doesn't fairly settle this dispute. He exercises rather favoritism and partiality, which are two words God says specifically if you're a judge in Israel, show no partiality, so no favoritism. James picks that up and now we treat people in the church. We don't treat people favoritism based on if they have money or they don't have money. They have nice clothes or they don't have nice clothes. We treat each person equally because each person equally is an image of God. So David doesn't exercise this as Eli had not exercised this. Eli was the priest. We saw in first Samuel and Eli's sons who were acting in the role of the priesthood. We're not obeying the commands about sacrifices and such. And Eli's told about it and Eli does nothing about it. And that's where David is here. He's acting like Eli. He's not providing justice for his people because this is his own son. And what we see here in the end of chapter 13 and end of 14, we have a couple of difficult things here. It's as David longed for his son, Absalom. What that means, what that word means is he was exhausted. He was spent. He was so emotionally and socially, relationally exhausted. He did nothing. They just sat there and Absalom had gone off as if to a city of refuge. He didn't go to a city of refuge, but he had gone to a territory that didn't belong to Israel at the time, east of the Sea of Galilee. And so Absalom was living this life as if he were a manslaughter protected in a city of refuge. And David does nothing about it. David doesn't love the 1800s Western term gumption, doesn't have the gumption, he doesn't have the energy. He's spent and he doesn't do anything about it. And he's grieving. It says, consult here, but the word means grieved. He's grieved over what Absalom has done and he's still grieving over what he's done over what Absalom has done to his son, but he's doing nothing about it. He's just letting justice slip in the land. And so this sin of David leads to more sin. Paul says to Timothy, and second Timothy to 22, flee from the evil desires of youth, pursue righteousness. And David was not doing this now, as a leader of God's people, Timothy was a leader of God's people. He's pursuing righteousness, faith, love, and peace with a pure heart. That's what Paul says to Timothy, is Timothy to young pastor. And David's not doing that, he's not pursuing peace in the land, he's allowing chaos and more murders to go on in the land. He's allowing guys like Absalom to get off scot-free. Absalom's doing whatever he wants. He's just manipulating all through this. He's just manipulating. He manipulates David in chapters 13, calling the banquet, and under guys that it's a celebration. And it's just to set up to murder his brother. And then this guy is going on with Joav and this woman from Tacola who comes and they fake David out and she presents David with this circumstance, this parable, which isn't really true. And David falls for it. He knows it's from Joav, but he still falls for it. It's not really parallel. We'll talk about that in a little bit. But he's not pursuing the Lord, he's not pursuing righteousness. And so we note here in A, here in your outline, that sin can render my leaders and me inept, I-N-E-P-T, inept. And it can render us, it can render our leaders unwise and not good in leadership. This is true in the church with leaders and it's true for you in situations in which you're a leader. If you're a parent or you have people under you at work or your teacher or whatever situation in which you're the one deciding what to do. Your righteousness, your walking in God's ways affects those who are under you. You're establishing justice when those who are under you are misbehaving affects those who are under you. If you don't deal with one son because of what he's done to your daughter, then maybe your daughter does something back to him. And so this is something we need to take up pursuing righteousness and sometimes sin can render us inept. You know what David has to condemn here in this passage? Exactly what he did. He arranged for Joe Ab to murder as she was husband. And Absalom doesn't commit the murder himself. He arranges for his servants to commit the murder of his brother. And so David here is being asked by the Lord to do justice in the land, to treat this murderer, his scoundrel, Absalom, as Absalom deserves. But perhaps David has hesitation here because he knows he's done exactly the same thing. He's rendered inept in this wash of sin and injustice because he won't just start doing what's right. So we need to be aware, we need to be aware of this. He provides no justice for Amnon's murder, no justice for Absalom and Absalom murders Amnon in chapter 13. And he provides no justice for Absalom still in this passage. This allows Absalom to live up there for three years in the land of Gishore. And even when Absalom comes, you know, and who knows, does Joe have like Absalom? Or is he trying to get Absalom there so David will do what's right? We're not sure the text doesn't tell us here. But nonetheless, even when Absalom is in proximity to David, David does nothing. Old Testament scholar, David Ralph Davis says it like this, he says, David reacts rather than rules. He consents rather than rains. He knows this is a ruse to get him to bring Absalom back. But he