WEBVTT 00:00:00.760 --> 00:00:02.100 Let's jump in today's text. 00:00:02.120 --> 00:00:09.420 We're going to be in 2 Samuel 11, a beautiful passage of scripture. 00:00:09.640 --> 00:00:16.900 One of the things I love about this, diving into God's word together, we are a church that wants to make disciples that love Jesus 00:00:16.900 --> 00:00:18.240 and everyone else. 00:00:18.340 --> 00:00:20.300 And Jesus gave us the great commission, great commandment. 00:00:20.360 --> 00:00:27.460 The great commission, "Go into this world, make disciples." Great commandment, "Love God, love others." I mean, that is why we exist, to make disciples that love 00:00:27.460 --> 00:00:28.640 Jesus and everyone else. 00:00:28.740 --> 00:00:28.900 Right? 00:00:29.220 --> 00:00:36.420 When I look at this passage of scripture that we're going to be in this morning, this is a beautiful passage of scripture, of hope. 00:00:36.420 --> 00:00:43.540 And here's why this is important, while the world goes crazy out there, we have a beautiful message of rescue, hope, redemption, 00:00:43.540 --> 00:00:45.420 renewal in Jesus in here. 00:00:45.440 --> 00:00:47.950 We have a reason to rejoice, a reason to be excited. 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:53.940 And we're about to dive into a text that is an extremely popular text and a very difficult text. 00:00:53.940 --> 00:01:01.240 I want to take a few weeks to go through this because this gets to the struggle of humanity and any time 00:01:01.240 --> 00:01:04.780 we have any failure in our life, we can get up and look in the mirror again. 00:01:04.860 --> 00:01:05.180 Okay? 00:01:05.239 --> 00:01:10.220 When you struggle, you know you're not perfect, you mess up, what do you do with that? 00:01:10.300 --> 00:01:12.180 Do you sweep under the rug, pretend that it didn't happen? 00:01:12.200 --> 00:01:13.900 Do you act like that wasn't really you? 00:01:14.060 --> 00:01:15.730 You're the good person that does the good things. 00:01:15.840 --> 00:01:18.480 When the bad things happen, someone just takes over your body. 00:01:18.500 --> 00:01:19.480 Don't count that as you. 00:01:19.680 --> 00:01:21.640 But when the good things happen, that's who you really are. 00:01:21.720 --> 00:01:21.940 Right? 00:01:21.960 --> 00:01:24.920 I mean, you're not responsible, you can justify anything you do. 00:01:25.100 --> 00:01:31.050 Everything we do, either foolish or not, we tend to think we have good reasons for it if people just understood our reasons. 00:01:31.400 --> 00:01:31.820 Right? 00:01:31.940 --> 00:01:37.500 And when you get to this passage of scripture, I just want to tell you that none of those things I just shared before you are healthy. 00:01:38.000 --> 00:01:45.140 There is something within those that will just rip at your soul, tear it apart and diminish the value of who you are before God and 00:01:45.140 --> 00:01:47.140 what he intends for your life. 00:01:47.580 --> 00:01:54.520 In 2 Samuel 11, we get to examine the life of David and in a very hard fall. 00:01:54.520 --> 00:01:59.810 I mean, he gets so deep into sin in his life and tries to cover it up and it only makes things worse. 00:02:00.160 --> 00:02:01.860 And so what do we do when we fail? 00:02:01.860 --> 00:02:03.690 That is this passage of scripture. 00:02:04.160 --> 00:02:11.760 You're likely familiar with it, but we're going to talk about together how we rise from our failures. 00:02:13.200 --> 00:02:18.890 When we think about this passage, I think there is nothing more healing than the gospel truth we find in this story. 00:02:19.860 --> 00:02:25.050 If you want to know as a pastor, I don't know if you realize this yet or not, but I am not perfect. 00:02:27.070 --> 00:02:34.640 I am not perfect, but I want you to know the story that takes place here in the life of David and 00:02:34.640 --> 00:02:41.900 what he writes, even in the Psalms from this, are words I echo in scripture in my own soul on a very regular 00:02:41.900 --> 00:02:42.560 basis. 00:02:42.660 --> 00:02:47.360 I feel like I want to say every day, but in case that's a lie, it's almost every day, okay? 00:02:48.480 --> 00:02:55.480 This helps me in my relationship with Jesus immensely to understand how God views me and how 00:02:55.480 --> 00:02:58.820 to walk with him, despite when I get in the way. 00:02:59.020 --> 00:02:59.120 Right? 00:03:00.260 --> 00:03:02.070 And so we look at this text of scripture. 00:03:02.950 --> 00:03:06.060 Actually what I'm going to do is I'm going to, I read through portions of it for us. 00:03:06.100 --> 00:03:07.490 And I'm want to tell you I'm not going to read the whole story. 00:03:08.000 --> 00:03:10.760 If you want to think through this story more, please read this story. 00:03:10.940 --> 00:03:14.010 But I want to hit the highlights so we can get the idea of what this story contains. 00:03:14.020 --> 00:03:14.480 So live with me. 00:03:15.100 --> 00:03:17.660 Second Samuel, chapter 11, verse one to five, right? 00:03:19.200 --> 00:03:26.720 "Then it happened in the spring at the time when Kings go out to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel. 00:03:27.040 --> 00:03:30.490 And they brought destruction on the sons of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. 00:03:30.780 --> 00:03:33.040 But David stayed in Jerusalem. 00:03:33.700 --> 00:03:40.760 Now evening time, David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the King's house." This is where you can 00:03:40.760 --> 00:03:44.080 start to break out in Jeff Buckley's hallelujah, right? 00:03:44.420 --> 00:03:45.880 He walks around on the roof of the King's house. 00:03:45.900 --> 00:03:50.620 "And from the roof, he saw a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful and appearance. 00:03:51.100 --> 00:03:53.400 So David sent servants and inquired about the woman. 00:03:53.400 --> 00:04:00.400 And someone said, 'Is that not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite?' Then David sent messengers and had her brought. 