Text: 2 Samuel 15

Topic: How we can lose (and recover) God's purpose for our lives.

Introduction: The kingdom never happened for Absalom because of his mistakes.

• Absalom was destined to be king, but he violated timeless, eternal principles, and we can learn from his mistakes.
• We also have "kingdom options," but will we repeat Absalom's errors?

Absalom's story includes three main events in a period.

• He murdered Amnon to avenge the rape of his sister Tamar.
• He fled to his mother's home city, Geshur, where he faced no condemnation and hid "in a place of for ."
• He returned to Jerusalem and began plotting his rebellion to become king. He stole the hearts of the people, and David fled the city in tears.

Absalom had three key failures: unforgiveness, unsubmittedness, unrepentance.

• We can learn from those three failures by:

Refusing any place for unforgiveness, which can kill someone.

Recognizing our flight to familiar places where our is .

Repenting. Facing up to our sin and repenting, not merely regretting.

Two stories in the New Testament deal with repentance, not just regret.

• The Corinthians learned that godly sorrow brings transformation (2 Cor. 7).
• Simon the Sorcerer was guilty of regret without repentance (Acts 8).

Illustration: Roman records show that Simon eventually became a powerful sorcerer. Simon was so , he thought he could fly, but he fell to his death.

Conclusion:

• "Don't walk in any way that preempts God's kingdom grace from happening."