just says, well, okay, he can come back, job, you can go get him. And then later as Absalom works his way through burning Joe Ab's field, for Joe Ab to give him Absalom an introduction to David, David, let's Absalom come into his presence and kiss his own. But there's no reconciliation that we see there or no doing of justice. David's just kind of going in the path of least resistance, maybe still a wash in the sorrow over what his sin has caused. So be in your outline there, when there's a lack of leadership that is good, wise and just, those under that leadership become distraught. This is what we see in 1336 with the King's sons, their mourning. That's what we see too. And what we read this morning together responsibly in Psalm 73. The Psalmist at this time is David, but ASAF, one of some of that David appointed, writes in Psalm 73, when I look at the wicked, they're just getting along and everything's going their way and they're unjust and they're wicked in what they're doing and they're prospering and everyone follows them in their prosperity. And my foot almost slipped, the Psalmist said, they almost became convinced it wasn't worth following the Lord because those who do evil, they're just prosper. That's what's going on with the Absalom here. He just does whatever he wants and nothing ever gets done to him. Even wickedly says, hey, if I've done wrong, kill me. Yes, you have, but he's so callous to the Lord, he's so wicked, he's claiming in the midst of what everyone knows is true, manifestly true and present with many, many witnesses killing his brother in front of all his other brothers and fleeing for three years because he's guilty. That's what a guilty person does. Please, like one of my daughters, I told you about recently, but I went up to her room or one of my daughters went up to her room and for dinner, to tell her dinner time, she said, nothing, she was guilty of something. We still don't know what she was guilty of, but we caught her in the midst of something, but that's what Absalom does, but Absalom says, Absalom says, hey, if I'm guilty of anything, put me to death. Yeah, that's pretty bold. He's snowing everybody, or he's just so callous to sin, he doesn't understand that what he does is terribly wrong. But it makes people who are righteous distraught. We do what's right, and this happens to us and our lives. My dad wasn't a believer to his 45, but he was raised by believing parents, and he was calling my grandfather once when my dad was in dental school, and there were other guys who were cheating, and my dad wasn't cheating, but he saw that these cheaters were getting it, watch out, while those dentists were probably retired now. He saw that these dentists were cheating, and he called his dad, my grandfather, he said, dad, this isn't fair, you know, they're cheating, I'm working this hard, and I'm studying these things, and I don't know how they were cheating, and my grandfather wisely said to my dad, well, then you cheat, he knew my dad wouldn't. My dad's response was, dad, you know, I can't, I can't do it. My dad wasn't even a believer, but he had just been raised by his father where that bothered his conscience so much, you don't get ahead by cheating, and sometimes we really get frustrated, everybody else is out there cheating, everybody else is disobeying the Lord, and if you watch movie and TVs, or even just listen to people, they make it seem like nothing wrong is happening to them sometimes, and we think it's at all worth it, and we become distraught. So that's what can happen us in our lives, and in our position of leaderships, or in church leadership, when there's not righteousness that's pursued, when there's not justice that's pursued. Now on to see, in life and in the church, human leadership will be, and here's a big message for us. What's this message for God's people who are living under David's sons in later years? What's the message for them in all this mess? Here's the deal, in the church among God's people, human leadership for you will be some good, some not so good, and some bad, God's letting us know that, just because we're in the church among people who are called to pursue righteousness, love of God, love for each other in Christ and call to pursue peace, just because that's the calling on leadership over us in the church. There will be some leadership that does that well, and you'll be blessed, some leadership that does that not so well, but it's not horrendous, or egregious, and then some that does that very badly that causes people to go into crisis, like we see here, crisis. So mixed, there will be some leadership, and we see it in the Old Testament like Samson. Samson is not righteous, he is a leader, God uses him, but he's adulterous, he's marrying people not of the faith, he's sleeping with, he's always not married with, he's controlled by his rage, but God uses him anyway, but he's, and so God's people are generous, and he's generally under oppression still, under Samson, or there's Eli. What happens under Eli, the priest, he's not so good either, he doesn't keep his sons in control, and God's people lose massive amounts of people in battle, and they lose the arc of God in battle, because his sons take the arc of God into battle, and God says, I'm not going with them, they're evil, not