00:04:01.200 --> 00:04:04.020 And when she came to him, he slept with her. 00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:07.580 And when she had purified herself from her uncleanness, she returned to her house. 00:04:08.060 --> 00:04:15.840 But the woman conceived so she sent word and informed David and said, 'I am pregnant.'" And if you skip down with me to verse 14, verse 00:04:15.840 --> 00:04:21.620 14 goes on: "So in the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 00:04:22.200 --> 00:04:29.700 He had written in the letter, the following: Station Uriah on the front line of the fiercest battle and pull back from him so 00:04:29.700 --> 00:04:31.740 that he may be struck and killed. 00:04:32.120 --> 00:04:38.740 So it was as Joab kept watch on the city that he stationed Uriah at the place where he knew there were valiant men. 00:04:39.100 --> 00:04:41.370 And the men of the city went out and fought against Joab. 00:04:41.740 --> 00:04:48.820 And some of the people among David's servants fell, and Uriah the Hittite also died." Chapter 12, verse one. 00:04:48.820 --> 00:04:51.020 I'm going to skip to just these last seven verses. 00:04:51.020 --> 00:04:58.080 Chapter 12: Then the Lord sent Nathan to David and he came to him and said, "There were two men in a city, 00:04:58.480 --> 00:05:00.240 the one wealthy and the other poor. 00:05:01.040 --> 00:05:08.160 The wealthy man had a great many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing at all, except one little ewe lamb which he 00:05:08.160 --> 00:05:12.380 had bought and nurtured and it grew up together with him and his children. 00:05:12.760 --> 00:05:18.010 It would eat scraps from him and drink from his cup and lie in his lap and was like a daughter to him. 00:05:18.220 --> 00:05:20.240 Now, a visitor came to the wealthy man. 00:05:20.740 --> 00:05:26.900 And he could not bring himself to take any animal from his own flock or his own herd to prepare for the traveler who had come to him. 00:05:27.460 --> 00:05:31.100 So he took the poor man's ewe lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him. 00:05:31.960 --> 00:05:39.300 Then David's anger burned greatly against the man and said to Nathan, "As the Lord lives, the man who has done this certainly deserves to 00:05:39.300 --> 00:05:39.620 die. 00:05:39.980 --> 00:05:47.520 So he must make restitution for the lamb four times over, since he did this thing and had no compassion." Then Nathan 00:05:47.520 --> 00:05:53.700 said to David, "You yourself are that man." This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says. 00:05:54.660 --> 00:05:56.980 "It is I who anointed you as King over Israel. 00:05:57.660 --> 00:06:03.120 And it is I who rescued you from the hand of Saul." Amen. 00:06:03.780 --> 00:06:06.440 When you look at this passage of scripture. 00:06:06.780 --> 00:06:07.980 Very significant. 00:06:08.020 --> 00:06:10.450 I'm going to hit the highlights of what it's talked about. 00:06:11.340 --> 00:06:14.150 There's more I could draw from this passage, but only have so much time. 00:06:14.380 --> 00:06:20.040 And this is the key that I want to get into our minds in this first section of second Samuel, chapter 11. 00:06:21.620 --> 00:06:28.840 God wants us to recognize the power of sin, right?, the power of sin 00:06:28.840 --> 00:06:29.600 in our lives. 00:06:30.280 --> 00:06:32.980 If you think about this story, David is supposed to be at war. 00:06:32.980 --> 00:06:37.490 It says at the very beginning, he's doing something out of the ordinary, something he's not accustomed to. 00:06:37.520 --> 00:06:40.400 And so he develops a new routine in life. 00:06:40.420 --> 00:06:43.300 And this routine is not one that's disciplined in the Lord. 00:06:43.600 --> 00:06:44.720 And what happens in these moments? 00:06:44.780 --> 00:06:46.300 He goes up on his roof. 00:06:46.380 --> 00:06:48.530 He sees Bathsheba, invites her to his house. 00:06:49.000 --> 00:06:50.580 A child comes from this, right? 00:06:50.840 --> 00:06:52.180 And then he tries to cover it up. 00:06:52.240 --> 00:06:56.980 The first thing that he does is he gets Uriah, the Hittite. 00:06:57.060 --> 00:06:58.980 He tells [inaudible 00:06:58] Uriah the Hittite back to me. 00:06:58.980 --> 00:07:02.060 I want him to report on how the battle is going, right? 00:07:02.140 --> 00:07:04.140 And David's plan is this coverup for what he's done. 00:07:04.200 --> 00:07:09.500 Because he thinks, you know what, if I can get Uriah back from battle, he'll come back and spend the night with his wife. 00:07:09.900 --> 00:07:12.550 And then I can just cover up what I've done. 00:07:12.760 --> 00:07:14.920 And we'll send Uriah right back out to war. 00:07:16.040 --> 00:07:23.420 And what ends up happening Uriah comes in, and because he knows his fellow mates are still out battling he 00:07:23.420 --> 00:07:30.700 refuses to go home, but he stays out in the middle of the open night refusing to go back to his wife until the 00:07:30.700 --> 00:07:33.630 troops of Israel can return. 00:07:34.360 --> 00:07:41.420 And so David then frustrated by that, then writes a letter to Joab and sends it with Uriah, and has Uriah go 00:07:41.420 --> 00:07:47.740 to the front of the battle lines and intentionally has Uriah killed in order to try to cover up what he has done. 00:07:49.320 --> 00:07:49.820 It's an awful story. 00:07:51.560 --> 00:07:58.960 You think about everything that we've learned about David to this point, and now to read this, it shows the power of sin 00:07:58.960 --> 00:07:59.820 in our life. 00:07:59.920 --> 00:08:04.460 Then when you think about just the details of how far David goes to cover up his sin. 00:08:04.500 --> 00:08:11.960 He asked, "Who was your Uriah?" Well, when you read about the life of King David, what you find in first Chronicles, 00:08:11.960 --> 00:08:15.850 chapter 11, it shares with us how David unites Israel. 