Put the Crown Back On

2 Samuel 12:26-31

26 Meanwhile Joab fought against Rabbah of the Ammonites and captured the royal citadel. 27 Joab then sent messengers to David, saying, “I have fought against Rabbah and taken its water supply. 28 Now muster the rest of the troops and besiege the city and capture it. Otherwise I will take the city, and it will be named after me.”

29 So David mustered the entire army and went to Rabbah, and attacked and captured it. 30 David took the crown from their king’s head, and it was placed on his own head. It weighed a talent of gold, and it was set with precious stones. David took a great quantity of plunder from the city 31 and brought out the people who were there, consigning them to labor with saws and with iron picks and axes, and he made them work at brickmaking. David did this to all the Ammonite towns. Then he and his entire army returned to Jerusalem.

The title of this message is, put the crown back on.

We've been talking about how all of us have things in our hearts that, if left unchecked or undealt with, turn into monsters in our lives, and King David has been a great case study of this for us. His envy led to sin with Bathsheba, which left him wearing the shame of what he'd done, and resulted in a terrible loss that he had to grieve.

What started as something small turned into a monster that wrecked havoc on David's life.

And if these two chapters were the whole of David's story, we'd have such a different view of David. We'd tell the story about the man who had so much potential and blew it. The king who could have been. But twice, once in 1 Samuel 13 and once in Acts 13, the Bible calls David a "man after God's own heart."

It makes sense to say that in 1 Samuel 13, because 1 Samuel 13 took place before all of this mess in David's life. But the one that doesn't make any sense is the one in Acts 13. This mess of David's life was well documented by that point. How could anyone look at him after what he'd done and still say that?

2 Samuel 12 is the key.

Do you remember how all of this mess started? 2 Samuel 11 said,

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.

We've all got our when we were supposed to be off doing something else, we stayed where we shouldn't have been. In fact, in many of our stories, just like David, those moments have become some of the most infamous and painful moments of our lives.

And for many of us, it's hard to believe that the God of the universe would actually forgive us for what we did in those moments. It takes everything in us to let God love us, give us grace, and forgive us for our sin because we know deep down that we don't deserve it.

But if all that God did for David was forgive him, I don't know if that would constitute David still being called a man after God's own heart. If David was only forgiven, I think it wouldn't have been held against him, but this moment would have continued to be a defining one in his story.

I think the reason David remained a man after God's own heart, even after the mess that sin made in his life, was because God forgave him AND restored him. Here's what I mean: God gave David permission to try again.

This whole time, David should have been off at war fighting the Ammonites, and instead he was at home using the Ammonites to kill Uriah so he could get what he wanted.

But in 2 Samuel 12,

29 So David mustered the entire army and went to Rabbah, and attacked and captured it. 30 David took the crown from their king’s head, and it was placed on his own head. It weighed a talent of gold, and it was set with precious stones. David took a great quantity of plunder from the city 31 and brought out the people who were there, consigning them to labor with saws and with iron picks and axes, and he made them work at brickmaking. David did this to all the Ammonite towns. Then he and his entire army returned to Jerusalem.

In a way, David put his crown down when he stayed home from war the first time. The a king's crown represents the office they hold. It represents the beautiful and weighty work they've been called to do. And int eh springtime when those who wear the crown go off to war, David set the crown down and stayed home.

But 2 Samuel 12 is proof that God gave David permission to try again. God told David to put the crown back on.

Students, hear me when I say this. The measure of how sorry you are for what you've done is not how long you hold yourself on the hook. God isn't looking for you to prove how sorry you are for the things you've done by staying home and dreaming about what could have been if you hadn't done that. God is inviting you to try again. To do what you should've done the first time.

God is inviting you to put the crown of what He's called you to back on.

I know you messed up big time on Friday night, confess it, receive forgiveness, and put the crown of bringing Jesus to your lost friends back on Monday morning. They need what you've been called to do.

I know you set the crown down and dishonored your parents. Put the crown back on and honor your father and mother today.

I know you set the crown down and walked away from your faith for a while, put the crown back on and come back to Jesus today! Why would you wait another day? He's been actively waiting for you!

My prayer for us is NOT that we would be people who never mess up and never set the crown of what God has called us to down. My prayer is that, in the moments where we fall short and we do that there would be as little time as possible from the moment we set the crown down to when we put the crown back on.