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David: A Man After God’s Own Heart! – Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, AMEN Main Theme: This summer we will study the amazing story of David – a shepherd boy who became King! Today, in our 8th week, we find David that our biblical hero can “crash and burn” just like the rest of us. He has to learn, as we all do, that sin ALWAYS has consequences. His lustful desire for Bathsheba sends him spiraling down! In order to cover it up, his desire for secrecy leads to more sin! Ashamed to turn to God, he comes to feel very much alone in his guilt. God sends Nathan with the truth, and this leads to confession and repentance, which leads to restoration. True and genuine repentance is recognized by 1) open unguarded admission, 2) a desire to make a complete break from sin, 3) the spirit is broken and humble, and 4) a claiming of God’s forgiveness and reinstatement! God’s divine standards never change – but we can! …thanks to the Holy Spirit living within us. (Based on Chuck Swindoll’s book “David” and other research.) 1) SIN! No “sin”, (with the possible exception of Adam and Eve’s), has received more press over the years than David’s sin with Bathsheba! I don’t know about you, but I’m really glad that God isn’t still writing Scripture – because who among us would want our failures and vices recorded for all future generations to read, discuss, make movies and write books about it, and be the subject of countless sermons? Not me! But on the other hand, I’m relieved to discover that the heroes in the bible are NOT “perfect superheroes”, but struggle and fall just like we all do! King David and us… are equally weak – we all sin! We are “people of the flesh”, who stumble and fall – and who often struggle with guilt and the impulsive need to try and “fix it ourselves”. Obviously, David’s act of willful disobedience contains a warning about “sin”, but also provides a life-giving lesson that can shed light on God’s amazing grace found in the gift of forgiveness. 2) BE CAREFUL! David is now around 50 years old, and has been on the throne for about 20 years. He’s distinguished himself as a man of God, a composer of psalms, a faith shepherd, a valiant warrior, and an amazing leader of his people! One would think David has gotten way beyond that place in life where one would have to learn this never-changing time-proven lesson: SIN ALWAYS BEARS CONSEQUENCES! But apparently you are never too young or too old to fall. Before we shake our finger at David, we need to look in the mirror and remember what the apostle Paul told the Corinthians (1st Cor. 10:12) “So if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you do not fall!” Wedged between the words “Stand” and “Fall” are the words “be careful!” They are not sent from heaven above to “take the fun out of life” as some suggest – they are sent to protect us from having to find out the hard way – that God’s standards never change, and that SIN ALWAYS BEARS CONSEQUENCES! The word’s “Be careful” are the natural results of a loving heart, wanting His children to experience the full blessings that come with following God’s wishes! 3) CONCUBINES AND WIVES! David was not naïve! He knew he had been blessed with a God-given privilege of protecting and caring for the people of Israel. So when it appears that David just suddenly turned his back on all that – we’re confused. But the fact is, David’s sinful fall wasn’t a sudden, “out of the blue” thing! No sooner than David became King, we discover a pattern beginning that leads slowly to tragedy! For instance, we read in 2nd Samuel 5:13, “After he left Hebron, David took more concubines and wives in Jerusalem, and more sons and daughters were born to him.” This little harem he was collecting was NOT according to God’s commandments! Back in Deuteronomy (17: 16-17) God gives specific instructions as how to set up a King over the people of Israel, and in it God says “The King, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses… he must not take many wives, or his heart will be taken away,… He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.” David did well with requirements #1 and #3, but he failed miserably in #2. Concubines and wives begin to stack up like cordwood in the palace. No, the lust and polygamy that lead to David’s sin with Bathsheba was not a sudden thing! 4) PASSION! When David was made King, he was young and healthy and had raging hormones like all young men do. Perhaps he thought that having many women would help him keep his “passions” under control! Today we know that just the opposite is true. The “passion” of sex is not satisfied by a harem of women, it is in fact increased! Having many women does not reduce a man’s libido, …it increases it! Excites it! Stimulates it! He fell for one the oldest lies, and one that still dominates the thinking of many people today – that if you just satisfy your lust-filled drive – it will fade away! “Egh………. wrong! Thanks for playing!” Truth is – the more you act upon it, the more your lustful passion intensifies! 5) SUCCESS? Of course, who’s gonna “correct the King”? “So what” if David adds to his harem? After all, look at what David has done for Israel! Most people are thinking “You go ahead and accuse the King if you want to, but who can argue with 20 years of success!” Ironically, success often leads to the sin of pride, and to independence – drifting further from God! See, when life is filled with difficult and hard times, we become dependent on the Lord: survival keeps us humble. But when everything is swinging in your direction, we tend to forget where the blessings came from, and pride puffs us up. So David looks at his success and begins to feel less accountable to others - he justifies his behavior – thinking that he deserves more women! But he is never satisfied – always wanting more! 6) BEAUTIFUL TEMPTATION! So one Spring, David “the warrior” does something unusual: instead of going to war with his soldiers, he decides to stay home in Jerusalem. While his men are fighting and dieing to protect Israel, David is enjoying “the good life” back at the palace. Had he been where he belonged – the Bathsheba episode would not have happened. But now he’s taking a leisurely walk around the palace walls which looks down upon the surrounding city and a verse (11:2) in 2 Samuel tells us, “From the roof he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance!” The bible does not tend to pad the record. When it says she was beautiful – she’s a knock-out! She’s a “hubba hubba” – on the scale of 1-10, she’s a 12! She is also temptation. She intentionally washed in a place where she knew she would be seen, and is far from innocent in this situation. However, it was David who was “the aggressor.” He stopped. He stared. He lusted. And finally it was he who had her sent for, that he might lie with this beautiful temptation! 