00:08:16.280 --> 00:08:20.800 And in the unification of Israel, it then talks about his valiant men. 00:08:21.540 --> 00:08:27.860 And these are the men that came and helped rescue David when Saul was coming against his life, David's mighty men. 00:08:29.000 --> 00:08:33.380 They help preserve and protect David until he gets to this place of being a King. 00:08:33.400 --> 00:08:37.450 And after he's a King, they continue to fight for David, even in this battle. 00:08:37.820 --> 00:08:42.179 And Uriah is one of those individuals that David owes his life to. 00:08:44.480 --> 00:08:51.600 And not only does David take the life of Uriah, verse 17 of chapter 00:08:51.600 --> 00:08:58.840 11 tells us that Uriah wasn't the only one David's men that died because of David's letter 00:08:59.280 --> 00:08:59.980 written to Joab. 00:09:01.200 --> 00:09:08.420 It tells you at the very end of verse 17, "And some of the people among David's servants fell and Uriah, 00:09:08.480 --> 00:09:15.480 the Hittite, also died." Don't you see the repercussions and the ripple effect of David's sin 00:09:15.480 --> 00:09:17.020 and how it affects multiple people? 00:09:17.080 --> 00:09:20.280 And then you think about this, how many of the 10 commandments can you break at one time? 00:09:22.080 --> 00:09:28.280 And David, he covets, adultery, lies, murders. 00:09:28.320 --> 00:09:30.300 And I'm sure we could probably think of more on top of that. 00:09:32.460 --> 00:09:33.930 This is an awful situation. 00:09:36.340 --> 00:09:37.900 And David was such a godly guy. 00:09:40.340 --> 00:09:44.240 In the stories that we've seen together, God has used him to do some incredible things. 00:09:46.340 --> 00:09:50.040 And not only has David done some incredible things, he's written some incredible things. 00:09:51.240 --> 00:09:58.240 I mean, when you read through the Psalms, David writes half of the Psalms and he really demonstrates to us how to 00:09:58.240 --> 00:10:04.680 open up your heart before the Lord and just cry out to him wherever you are in life, how to connect with God. 00:10:06.720 --> 00:10:10.140 And yet even David falls. 00:10:12.300 --> 00:10:19.380 When you look at scripture that seems to be a perpetual occurrence of leaders God uses, or people God 00:10:19.380 --> 00:10:19.480 uses. 00:10:20.920 --> 00:10:27.640 When you think from the very beginning of the Bible as you just go through from the very first people created, I mean, Adam had it made. 00:10:27.660 --> 00:10:29.550 He ran around naked in the garden all day with his wife. 00:10:29.600 --> 00:10:30.370 And then what happens? 00:10:34.060 --> 00:10:34.360 Sin. 00:10:35.080 --> 00:10:38.660 Or you look at Abraham who was called by God and what happens with Abraham? 00:10:38.680 --> 00:10:44.080 Well, every time he goes to Egypt, he lies and he tries to pretend like Sarah's not as wife. 00:10:44.100 --> 00:10:49.070 And then he tries to accomplish God's will on his own strengths and has a child with Hagar. 00:10:49.960 --> 00:10:50.560 Or Moses. 00:10:51.680 --> 00:10:57.020 Moses sees himself as this great leader and he tries to step into that position without God leading and he ends up killing somebody. 00:10:58.900 --> 00:11:00.080 Or Jacob is a deceiver. 00:11:01.520 --> 00:11:04.360 Or Joseph before he goes to Egypt is a little arrogant. 00:11:06.200 --> 00:11:06.660 And now David. 00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:11.240 Now David. 00:11:14.100 --> 00:11:18.680 You see the power of sin in this story. 00:11:21.020 --> 00:11:25.980 I think it leads us to maybe even consider, ask the question, if David is capable. 00:11:25.980 --> 00:11:28.340 I mean, this is a man after God's own heart. 00:11:30.540 --> 00:11:36.000 He says of David in both the Old and New Testament, a man after God's own heart. 00:11:36.000 --> 00:11:44.720 And if David is capable of this and other godly leaders are capable of similar things, what 00:11:44.720 --> 00:11:45.480 about you and me? 00:11:49.420 --> 00:11:50.520 What about you and me? 00:11:50.760 --> 00:11:58.040 Now, the Bible talks about this idea of original sin, that the sin nature that's on Adam and Eve really plagues 00:11:58.040 --> 00:12:05.400 all of humanity to the point that Jeremiah 17, nine says this, "The heart is deceitful above all things 00:12:05.400 --> 00:12:07.140 and desperately wicked. 00:12:07.200 --> 00:12:14.360 Who can know it?" Jesus even tried to warn us about the depravity in our own human 00:12:14.420 --> 00:12:14.900 nature. 00:12:16.140 --> 00:12:19.920 I think when you look in scripture in Matthew chapter five. 00:12:20.300 --> 00:12:26.340 Jesus even said to us in Matthew, chapter five, verse 21 to 25, Jesus tries to get us to examine our lives. 00:12:26.360 --> 00:12:33.520 Because in this point of his first sermon that he's preaching, he's preaching to a bunch of religious people that think life is about just living the law and showing God 00:12:33.520 --> 00:12:34.200 how good you are. 00:12:35.320 --> 00:12:39.200 And this is where in verse 21, Jesus then starts to say, look, you've had anger in your heart. 00:12:39.220 --> 00:12:41.160 If you've had anger in your heart, that is murder. 00:12:42.700 --> 00:12:48.450 And first John 3:15 says, if you've angered against your brother and sister, you're a murderer. 00:12:49.620 --> 00:12:54.510 And the point is what it's saying is, look, it's not always about the behavior like the behavior. 00:12:54.620 --> 00:12:58.980 You certainly don't want to act like a ruthless person in this world. 00:12:59.080 --> 00:13:05.280 But he wants us to understand that the idea of our behavior originates in what is saturated in our heart. 00:13:08.160 --> 00:13:15.540 "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked." I think sometimes we look at cultures 00:13:15.540 --> 00:13:16.090 today. 00:13:16.460 --> 00:13:18.120 Just think about Nazi, Germany. 00:13:20.320 --> 00:13:27.500 How in the world could a developed civilization get to a position like 00:13:27.500 --> 00:13:28.340 that, right? 