so good, in fact, bad, or then there's Saul, Saul was hiding when foreign armies came, he was in back of people, when, in back of his troops, when foreign armies, the Philistines came, not good leadership, he sends little David out to fight his battles, and then there's David, he's mixed here, even great David, that all the kings of Judah and the future would be compared to, he's a mixed bag here, he's great sometimes, but here he's not so good. And then there's Solomon, his son, and the Solomon's really, really great, the wisest man ever, and leading people, and the queen of Shiva comes, and she's like, the reports of you that I heard, and how you ruled, and how good things were in Israel, they were unbelievable, and now I've visited you, and these reports did not do justice to how great things are, not great of a king, how great of a leader you are, and how great things are for your people, but then even Solomon strays, and so Solomon's a mixed bag, and that's the picture for us, in the church, in the future, hopefully, I'm not your pastor when this happens, in the future, when your church leadership fails you, try not to be destroyed, be prepared, know this, know that God warns us, men who are leaders in the church who are leading and ordained are sinners, and sin can happen. You know what happens, a lot of times when people are in the church, and their leadership sins, a lot of times they leave the church for two to three years. They're so bruised, they're so distraught, they're so disillusioned, that it takes them about that time. Same thing when people are in cults, it takes them two to three years to come back into a church after they've been in a cult, because of these things, it's just emotionally, they feel so betrayed, they feel like they trusted someone, and they don't know how to deal with it, but this is God telling us beforehand, like Jesus tells us disciples beforehand, I'm going to go on across, and our own people are going to reject me, but I'm telling you these things now, he tells them, I was just in the gospel, John this week, I'm telling you these things now, so that you won't be troubled, and so that you'll have peace, so that you won't be too disturbed, but that you'll be strong, and so God tells us this here, that sometimes our leaders will let us down, be not so good, or even bad, but there's good news, D, D, good news, God is perfectly wise, God is perfectly wise and good, and ultimately just, God is perfectly wise and good and ultimately just, and that's where the Psalmist, ASAP and Psalm 73 comes to rest, he says, my feet almost slipped, but then he remembered that the Lord is just, in that in a moment these people who are disregarding the Lord and says, does the Lord have knowledge of our sin, I don't think so, that's why I'm going to continue on in my wickedness, that's what the Psalm says, does the Lord have knowledge of these things, he doesn't see, so I can keep on doing this stuff, then right after that the Psalmist says, but the Lord sees, and these people will be undone in a moment, and we know that's when Jesus comes back, or when they die, before he comes back, and they'll be undone in a moment, it's like the writer of Clesiastes Solomon says at the end, he says, hey, things aren't in this life like they should be, but here's what I've learned, here's the end of it all, as I've considered all of life, fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the chief end of man, man, this is why we're created, this is our chief duty, fear God and keep His commandments before we will all give an account, regardless of how things spill out in our lives now. So the good news is that God is perfectly wise and good and ultimately just, 1 Corinthians 125 says that the wisdom of man is like the foolishness of God, so much greater as God's wisdom than our wisdom, our greatest wisdom is just foolishness compared to the Lord's wisdom, and 2 Thessalonians 1 and 6 tells us, assures us that God is just, that when Jesus comes back, He will pay back trouble to those who have troubled you, this is a picture of a just God who says, okay, you caused, you caused my daughter this trouble and he says to the non-believer when he comes back, well, this trouble is now penalized upon you, God is just and we take comfort in that. And then E, 2nd bit of good news, while leaders in the church, while leaders in the church can be sinful and unwise, God will continue to raise up leadership in the church like Him that is good, wise and just. So God continues to bring up leaders, so just because one leader fails or one leader is not so good, God continues to raise up leaders in the church through the centuries and in within our lifetimes that are good, wise and just. So even though David is failing here and the end of his life in the mid part here is not as good as the beginning of his life, he does raise up Solomon. And we see there in 1st Kings 431, Solomon was wiser than any man who ever lived. And God provides wise, good leadership for the people, even though that short lived because of Solomon's sins. Nonetheless, God does provide a reprieve for his people. No number 2, number 2. So 1st of all, leaders in the church in year to run from sin and provide justice know that leaders will fail. No number 2, you should be glad and