7) FLEE! When desire is given the helm, God seems to disappear from the scene! He is like a distant memory, fading, and not at all seeming real at the moment. As lust envelopes the mind, our ability to make clear and godly decisions is taken away from us. Dietrich Bonhoeffer described surrendering to the “temptations of the flesh” and being a situation in which “everything within me rises up against God. …Therefore the bible teaches us in times of temptation in the flesh, there is but one command: flee! Flee fornication. Flee idolatry. Flee youthful lusts. Flee the lusts of the world. There is no resistence to Satan in lust other than flight. Every struggle against lust in one’s own strength is doomed to failure.” Fact is, if you do not run from temptation – you will fall! It’s only a matter of time! NO exceptions! As David looked upon Bathsheba bathing – he did not flee, he did not think about God – and his desire would have severe consequences! 8) PLEASURE TO PANIC! The world says that “stolen waters are sweet!” Both Bathsheba and David took great pleasure in their passionate and private encounter. But the memories of that pleasure would be shattered in a matter of weeks when Bathsheba “conceived and sent word back to David, saying, ‘I am pregnant.’” (2nd Samuel 11:5) What had we been taught as children? Sin has consequences! All the beauty, the ecstasy, the fun, the excitement… suddenly those passionate pleasures melt away into sobering panic! Now when we’re in the midst of panic, we don’t always make “wise decisions.” Oh, David could have gone to God and “come clean” – but he chose instead to do what many of us do when we face shame and guilt – we attempt to cover it up! Ah, the internal terror and stress that panic can bring us! 9) COVER-UP! To pull off his panic producing cover-up, David cleverly sends for Bathsheba’s husband Uriah, who has been at war, and after asking for a report, he sends Uriah home. Since there are no DNA tests back in those days, David pictures Uriah rushing home to spend a little time with his wife, afterwards – it will look like the baby was his! But Uriah is a man of honor, and sleeps outside the King’s door – because if his men are in fighting and dying in battle and cannot be with their wives, how could he? Next, David got Uriah drunk – hoping to break down his resistence, but David’s clever plan to cover up his sin failed! However, that did not stop David from hatching an even more sinful plan and taking it to the next level! “In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab (commander of the army) and sent it with Uriah. In it he wrote, ‘Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so that he will be struck down and die.’” (2nd Samuel 11:45-15) Can you believe that? David sent him off with his own death warrant in his hand. And no doubt, other innocent soldiers were probably killed to carry off this cover-up. Panic has now moved David to murder. 10) ALONE! Obviously David did not think, he simply reacted! Once the dirty deed had been done, “David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son.” (2nd Samuel 11:27) There it was done with! All over! But the next line in our scriptures declares that is not so – “But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.” That “thing” – that “disobedience” – included lust , adultery, hypocrisy, and murder. How could a king described as “a man after God’s own heart” fall so fast to such a low level? If you are honest in your own heart, you know the answer. If you are playing with disobedience, especially sexual sins, you are living on borrowed time! There WILL come a time when the stinging consequences will crush you! …leaving you feeling trapped in a world of lies and secrecy, suffering in misery with sleepless nights and haunting memories. And worst of all, you feel so totally alone! You feel so many miles from God! 11) A STORY of TRUTH! Last week, we focused on God’s amazing grace. David himself had been an instrument of that grace to Jonathon’s crippled son. Now it was David who needed God’s grace – though he did not deserve it, earn it, nor could he ever repay it. And yet God sent David a friend with a painful but life-living gift: the truth! As we read the story – notice it was a brief but effective confrontation. Nathan the prophet came before the king with a story: 2nd Samuel 12:1-4 “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup, and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.” 12) YOU ARE THE MEN! David was furious – fit to be tied! He declares to Nathan… “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” Without realizing it, David had slipped his whole head into the noose! And all Nathan had to do was give the truth a little tug – and he did so in four little words: “You are the man!” Nathan didn’t have to explain it any further – David knew what he had meant! How had Nathan found out? But he discovered the truth! With countless concubines and wives, David had taken the only wife of a good man! He WAS the man in the story! He deserved to die! And that was the truth! 13) CONSEQUENCES! Then without hesitation Nathan informs David of the consequences of his sins! It included verses like these :