00:13:30.260 --> 00:13:31.640 I mean, we're better than that. 00:13:33.100 --> 00:13:35.380 It's not possible, right, for us? 00:13:35.380 --> 00:13:42.900 It's a reminder of just the depravity that rests within our soul and the need for God's 00:13:42.900 --> 00:13:43.000 redemption. 00:13:43.480 --> 00:13:48.560 When you think about this, and even in practical terms as human beings, no one wakes up in the morning and says, "You know what I'm going to do? 00:13:48.980 --> 00:13:49.640 It's a great idea. 00:13:49.940 --> 00:13:50.870 I'm just going to wreck my life. 00:13:51.900 --> 00:13:57.220 I want to do all of these horrible things." We just don't wake up with those intentions in life, right? 00:13:57.240 --> 00:14:00.970 But what happens is we're giving into the desires of our flesh. 00:14:01.040 --> 00:14:05.820 And before you know it we've built a similar circumstance of what led David to where he is. 00:14:07.760 --> 00:14:08.960 One sin to try to cover it up. 00:14:09.220 --> 00:14:16.020 Greater sins to do that, and before you know it all is lost, right. 00:14:16.660 --> 00:14:17.200 Is there hope? 00:14:19.480 --> 00:14:26.760 These kinds of thoughts are why Christians, I think we should get a little timid when someone uses this expression, "Just 00:14:26.760 --> 00:14:27.850 follow your heart. 00:14:30.520 --> 00:14:34.980 Just follow your heart." Because I want you to know that is not biblical. 00:14:36.620 --> 00:14:37.200 It's not biblical. 00:14:38.540 --> 00:14:44.680 I know I say this to us every once in a while, but the prisons are full of people who followed what their heart was telling them to. 00:14:44.940 --> 00:14:45.060 Right? 00:14:46.560 --> 00:14:53.920 You'll meet people that their moral framework is so screwed up that they think bad is good, and 00:14:53.920 --> 00:14:54.460 good is bad. 00:14:56.160 --> 00:14:56.810 And what are they following? 00:14:59.920 --> 00:15:00.300 Their heart. 00:15:00.640 --> 00:15:00.910 Do you know why? 00:15:01.720 --> 00:15:03.100 Because they see themselves as being in charge. 00:15:05.400 --> 00:15:06.010 You know what scripture says? 00:15:08.200 --> 00:15:09.300 Scripture doesn't say follow your heart. 00:15:12.500 --> 00:15:13.480 Scripture says follow Jesus. 00:15:15.400 --> 00:15:15.610 You know why? 00:15:17.120 --> 00:15:19.420 "Because the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. 00:15:19.680 --> 00:15:26.410 Who can help it?" There are times in your life where you might believe something might be good for you. 00:15:28.520 --> 00:15:32.540 But man, if it has no wisdom from scripture, what are we doing? 00:15:35.460 --> 00:15:35.920 What are we doing? 00:15:36.840 --> 00:15:43.940 It is possible for an entire group of people to pursue something contrary to God and 00:15:43.940 --> 00:15:46.020 damaging to our soul and others. 00:15:47.260 --> 00:15:50.960 I already used the example everyone always uses, right, Nazi, Germany. 00:15:51.000 --> 00:15:52.400 But they're not the first group to do that. 00:15:54.100 --> 00:15:54.800 And they won't be the last. 00:15:58.620 --> 00:15:59.120 Follow Jesus. 00:16:01.200 --> 00:16:08.700 So this story, I think if we make some just applications, we think through it, is to say to us, be reminded of 00:16:08.700 --> 00:16:10.040 the power of sin. 00:16:12.290 --> 00:16:15.390 Jesus' first message in the Sermon on the Mount and the first topic he's addressing. 00:16:16.580 --> 00:16:24.120 All the religious leaders out there that think life is about just demonstrating to God how great you are, you need 00:16:24.120 --> 00:16:27.630 to recognize is how much our heart needs Jesus to transform it. 00:16:29.380 --> 00:16:36.440 I think it's also important for us to know that when we talk about sin, look, it's not wrong to be tempted, 00:16:37.780 --> 00:16:37.880 right? 00:16:38.520 --> 00:16:43.440 Temptation itself is not where sin happens. 00:16:43.840 --> 00:16:48.060 It's where sin is birth for sure, but it's not necessarily a sin to be tempted. 00:16:49.220 --> 00:16:50.220 It's what you do with it. 00:16:51.240 --> 00:16:51.580 Right? 00:16:51.600 --> 00:16:52.980 You're tempted all day long. 00:16:53.620 --> 00:16:55.640 There are things that come into your life that tempt you. 00:16:55.660 --> 00:16:57.940 I mean, that's what television commercials are there. 00:16:58.220 --> 00:17:02.760 They are one temptation after another, every 15 to 30 seconds, firing across your screen if you're watching TV. 00:17:02.840 --> 00:17:04.540 And you know how much you care about most of it? 00:17:04.660 --> 00:17:05.300 Very little, right? 00:17:05.920 --> 00:17:06.579 Very little. 00:17:06.579 --> 00:17:11.520 It's a temptation that's put out there to lure you in but most of it, who cares? 00:17:11.560 --> 00:17:16.260 So the temptation is not necessarily what produces the sin, right? 00:17:16.500 --> 00:17:17.560 I mean, you're tempted all day long. 00:17:17.560 --> 00:17:19.200 Billboards, advertisements, promotions. 00:17:19.200 --> 00:17:23.960 Everyone's trying to grab your attention to get your dollar, to make you think you need something. 00:17:26.099 --> 00:17:33.540 But it's when the temptation meets your lust and you give into that sin 00:17:33.540 --> 00:17:33.800 is born. 00:17:35.880 --> 00:17:39.200 So temptation in itself, it's not wrong. 00:17:39.200 --> 00:17:41.300 It's an occurrence that happens to us every day. 00:17:41.340 --> 00:17:44.200 But the desire of our soul is to walk with Jesus. 00:17:44.520 --> 00:17:46.880 And this is the warning here with King David, right? 00:17:47.680 --> 00:17:54.000 The warning that we consider here is not let temptation grow into the sin. 00:17:56.340 --> 00:17:58.720 And if it does kill it. 00:18:01.640 --> 00:18:01.900 Kill it. 00:18:01.960 --> 00:18:07.570 You think in life, just the idea of how things grow. 00:18:07.720 --> 00:18:10.120 You think about an oak tree. 00:18:12.500 --> 00:18:15.500 An oak tree is massive tree, but do you know how an oak tree starts? 