thankful. You should be glad and thankful that God gifts his church with good and wise leaders who follow Jesus. God does that. He gives us good and wise leaders who follow Jesus. So here's what that looks like. No number 1 there, in contrast to the good and wise leaders that follow Jesus, a followed leader in the world, a leader who's followed in the world has external things, external things that are outwardly, outwardly impressive. So you can see here in versus 25 to 27 look there. We're going to see that Absalom actually gains a leadership in the next chapter or over a significant amount of God's people in the next chapters. And 25 to 27 in this passage tells us why. It says Absalom paraphrase was a stud. He has this thick wavy curly hair and when he cut it it was five pounds. It was thick and guess what he was tall. And he was good looking. There was no one like I put it head to toe. I mean just everything about this guy. This looks like Brad Pitt and Arnold Schwarzenegger combined, right? And Rob Lowe. That was some good looking guys there. But yeah, so that's Absalom. Okay. And so he's just he's a wonder to look at. But he's an awful guy. It doesn't get his way so it burns somebody's field. He's always extorting and manipulating people and lying. But that's what leaders of the world are. They have external appearance that gathers a following in Psalm 73 talks about this too. These wicked people everyone runs to them and follows them in the midst of their prosperity. This was true of Saul too. First Samuel Saul 92. What's it say about Saul? There was no one like Saul in all of Israel. He was a head taller than everyone else. And you know that that tall people get hired before short people in the church also. Okay. That's why church planning, right? I'm medium height. Samson, Absalom, Saul, they're all great looking guys. Guys have great power and strength. And the world looks to that. Like John says in 1 John 4. Hey, the world, it values the things of the world. Boseful pride, James 1 or 1 John 2, 15 through 17. Boseful pride of life, boasting of what one does and says and all that kind of thing just lusts the world. And the world follows. And John says that. You know, even if there are people who are like that in the church, those who don't have the spirit of God will follow them because they follow things that are big and impressive and externally attractive. Solomon writes in Ecclesiastes 814. I think it's my favorite verse in the Bible now. I came to understand Ecclesiastes a couple of years ago and I was reading through it finally. What's his book as a book about? And he writes there that here's another thing I observe under the sun. A wicked man gets a righteous man's reward and a righteous man gets a wicked man's reward. This too is meaningless. What Solomon talks about in the book of Ecclesiastes is appearances mean nothing. I think that's your next blank. No, it's not yet. Is it? No. But appearances mean nothing. Someone could be prospering because they're wicked. Or they could be prospering like Abraham because they're righteous. The appearance means nothing. We don't know by looking at appearance what's going on inside somebody. But we tend to as human beings looked outward appearances. And so we look to the glib the tall the handsome the athletic the humorous the sharp dresser or the hip those who have things going their way and we follow them. So your next line there do not seek such leaders for the church by looking at external appearances or outward things. And the church does seek such leaders and crowns them in leadership positions. And so we give somebody a big position in the church because their dad was a good pastor but they've done nothing. Right. I've been personally burnt by this but it's true. You know they've done they've done nothing. They've served in a pastorate nowhere but they're so and so junior or they bear their dad's last name and they have a different first name and they take over their dad's church with no experience. No hard knocks or anything just that or they get hired because they're tall and good looking. That happens a lot in churches. Churches exalt to the front those who are glib or humorous. Now that's not always the case with churches that are that are big but a lot of times it is. And I I fear for those churches and pray for those churches when I think about this because I think you know if that church loses his their pastor that church is going to be in chaos because that guy man he's good looking and I want to be around him. You know it's like he man he's funny. He's easy to get along and walks in the room and you know it's just like hey wow this guy's great you know but in the church we're not to look we're not to look to those things so be a good leader in the church a good leader in the church in contrast is when God has made good on the inside. Good leader in the church in contrast is when God has made good on the inside and may not be externally impressive. Good leader in the church in contrast is when God has made good on the inside and may not be externally impressive. So the first people we see ordained in the New Testament outside of the Apostles and Jesus, giving them his Holy Spirit and John 21. But the first others we see ordained in Scripture are Acts 6 and it's Deacons. And the Apostles say to the church there in Jerusalem, select from among yourself 7 men from among you, full of faith, here's the inside part, full of faith and the Holy Spirit, whom we may put in charge of this task. Full of faith and inside thing, not as a tall, not as a good looking, in the campus crusade where you used to look for leaders, sit down look for leaders, don't look for people who will follow, look for people who are full of faith and the Holy Spirit. We can put them in charge of this, in charge of this task and full of wisdom, fill up the Deacon as described as being full of wisdom, wisdom, faith, the Holy Spirit, these are internal, internal things. 