No Longer Slaves
Notes
Transcript
What’s hidden in the dark will eventually leave its mark.
Connection
Tell the story of when we had a water leak in the downstairs and mold grew and we needed remediation.
Use the metaphor of mold growing in a dark, damp basement. On the surface, everything looks fine upstairs—but in the places we don’t visit often, rot is setting in.
“The thing about mold is this—it grows best in the dark, and it doesn’t stay hidden forever. It starts showing up in the air you breathe, the health of your house, and eventually, the structure itself.”
Have you ever done something you thought no one would ever know about? Or held onto a secret for so long you almost convinced yourself it didn’t happen?
We live in a world obsessed with image, filters, and personal branding. We tend to shy away from confronting the dark spots in us b/c well… what does that say about us?
Word
Verse by verse.
1 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.
2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful,
3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.”
4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home.
David stayed behind when kings were supposed to go to war. David is the warrior king! He should be with the Ark and the army, what is he doing at home? His men and the people that keep him accountable are all gone, he is alone hanging out in the palace. You need to know this...
Isolation is dangerous.
He saw Bathsheba bathing, desired her, and acted on that desire.
David’s biggest mistake didn’t come from losing a battle, it came during an moment when he was off guard. Think ahead ! ! !
5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
David sends word to his general, Joab, to send Uriah (her husband) home.
David’s got a slick plan, get him home, been away for a while, he’ll want to get some of that — easy day I am not the one that got her pregnant.
Uriah refuses. Paraphrase the next part.
6 So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David.
7 When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going.
8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him.
9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.
10 David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?”
Uriah won’t go, he wants to stay where he should be — where David should be.
11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”
The presence of God is at war, my men are at war, I shall not spend time with my wife while they are at war.
Paraphrase the next part.
12 Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.
13 At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home.
14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah.
15 In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”
16 So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were.
17 When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died.
Preach through this, line by line, highlighting the lengths David is going in order to avoid the consequences of his sin.
Bathsheba is pregnant. David tries to manipulate Uriah into sleeping with her.
When that doesn’t work, he orders Uriah’s death.
Point: Sin seeks cover. In other words, we never want sin to be out in the open, we want it hidden sometimes we’ll go the extreme lengths to hide sin.
Be honest for just a moment, haven’t you done some things that you then tried to hide….
Relationship you shouldn’t have had.
Money you shouldn’t have spent.
1 The Lord sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor.
2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle,
3 but the poor man had nothing except 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.
4 “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.”
5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die!
6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.
8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more.
9 Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.
10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’
11 “This is what the Lord says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity on you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will sleep with your wives in broad daylight.
12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’ ”
God will send someone to correct you — the problem is half the time we don’t listen.
David decides to listen.
13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. You are not going to die.
The child that is born out of this sin… it eventually dies. Very sad. David pleaded for the child but the Lord did not answer that prayer.
Some people don’t understand this — think of it like a gift.
Children are a gift from God.
God took away the gift. He was going to give it to David, but David’s behavior caused the gift to be taken away.
I wish this wasn’t true, sin has consequences.
Jesus rescues from sin, but not always from the consequences.
God is graceful even in our wickedness.
God is graceful even in our mess.
Application
Isn’t true that we are like David sometimes? We so intentionally, we know better but we do it anyway?
Here’s the deal: you’ll be confronted with your sin at some point. It always comes up, it always rears it’s ugly head and when it does you have a choice.
The longer you carry the more damage that is done.
Bag illustration — heavy bag — the longer you carry it to worse it is for you.
Inspiration
David’s story didn’t end in shame—it ended in Psalm 51.
Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Sure David sinned, but more importantly, he repented.
Repentance: Turn away from sin.
INVITATION
The best part is Jesus covers that sin, you’re no longer a slave to it. If David would’ve kept going he would have been a sin to it.
Let’s be honest… aren’t you kind of a slave to yours?
Lust
Greed
Selfishness
Idolatry
Jesus offers freedom from it… and all you to do is pray like David prayed.
10 Create in me a pure heart, O God,
and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