00:18:17.080 --> 00:18:18.880 It's a little bitty acorn, right? 00:18:20.540 --> 00:18:27.700 And once that acorn gets the right amounts of sunlight and water and nutrients that it needs, it 00:18:27.740 --> 00:18:29.350 can grow into this mighty oak tree. 00:18:30.700 --> 00:18:33.420 And so it can happen in our lives in walking with Jesus. 00:18:33.460 --> 00:18:35.580 You nurture that, it grows into a mighty oak tree. 00:18:35.860 --> 00:18:37.920 And I think that's what God desires for your life. 00:18:37.940 --> 00:18:41.250 But if you live contrary to that, you think about a life of sin. 00:18:41.680 --> 00:18:47.650 You bury that in the ground and you provide the right nutrients and you give into that lust, and before you know it, what do you start growing? 00:18:50.100 --> 00:18:50.440 An oak tree. 00:18:52.560 --> 00:18:59.120 The encouragement for us in the stories, I think, when you look at godly David and all these wonderful things, and he's susceptible to this. 00:18:59.540 --> 00:19:03.160 It's to look at our lives and say, "Okay, and if he is, so am I. 00:19:06.100 --> 00:19:12.860 And I don't need these things growing in my garden." Now I want to be careful here and say this. 00:19:14.680 --> 00:19:19.480 When we hear a message like this, the tendency in our human nature is to start thinking in terms of morality. 00:19:20.960 --> 00:19:25.280 And I want you to know if we go down that route, we will completely miss the gospel, right? 00:19:26.580 --> 00:19:27.690 I am not preaching morality. 00:19:29.100 --> 00:19:31.140 You can go to any religious group in the world and find that. 00:19:31.440 --> 00:19:34.120 That is not what the gospel is about. 00:19:34.120 --> 00:19:35.100 That's not what Jesus is about. 00:19:35.220 --> 00:19:39.300 Jesus certainly wants you to live good, live a life that's honoring to him. 00:19:39.460 --> 00:19:40.940 But good only comes from God. 00:19:43.140 --> 00:19:46.380 And so what Jesus is interested in isn't preaching morality to your soul. 00:19:46.700 --> 00:19:52.260 It's to get you to understand where your soul has deviated from him so that you can get your life back in line with relationship to him. 00:19:52.580 --> 00:19:56.060 And when you're in relationship to Jesus, then great things happen in your life. 00:19:56.320 --> 00:19:56.930 It's the fruit of the spirit. 00:19:58.180 --> 00:20:01.280 Our motivation as Christians is not to simply get up and live good. 00:20:01.600 --> 00:20:02.400 That's not what we're about. 00:20:03.200 --> 00:20:05.580 Our motivation in life as Christians is to know God. 00:20:05.600 --> 00:20:09.330 As we know, God, he transforms our life and the fruit of that is good. 00:20:10.100 --> 00:20:11.340 We don't live fruit. 00:20:12.020 --> 00:20:13.050 We live for Jesus. 00:20:13.720 --> 00:20:15.830 And we see the result that has produced this fruit. 00:20:15.920 --> 00:20:15.990 Do you understand? 00:20:16.340 --> 00:20:22.100 That is like a major chasm between Christianity and every religion in this world. 00:20:23.820 --> 00:20:27.240 Now the question is in the midst of our failure, how in the world do we do that? 00:20:28.400 --> 00:20:30.260 Like when you mess up, what do you do? 00:20:30.300 --> 00:20:37.560 Cause I can look all day long and say, look, ripple effects of sin and see how that affects relationships, and how that has a lingering effect on families. 00:20:38.560 --> 00:20:40.530 Or even for David, how it impacted his kingdom. 00:20:43.160 --> 00:20:46.060 But then also say, look, the solution, isn't try harder. 00:20:50.280 --> 00:20:51.520 The solution is to die to self. 00:20:54.620 --> 00:20:55.780 Live for a whole nother purpose. 00:20:57.620 --> 00:21:03.580 This is why on Wednesday morning, I'm going to wake up and regardless of what happened, I'm going to be all right, guys. 00:21:05.640 --> 00:21:11.020 Because I live for a different King and he has a completely different kingdom, not of this world. 00:21:12.980 --> 00:21:17.780 And so when I die to self and I live to him, my life isn't about avoiding sin. 00:21:19.020 --> 00:21:19.960 That would be an awful life. 00:21:22.600 --> 00:21:24.860 Hopefully your life is not about avoiding sin either. 00:21:25.140 --> 00:21:28.600 My life is to live [inaudible 00:21:27] to my King and honor him and everything that I do. 00:21:29.460 --> 00:21:30.160 Right? 00:21:30.240 --> 00:21:37.260 And sometimes I deviate from that and I need to understand if I fall on my face 00:21:37.260 --> 00:21:39.620 and I fail, how can God embrace me? 00:21:39.680 --> 00:21:41.380 How can I get back in relationship with him? 00:21:41.420 --> 00:21:42.940 What needs to happen? 00:21:42.940 --> 00:21:44.220 Is it something I can do? 00:21:44.280 --> 00:21:47.560 What does that look like for my life? 00:21:50.720 --> 00:21:52.740 So what happens when we mess up? 00:21:52.740 --> 00:21:55.560 Do we pretend like it wasn't honest? 00:21:55.560 --> 00:21:57.540 Do we sweep things under a rug? 00:21:57.860 --> 00:22:00.160 Can we just justify it? 00:22:00.380 --> 00:22:01.820 Like David could have done that here, right? 00:22:02.320 --> 00:22:07.020 Oh, you don't understand the pressure of being a King and my wife, I've been gone a lot. 00:22:07.040 --> 00:22:08.980 My wife wasn't meeting my needs. 00:22:09.240 --> 00:22:11.940 And Uriah, if I just let him go, it would have destroyed the kingdom. 00:22:11.980 --> 00:22:12.060 Right? 00:22:12.140 --> 00:22:14.180 I mean he could completely justify what he was doing. 00:22:16.680 --> 00:22:17.380 Doesn't make it right. 00:22:19.640 --> 00:22:21.300 It doesn't help his relationship with God. 00:22:23.220 --> 00:22:23.840 So what do we do? 00:22:25.300 --> 00:22:31.800 I'm going to give you a simple answer and I want you to know this week, I'm going to talk in terms of corporate and next week I'm going to talk in terms of personal. 00:22:32.320 --> 00:22:33.760 I'll explain a little bit about that, what it means. 00:22:34.000 --> 00:22:34.860 But here's what we need. 00:22:36.120 --> 00:22:39.500 To be captivated by the power of grace and pardon. 