1 Timothy 3, 1 through 12, which describes qualifications for elders and Deacons, it's all internal stuff. It is a person to his kids' respect. Does he manage his household? Does he have self-control? Is he susceptible to fits of rage? Does he get mad and angry? Easy. Does he have love? Is he hospitable? All these things that are underneath the surface, not external things but internal things, things of character, things of the heart, all the qualifications of Deacons and elders, all the qualifications for leadership in the Church are these internal things. So, number one there, be suspicious, be suspicious of those who are outwardly impressive. Now, this doesn't mean someone who's outwardly impressive can't be a church later, okay? But it means when they are outwardly impressive, okay? So, Mike's kind of tall. We don't like Mike as a Deacon in the church because he's outwardly tall. We say, is Mike a servant? Is he full of faith in the Holy Spirit and of wisdom? Does he have these characteristics inside? How do his kids respond to him? How are his kids? That's what we look at. And so, we just know, man, if someone has external apparent stuff, or is externally impressive, we just need to bear down and say, wait a minute, I could be taken away by those things. I need to look at what God looks at, the internal, the internal things.
I think Mike would be a great Deacon, by the way, because I see those internal things. So, number two, look at the inside of a person as God does. And that's what we saw in what Jim read to us from, for Samuel 16, when David is ordained to be king. When he is anointed to be king, the oldest son of Eliab comes and Samuel of all people gets beguiled by the impressive outward nature of Eliab, the oldest son. And he says, surely, this is the Lord's anointed who stands before me, and God rebukes Samuel and speaks to him and says there in 1 Samuel 16, 7, no not this one. Men look at outward appearances, which was the mistake with Saul. He was outwardly impressive. And God was grieved that he had relented and made Saul king, he had given the people their own choice for king. But he says, God doesn't look as man looks. Men look at external appearances. I look at the heart. God looks at what's on the inside. So, we look at the inside of a person as God does. And then three, so real practical here, nominate and vote for church leadership that is impressive, good on the inside. Look for people who are impressive on the inside. And then, number four, church leaders like Jesus to you, church leaders like Jesus be good on the inside. If you're in church leadership now, if you're ordained in the church here, be good on the aim yourself to that. Not for appearances, not to what people think of me, not what I'm wearing or anything like that. Be good on the inside. Be good on the inside. And don't aim. That's your next point. Don't aim to impress anyone. That's a red flag for me. When I feel myself aiming to impress anyone, it's like, all these alarms go off. It's like shut up, John. Shut up, pride. And get humble and go sit in a corner for a while. It's the internal character that matters. And so officers of the church aim for that as they have 53 verses two and three. It says this about Jesus. He had no appearance that we should be attracted to him. This is what Isaiah writes of Jesus. No external appearance, he's like a tender shoe, just a reed blowing in the wind. No appearance that we should be attracted to him or that we should flock to him, but instead we despised him and we esteemed him not. Why? Because Jesus external appearance was like, eh, didn't compare to the Pharisees. Didn't compare to the zealots. It didn't compare to Bravis. Pilots confused. What's it? What's it do with this Jesus? No external appearance, but he recognizes there's this internal power in Jesus and pilot becomes afraid it says before Jesus because he recognizes there's something inside this guy that I know nothing about that has great power. Even though the people of power, the people of external power, they're in control right now.