Ouch! David sits there with his mouth open, eyes lost in shameful thought, as he listens to God speaking to him through Nathan. 14) CONFRONTATION! Confrontation is risky business! It has to be done right! It needs, 1) absolute truth, (has to be based on the facts, not hear say), 2) requires the right timing, (God’s timing!), 3) the right words, and 4) fearless courage. One of the proverbs reads “Faithful are the wounds caused by the bruising of one who loves you!” People who don’t love, don’t confront with the truth. But good friends tell it like it is! See, without loving confrontation, the opportunity for true repentance cannot be given! God does not send Nathan to destroy David, but wake him up so that he can repent and return to God’s arms! Confrontation is risky business – but God’s message must be given if restoration is to occur! 15) REPENTANCE! Thankfully David DID repent! Often Christians reflect upon repentance and ask “how do you know if it is sincere and genuine repentance?” Simple, look at close enough and you’ll see that true repentance means…
16) FORGIVEN AND PURIFIED! It sounds strange, but one of the most loving things the Holy Spirit can do, is confront you with the truth! It is not done to crush you and leave you laying in the mud and sewage of sin. It is done in love to “purge us” and make us “righteous!” “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness!” 1st John 1:9. Forgiven and purified! Imagine it! Confrontation can do that – when it is God’s truth that does the confrontation. It’s NOT a relief from all the consequences, (hey, you break the law – you do the jail time), but it is a relief from the guilt and shame and internal emptiness that sin creates. When God confronts, he longs to forgive and purify – and that’s a gift, a product of unconditional love! 17) TRUE LIFE! Out of complete love for you, Jesus is here today to mercifully warn you – when temptation comes – flee from it! David would come to hate the day he lusted for Bathsheba and acted upon it! Jesus does not want you to have to experience the same thing! But if it is already too late – do not hide from Him, do not try to cover-up your sin – for God knows all! Instead, turn to Him, and confess. No one loves you more than Jesus, so fear not – true repentance brings you life! True life! Jesus confronts you because He cares – and He does not want sin to separate the Father’s children from their divine parent’s love! 18) Jesus Saves! Jesus comes now to offer that which is found nowhere else. See, God’s standards never change! He is still holy. He is still pure. He still honors the truth, even when it is hard for us to share. Whereas shame and guilt places us in bondage – God’s “tough love” frees us and forgives us! In order for us to become more and more Christ-like each and every day, the Spirit comes to fill us now and empower us to share the truth of our sins, that we may restored. “I have sinned against the Lord” is a sentence full of hope! Recognition of our sin is not a matter of condemnation, but of salvation. It shows we have been awakened to our need for God! And the Good News is: Jesus Saves! Praise God! AMEN Sermon/Confessional Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, it is not easy for us to confess to you our sins. Rejection is such a painful part of our world – we instinctively try to cover-up our sins rather trust in your unconditional love. Forgive us! Purify us! Wash away shame and guilt that clings to us like mud! Empower us to admit to you the whole truth, and to fear not judgment, but seek the merciful grace that portrays the nature of your love. Lord, often we may admit our sins, but our repentance is not real because we do not walk away from our temptations. Forgive us, for there have been times when we have not turned around and changed our behavior. And we admit, we have not always enjoyed or appreciated the times when you confront us with the truth. Our pride has often caused us to attack those friends, family members, teachers, pastors, and fellow Christians who you have used to lovingly confront us. Enable us to humbly accept the truth, and empower us to receive the true life that comes through genuine repentance! And now Lord, although you know us better than we know ourselves, listen as we share in a moment of silence, those other parts of our lives that need to be forgiven, washed clean, healed, and recommitted to you! (made anew.) (Silence) Lord, like your servant David, we hear stories of men and women doing what is wrong according to your will – and we are quick to condemn them. It is through your Word, that we often realize the truth - that “We are that person!” Young or old we find ourselves confronted with the truth of our sin. Help us Lord to humble accept it, and learn from it! Teach us to repent! And do not let our sin separate us from the power and warmth of your love! In Jesus Name We Pray. AMEN Assurance of Forgiveness: Friends, listen to the good news: The Lord, who longs to forgive and purify you, …that Lord has mercifully heard your confession and eagerly forgives you all your sins. Go now, and remember: God’s standards never change – so flee from temptation! And if you should fall – do not cover it up; for that causes us to forget God, and drains away our joy. No! Take it to God – ask for the forgiveness only He can give, and you will be freed – you WILL be restored! Praise God! AMEN Opening prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, we walked again this week through a broken world full of temptations. Some temptations we were able to resist, and others pulled us in! Sometimes we even went willingly. But we cannot come before you this morning without realizing that it is our sins that keep us separated from you! We cannot look at the cross without realizing you died for our sins, that we might be free – and made holy and pure through the spilling of your blood in our place! Sometimes we are so ashamed of our actions, we try to cover them up! But your loving eyes have seen all we have done. And yet instead of anger and judgment, we see in your eyes compassion and a desire to restore us! Lord, we cannot stand before you with anything but humble hearts, knowing that your amazing grace is more than we deserve. And yet you give it – generously and eagerly! It is in this knowledge that we bring you our sins to forgive, our wounds to heal, and our lives to mold. It is the revelation of your forgiving nature that we lift our hearts to you and sing your praises! Hear our prayers, teach and guide us, embrace us in your loving arms! Change us in this hour of worship, that we might follow you more faithfully and work with you as blessed disciples should! In Jesus Name We Pray! AMEN! |
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