00:22:41.980 --> 00:22:44.580 Be captivated by the power of God's grace and pardon. 00:22:45.440 --> 00:22:46.340 It's interesting. 00:22:46.360 --> 00:22:53.360 When you read chapter 11 of second Samuel, where we're into this sin of David's 00:22:53.360 --> 00:22:54.660 life and the destruction that it brings. 00:22:55.060 --> 00:22:57.640 And then you get to chapter 12 and it's like, what is going on? 00:22:57.960 --> 00:23:02.360 Cause all of a sudden what you find is Nathan, the prophet before David, and he's talking about sheep. 00:23:03.980 --> 00:23:09.280 Well, how do we go from chapter 11, where David leads to the death of his own friends. 00:23:09.320 --> 00:23:12.520 And all of a sudden we've got Nathan in front of the King talking about sheep. 00:23:13.100 --> 00:23:17.380 Out of all the things you might bring up to David, like, why are you talking about sheep, right? 00:23:17.420 --> 00:23:19.170 Why is Nathan doing this? 00:23:19.340 --> 00:23:26.520 And Nathan, he's teaching us something about the grace and pardon of God in our lives and how to be captivated 00:23:26.520 --> 00:23:26.780 by it. 00:23:26.840 --> 00:23:27.500 So just think about this. 00:23:27.580 --> 00:23:30.440 Why is Nathan sharing the story about sheep? 00:23:30.440 --> 00:23:31.050 Well, number one. 00:23:31.860 --> 00:23:39.000 Number one is it was common for Kings during the day of Nathan and David to serve as 00:23:39.000 --> 00:23:39.480 a judge. 00:23:40.560 --> 00:23:42.240 So David's not going to be shocked by this. 00:23:42.320 --> 00:23:48.570 We can look at this and be like, "Why would you go before a King and all of a sudden start talking about sheep problems?" Like that would be a little bit weird for us. 00:23:48.840 --> 00:23:55.900 But in David's day, this was completely common, where people have problems and they need a judge, and sometimes the King would intervene as a judge to rule on 00:23:55.900 --> 00:23:56.860 a circumstance. 00:23:57.180 --> 00:23:58.760 And that's exactly what David's doing here. 00:23:58.820 --> 00:24:00.440 So this would not be out of the norm for him. 00:24:00.440 --> 00:24:01.340 Nathan's coming with a problem. 00:24:01.380 --> 00:24:04.960 He probably came to David with several problems happening in the kingdom before. 00:24:04.960 --> 00:24:06.140 So not out of the norm. 00:24:06.520 --> 00:24:08.140 And so he starts talking about the sheep. 00:24:08.640 --> 00:24:15.760 He talks about this rich man who has a bunch of animals and this poor guy who has one animal and he loves this animal so much that this animal 00:24:15.760 --> 00:24:17.250 sleeps with him at nights, sits at the table. 00:24:17.440 --> 00:24:19.400 I mean, this is like ultimate dog lover here. 00:24:19.620 --> 00:24:20.360 That's this guy. 00:24:20.440 --> 00:24:20.940 Right? 00:24:21.200 --> 00:24:22.480 And what does the rich man do? 00:24:22.480 --> 00:24:23.240 He takes the sheep. 00:24:23.240 --> 00:24:24.020 He kills the sheep. 00:24:24.020 --> 00:24:26.620 And then you see David's response, right? 00:24:26.620 --> 00:24:28.900 In verse six, he says this. 00:24:28.900 --> 00:24:36.120 He says, "This man, he needs to pay fourfold for stealing the poor man's 00:24:36.120 --> 00:24:38.540 sheep." That's not out of the norm. 00:24:40.000 --> 00:24:44.500 If you think, how did David come up with this idea that he pays four times the amount? 00:24:44.580 --> 00:24:46.980 Like was David just flying off the cuff, throwing out a number? 00:24:46.980 --> 00:24:48.920 How did David come up with four times the amount? 00:24:48.940 --> 00:24:50.060 Well that's Mosaic law. 00:24:50.740 --> 00:24:54.240 If someone steals, someone gets caught stealing, he has to make restitution. 00:24:54.720 --> 00:24:58.560 When he makes restitution, he has to pay four times the amount of what he took from the individual. 00:24:59.920 --> 00:25:01.620 But David also does something else here. 00:25:02.680 --> 00:25:04.560 He goes beyond the Mosaic law. 00:25:06.380 --> 00:25:15.700 And when he goes beyond the mosaic law, what David demands in verse five is the life of the rich man for 00:25:15.800 --> 00:25:17.200 taking the sheep of the poor man. 00:25:20.060 --> 00:25:28.760 David mentions Mosaic law, but out of his rage in this moment, verse five, he wants to take 00:25:28.760 --> 00:25:30.210 the life of the rich man. 00:25:31.820 --> 00:25:32.820 Now why is David like that? 00:25:34.500 --> 00:25:39.760 I think David is revealing something within his own nature that we often do as individuals. 00:25:41.500 --> 00:25:47.580 We try to compensate for our failures by becoming these justice warriors in areas to cover up our own weakness. 00:25:49.200 --> 00:25:55.300 I think David's anger is rooted not so much in the story, though it's a story to get frustrated by that Nathan is sharing. 00:25:57.060 --> 00:26:02.360 But I think his anger is pent up from his own actions in doing the same thing in chapter 11. 00:26:04.600 --> 00:26:11.520 And because of it David has become this moral warrior to protect his own shortcomings by pointing his finger at others. 00:26:13.980 --> 00:26:15.040 And we, as people, do it all the time. 00:26:16.980 --> 00:26:19.540 There's actually articles about social media. 00:26:19.580 --> 00:26:22.340 I don't want to freak you out about this or make you paranoid, but I'm going to say this anyway. 00:26:22.940 --> 00:26:30.160 There's articles about social media, where people that have difficulty in their relationships 00:26:30.160 --> 00:26:37.640 will go out of their way to promote their relationships online, to sort of cover up for how they treated their 00:26:37.640 --> 00:26:41.400 loved one, to let everyone know how great they are. 00:26:41.400 --> 00:26:43.300 Right? 00:26:43.440 --> 00:26:51.000 I think David is really doing a similar thing in this story, though he's using rather than flattering words, he's using anger to justify himself. 