So that's what Isaiah says about Jesus and Paul says this about himself and the apostles too. And second Corinthians 11 says, who are we? Apostles? We're people who get shipwrecked and imprisoned and whipped and spit upon. Okay, we're not externally impressive. Paul talks about in Galatians that he's got some kind of eyesight problem and he said sicknesses among the congregations in which he's been ministering. And so, you know, not outwardly impressive but inwardly impressive. Good on the inside not aiming to impress anyone. And then number three, number three. So all of us love Jesus sincerely and be good on the inside. This is the other side of the coin from this passage we're looking at. Love Jesus sincerely and be good on the inside. A, don't care what people think of you. Don't care what people think of you. My dad, my dad was good about this to another leftover thing from him being raised by devout, devout Christians. He'd say, don't care what people think of you John. People are buffoons. That's not exactly a Christianity. Don't be people's buffoons, but understand this. Next line there for you because they're judging you by what can be seen. Don't care what people think of you because people are judging you based on what they can see. They're based on you based on a value set that is very different than God's value set. Be glad when someone who's mature in the Lord comes up to you and says, you know what I'm really impressed with the way you handle your kids or the way you treat your mom. That's something you value. That's feedback you value. But generally, but people in the world don't care about what people think of you. Don't worry about that stuff. It doesn't matter. That stuff's just all going to be gone. What we care about is the approval of God. People judge by what they can see. And then number two, Solomon said that what is seen, and here's Ecclesiastes 8.14, what is seen as meaningless? What is seen is meaningless. It doesn't mean anything. It's no certain indication that someone's good or someone's bad. I can get compliments over something that I have had no reason to get a compliment over. Matt was asking me last night about some stuff from the Westminster Confession of Faith, and I spit some things back to him really fast. And he said, wow, who else could do that within two minutes? And then I told him, I said, actually, I've got all the Westminster Confessions, shorter, larger, catechism, in a word file, and I can search by word, and it just shows me all the instances, and so that's how I've gotten it there. So I can get undeserved praise, and that doesn't matter. My external appearances were that I knew all that by heart. I didn't. But external appearances, A, mean nothing. A, external appearances mean nothing, so B, don't live for those. Don't put any efforts into external appearances. Be great in the Lord's sight, by being humble, by loving Jesus, by being devoted to him. Be great in his sight. Don't worry about the other stuff. Okay. As one of the things I like about the first Shrek is when donkey first meets Shrek, and they're walking along, and they're going from the gathering and all the fairy tale creatures to arrest them because King Lord Falkwad doesn't like them. Farquad doesn't like them. I'm sorry, I knew someone named Richie Farquhar, so he has a Pittsburgh guy, played soccer for Pittsburgh men. But when donkey first meets the Teddy Murphy, first meets Shrek, who's Mike Myers, he says, Shrek, that's what I like about you. You got this, I don't care what anyone thinks of me attitude, and that really is what makes Shrek attractive. Shrek is accepted that everybody hates him. It's yoga, grab your pitchforks and torches, right? Shrek just knows everyone hates him. He's going to get nobody's approval, so he's living alone in his swamp, and he's just being his own guy, and that's what makes Shrek cool. That's what makes Shrek admirable. Young folks, if you're trying to be cool, be true to God. That will make you different and strong. People who are trying to be cool are just copying other people, and it's so easy to see, and it's not cool. People who are trying to be cool are in effect not being cool. So care about the stuff that's internal, care about loving Christ, care about following him, don't care about what other people think. So care about being faithful and loyal to Jesus, care about being faithful and loyal to Jesus. So here's what that involves. Number one, don't have church be merely something I do, or something I'm involved in. Joe Ab was very involved in the kingdom, wasn't he? But Joe Ab is a multiple murderer, right? He murdered his brother's murderer way before this. He murdered and murdered Abner, who had murdered his brother, and then we'll see him why I'm not going to give it away. He murdered somebody else coming here in the future, here. David's always frustrated with Joe Ab. Do you have a believer? We don't know. He's a military guy, and he just kills people, not in battle. You know, and that's different. He kills people who not in battle. I mean, he's sneaky about it too. He calls people to himself, like he's going in that time. That's how he kills Abner, who had left Abner with Saul's chief warrior, chief general, and Abner comes to David and sides with David to be on David's side. David's thrilled, and he welcomes Abner, but Abner has killed one of Joe Ab's brothers, and so Joe Ab calls into his side, like he's going to whisper something to him, and then he kills him. So there can be people in the church who are just involved in the church, doing things in the church. Absalom. He's in the covenant of people of God. He's the king's son, but that's just something he did, you know, being involved in things and going to the tabernacle or whatever. And so don't have that be of you being in the church is just not enough. Saul was in the church to