00:26:51.000 --> 00:26:58.020 This is his way of trying to move past what he's done and sort of covering it up because he hasn't opened up his heart to the Lord yet to let God really deal with 00:26:58.020 --> 00:26:58.420 it. 00:26:59.360 --> 00:27:00.820 So why is Nathan sharing the story? 00:27:00.860 --> 00:27:05.780 One, he is sharing the story because this was a common thing for Kings to act as judge. 00:27:06.380 --> 00:27:14.140 But two, Nathan's also sharing the story because if he came out and just simply confronted David directly, how 00:27:14.140 --> 00:27:14.990 do you think David would respond? 00:27:16.740 --> 00:27:22.960 Nathan, isn't taking this pursuit of communicating with David because he's weak or he's afraid. 00:27:23.900 --> 00:27:26.660 Nathan's a prophet and prophets during this time they're bold, right? 00:27:26.700 --> 00:27:27.880 They come out and they speak the truth. 00:27:30.660 --> 00:27:33.760 But Nathan is taking this approach because Nathan cares. 00:27:35.460 --> 00:27:37.800 He cares about his people, and he cares about the King. 00:27:39.900 --> 00:27:46.940 And so when David is confronted by Nathan, Nathan knows, look, if I just say this outright to David, David 00:27:46.940 --> 00:27:48.780 could harden his heart. 00:27:49.660 --> 00:27:56.680 Or David could try to justify his behavior, neither of which are going to get to what Jesus needs to do in his heart to 00:27:56.680 --> 00:27:57.500 heal him. 00:27:59.380 --> 00:28:04.380 So Nathan comes reflecting God's grace to David. 00:28:06.020 --> 00:28:09.920 And I love this, because this is what it communicates to us, guys. 00:28:09.920 --> 00:28:11.440 Not just for David, but for all of us. 00:28:13.120 --> 00:28:15.920 Nathan could have come right into this room and just condemned David. 00:28:18.020 --> 00:28:18.370 But he doesn't. 00:28:20.280 --> 00:28:25.780 And the reason he doesn't is because he's teaching us something about the nature of God in the midst of David's failure. 00:28:28.120 --> 00:28:35.640 That what God is interested in your life isn't your condemnation, but your transformation. 00:28:38.380 --> 00:28:45.570 God is interested in what's happening in mean your heart, not because he wants to just condemn you where you are, but he wants 00:28:46.420 --> 00:28:48.360 to rescue your soul and transform your life. 00:28:50.960 --> 00:28:58.520 And transformation for us happens when we have conviction, and then we have submission, and 00:28:58.520 --> 00:28:59.230 then we find conversion. 00:29:00.120 --> 00:29:01.680 Right? 00:29:01.720 --> 00:29:08.920 Nathan could have come in like a wrecking ball in the life of David, but rather he comes in more like a surgeon caring for 00:29:08.920 --> 00:29:09.260 his heart. 00:29:10.760 --> 00:29:12.260 And what does that do for David? 00:29:13.280 --> 00:29:14.740 Well, it leads him to put down his defenses. 00:29:18.200 --> 00:29:24.940 David lets down his guard and he gives a place for Nathan to speak into his life. 00:29:26.680 --> 00:29:31.720 So if all God wanted to do was directly condemn David, you would have never had verse 13 of chapter 12. 00:29:32.120 --> 00:29:33.720 Will you look at verse 13 with me for just a moment? 00:29:35.400 --> 00:29:40.900 "Then David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord." There it is. 00:29:41.000 --> 00:29:42.320 The first place of healing, right? 00:29:43.060 --> 00:29:44.740 This conviction and submission and confession. 00:29:45.820 --> 00:29:46.700 I have sinned against the Lord. 00:29:46.700 --> 00:29:47.960 And look what Nathan said to David. 00:29:49.240 --> 00:29:52.560 "The Lord also has allowed your sin to pass. 00:29:53.840 --> 00:29:59.460 You shall not die." You shall not die. 00:30:02.080 --> 00:30:07.660 Nathan intervenes for David, and it's a rescue to his soul. 00:30:10.020 --> 00:30:14.970 Just like in our lives we need someone to intervene for our soul from death. 00:30:16.400 --> 00:30:17.520 And someone does, right? 00:30:17.560 --> 00:30:18.840 His name is Jesus Christ. 00:30:20.740 --> 00:30:24.380 Not about condemnation, but transformation in your life. 00:30:25.920 --> 00:30:31.700 And here we said, as we look at the story, the nature of God today, we have opportunity to introduce people to the same thing. 00:30:34.320 --> 00:30:41.480 You know, when you think about this story, and what's going to happen here, we're going to read next week just some beautiful 00:30:41.480 --> 00:30:48.040 things that David works through in his own heart and in his wrestle with God and how to find this reconciliation. 00:30:48.280 --> 00:30:48.980 Practical ways. 00:30:49.260 --> 00:30:52.700 But I want to look now at what the Lord uses and what the Lord uses is other people. 00:30:56.400 --> 00:30:58.400 We need to be Nathans in this world. 00:30:59.740 --> 00:31:05.380 We're not this moral authority above other people, that are coming in the lives of people just to tell them how things are, right? 00:31:05.680 --> 00:31:07.420 Put them in their place and preach condemnation. 00:31:07.800 --> 00:31:08.730 That's not what we're about. 00:31:09.940 --> 00:31:17.080 I mean, John 3:17 tells us Jesus came to the world, not to condemn the world because the world was already condemned, but to save the 00:31:17.080 --> 00:31:17.560 world through him. 00:31:19.920 --> 00:31:25.440 It's one of our values as a church that, look, there are plenty of things that we could be against in this world. 00:31:25.520 --> 00:31:28.740 But the most important thing that we want people to know is what we're for. 00:31:30.840 --> 00:31:31.660 We're for Jesus. 00:31:31.780 --> 00:31:33.520 And because we're for Jesus, we're for you. 00:31:33.520 --> 00:31:35.880 We want you to know Jesus and have your life transformed in him. 00:31:37.180 --> 00:31:40.860 And that's why we say as a church, when we speak the truth, we want to speak the truth in love. 00:31:40.900 --> 00:31:41.620 That's our value statement. 