countless people in the church in the Old Testament who were not faithful to God and loving enough him. Number two, instead, have a sincere, have a sincere and pure-hearted. These are all words scripture uses a lot when it commends how we are to be. Have a sincere and pure-hearted devotion to Jesus. Have a sincere and pure-hearted devotion to Jesus. So Psalm 73, one, as I've said, surely God is good to Israel to those who are pure in heart, and that's what you want to be. That's what I want to be. We want to be pure in heart to the Lord. Not just kind of doing the things he wants us to do, no, but pure in heart to him. A very soulish thing. Paul to the Corinthian church in 2 Corinthians 113 says, but I'm afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your mind may somehow be led astrayed from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. Don't be led astray. Don't be in the church for a while and then be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. Have your coming to church be a part of your sincere devotion to Christ. I'm coming to worship you. One of the things that stinks about being a pastor is when you're sick, you can't call in sick. I can't call in sick. We don't have an associate here. And that stinks. But the thing is, too, it's like, is Jesus worth it absolutely. He is. You know, John Lennon, they used to do the, when they were young and just performing all night, like, you know, and although they started at 1 p.m. in the day and they performed to about five in the morning in Hamburg, Germany. And they would always save a twist and shout to the last song because John, it was a, it was a cover. But John would, John sings twist and shout, but if you listen to the Beatles doing twist and shout, John blew out his voice on that song every night. And so they had to keep it to the end. But that's the thing. You know, that was worth it for John and the Beatles. This was worth it here. You know, we come and we don't feel so great or whatever, but it's worth it. You know, and we blow it out, we blow it out for Jesus. And we want to have this sincere and pure devotion to him. Paul the Timothy says, call on the Lord out of a pure heart He has a pastor be serving out of a pure heart not because that's a job or because, you know, that pays you something or that gives you some kind of status or that if you do these things, you'll have a good church and things will go well in your church. That doesn't matter. What matters is that you serve with a pure, with a pure heart. So come to worship. Learn of the Lord and opportunities that the Lord gives you to learn from. Read your Bibles. And don't read your Bibles. And read your Bibles. And when you get that sense, like I sometimes do in the morning, I read in the morning, where it's like, oh, I got a lot to do today. I got to get through this. Then that's a red flag. And I say, I'm not coming to this with pure heart toward the Lord or devotion to Jesus or sincerity of faith. And that little thing, that little bit of conscience, you know, pricks me and I say, Lord, I'm sorry. Your word is more worth than anything in my day. And I've just treated it like it's a bother. And so we want to be people who don't treat the Lord and the things of the Lord like, like there are bother to us. But rather, he's all that. God actually protects us. Cares for you. Everything you have is from him. So we have the shrug at these items of devotion unto him. Nothing he asks us to do is too big ever. And we see that in Jesus. Jesus says, you know what the Father's asked me to do? He's asked me to go to cross and die. I'm talking about that specifically, that that was the Father's ask of him in the book of John. And so he does that. So no ask is too big. If God asks you to give your life for him, guess what? He's going to reward you with heaven, not because you've done that. But you're not going to lose in that kind of situation. So have a sincere and pure heart devotion to Jesus and then three and have this devotion to walking in his ways. David didn't have this devotion to walking in the Lord's ways in this passage. And we see all the mess that it creates. But that's what God calls us to do. And Jesus says if you love me, John 1421, if you love me, you're walking my ways. You follow my commandments. John says in first John, here it is, how we know who who knows Christ, those who walk as Christ did. And so we were devoted to that to walk in Christ's ways because he's our good king that we follow. And as we follow him, we bring him glory. It's a summary summary. God's aim, God's aim for you and what you should pursue is to be good on the inside. That's your aim. And that's not be a good Christian. That's be a good image of God. That's being one who represents God well, who reflects Christ well, who loves Christ, who recognizes Christ has done all this for me and the Father sent him because the Father loves me. So we want to be good on the inside and have good motives and a heart in that way. So this involves having a sincere devotion to Jesus this involves having a sincere devotion to Jesus and such internal character, such internal character and devotion you should expect from your ordained church leadership, from your ordained church leadership to for the good of you and for the good of the church.