00:31:42.180 --> 00:31:47.720 Speak the truth in love because people can take the truth, and use it to just beat you over the head with it. 00:31:47.760 --> 00:31:54.920 And that's not what we're about because we see the truth that God has delivered to us to use it to help elevate us in the goodness 00:31:54.920 --> 00:31:56.080 and glory of who he is. 00:31:58.780 --> 00:32:00.660 We need people to be Nathans in this world. 00:32:00.700 --> 00:32:01.720 We need to be a church of Nathans. 00:32:03.720 --> 00:32:07.360 And not only that, we need to make friends with Nathans. 00:32:09.860 --> 00:32:13.220 Because if David can fall so can we. 00:32:15.260 --> 00:32:16.600 Because you need a Nathan in your life. 00:32:19.700 --> 00:32:21.800 We need to surround ourselves with people like that. 00:32:21.820 --> 00:32:24.360 And I'm not just saying people that want to speak flattering things to you. 00:32:24.380 --> 00:32:31.700 I'm talking about people that have given their life to Jesus that want to pour into your soul and desire the best for you, and are willing to say hard things to you to do that. 00:32:33.120 --> 00:32:37.200 And if you're thinking, man, I might have a few of those, but how do I let that person in? 00:32:38.140 --> 00:32:39.620 How do I give them that to do that? 00:32:39.720 --> 00:32:41.490 Let me give you one question, okay, to ask. 00:32:42.520 --> 00:32:45.540 If you find someone in your life that you think is a Nathan, I'll give you one question to ask. 00:32:45.640 --> 00:32:46.910 But let me tell you this before I give you this question. 00:32:49.020 --> 00:32:53.300 When they respond, don't justify, don't attack. 00:32:53.300 --> 00:32:53.400 Okay? 00:32:54.160 --> 00:32:54.500 Just listen. 00:32:55.360 --> 00:33:01.460 Here's what you ask: If you were me, what would you do differently? 00:33:05.360 --> 00:33:11.280 I mean, if you're serious about wanting to see the shortcomings in your own life, the places that you might struggle. 00:33:11.660 --> 00:33:12.860 And don't do that with everybody. 00:33:13.140 --> 00:33:14.240 Don't say that question to everybody. 00:33:17.900 --> 00:33:23.640 Pick a trusted friend that you know is not going to go out and just share everything about you, right? 00:33:24.020 --> 00:33:27.280 If you were me, what would you do differently? 00:33:29.560 --> 00:33:34.100 You find a person that demonstrates the grace of God that you knows is for you. 00:33:37.100 --> 00:33:44.140 You think about you cannot be a Nathan and you cannot find 00:33:44.140 --> 00:33:51.240 a Nathan without investing in relationships in your life, which is 00:33:51.240 --> 00:33:53.740 a great thing because Jesus is all about relationship. 00:33:54.220 --> 00:33:54.700 Love God. 00:33:54.700 --> 00:33:55.220 Love others. 00:33:55.220 --> 00:33:56.320 That is all about relationship. 00:33:57.460 --> 00:34:00.310 You cannot be that without investing in relationship. 00:34:00.380 --> 00:34:03.180 And, look, know sometimes I say words like that and I can stress you out. 00:34:03.180 --> 00:34:05.380 A relationship, I've got to have a relationship with people that love Jesus. 00:34:05.720 --> 00:34:06.900 Those things take time. 00:34:07.020 --> 00:34:12.199 So you have to start investing in people now to build that kind of connection, to pour into one another. 00:34:12.260 --> 00:34:13.560 But it's important that you invest. 00:34:13.719 --> 00:34:21.020 I think it would be worth just saying to us, guys, don't get to the end of your life having never made a disciple for Jesus and having 00:34:21.020 --> 00:34:23.320 never walked with disciples of Jesus. 00:34:24.880 --> 00:34:25.460 So here it is. 00:34:26.520 --> 00:34:28.730 Let me give us this recap and I'll pray and close us. 00:34:30.020 --> 00:34:33.909 Be aware of sin and the destruction it brings. 00:34:36.159 --> 00:34:36.860 Don't downplay that. 00:34:38.420 --> 00:34:39.400 Don't sweep it under the rug. 00:34:41.040 --> 00:34:41.940 Don't act like it's not significant. 00:34:43.739 --> 00:34:45.440 And don't look at moralism as the solution. 00:34:47.860 --> 00:34:49.139 Look to Jesus. 00:34:50.780 --> 00:34:53.940 Be saturated in the grace of God that transforms you. 00:34:53.940 --> 00:35:01.040 I mean, verse 13 should become just that song of hope that we can sing in the midst of all that we see here that we're going to talk 00:35:01.040 --> 00:35:01.660 more about. 00:35:01.720 --> 00:35:04.400 But the Lord also has allowed your sins to pass. 00:35:04.760 --> 00:35:05.600 You shall not die. 00:35:07.200 --> 00:35:09.040 The Lord allows your sin to pass. 00:35:10.960 --> 00:35:18.160 When you look at what God does for David and his sin, we find in our own heart that we have a place to be renewed because 00:35:18.240 --> 00:35:18.600 of the Lord. 00:35:20.260 --> 00:35:26.870 When you turn from these things in your life, you're not earning a way to salvation. 00:35:29.040 --> 00:35:32.940 What you're doing is you're receiving the way that Jesus has provided for you. 00:35:35.440 --> 00:35:37.620 Pursuing Jesus is not about being good enough. 00:35:39.000 --> 00:35:41.260 Can I tell you guys, grace is not for good people? 00:35:42.780 --> 00:35:45.720 Like if you think you're all right or good, you don't even understand grace. 00:35:46.200 --> 00:35:47.420 We don't understand grace. 00:35:49.660 --> 00:35:56.700 Grace is about recognizing in our own lives, in our hearts, man, there are things that come out of me that I don't like 00:35:56.700 --> 00:35:58.220 and I like to pretend that they aren't there. 00:36:00.220 --> 00:36:05.260 What I realize is they're ugly and they need Jesus. 00:36:07.320 --> 00:36:11.660 And the beauty is Jesus pursues me right there. 00:36:13.580 --> 00:36:18.840 He knew that and that's why he came, because he loves you right there. 00:36:20.160 --> 00:36:22.240 And he wants to transform your heart in that moment. 00:36:23.860 --> 00:36:24.310 Be a Nathan. 00:36:25.320 --> 00:36:25.880 Find a Nathan. 00:36:26.600 --> 00:36:27.480 May God work in your life.