One Ring, One Choice

Message Outline: David & Bathsheba

Main Passage: 2 Samuel 11–12 (David’s sin, cover-up, Nathan’s confrontation, confession)

one choice of compromise can change everything

I. Don’t Get Caught Slippin

“One choice can break you, but one choice can remake you.”

“In the spring, when kings go off to war… David stayed behind.” (2 Samuel 11:1)

David was idle → sin started small (a glance → lust → adultery → murder).

Sin often begins when we’re not where we’re supposed to be.

Temptation promises power and pleasure but blinds us to consequences.

Illustration (Clip #1):

Boromir tries to take the Ring from Frodo (Fellowship of the Ring).

He starts off noble but the Ring tempts him subtly until he snaps.

Just like David — temptation escalated until he betrayed trust.

II. The Cover-Up Costs More

“David sent word… Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest…” (2 Samuel 11:15)

Sin leads to more sin: lust → adultery → lies → murder.

Covering sin never erases it, it multiplies it.

What we try to hide eventually controls us.

Illustration (Clip #2):

Gollum with the Ring (Two Towers).

His obsession leads to lies, betrayal, and ruin.

David’s obsession with covering up his sin mirrored this destruction.

In this unsettling inner-dialogue scene, Gollum debates with himself over the Ring—an internal battle between his better and worse natures. Like David’s attempts to cover his sin, Gollum’s confusion reveals how obsession consumes.

III. Getting Called Out

“Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man!’” (2 Samuel 12:7)

God loves us enough to confront us with truth.

Without conviction, there can be no confession.

Accountability (Nathan) is God’s mercy, not judgment.

Illustration (Clip #3):

Frodo and Sam – Sam confronts Frodo (Return of the King).

Sam challenges Frodo not to give in to the Ring.

Nathan’s confrontation = Sam’s reminder that Frodo is not himself when enslaved to sin.

Sam’s act of carrying Frodo up Mount Doom is a profound image of confronting sin in love and refusing to let someone remain enslaved by it. This mirrors Nathan confronting David—not out of condemnation, but out of caring accountability.

IV. Fall. Fail. Forgiven.

“I have sinned against the Lord.” (2 Samuel 12:13)

Forgiveness is real, but sin still carries consequences.

God restores when we repent (Psalm 51).

David was broken but not abandoned.

Illustration (Clip #4):

Frodo at Mount Doom (Return of the King).

He gives in to temptation, but redemption still comes — the Ring is destroyed.

Even in failure, God can bring restoration.

Here Frodo, overwhelmed by the Ring, fails to destroy it, yet restoration comes through Gollum’s fall and grace prevails. It illustrates that even when we fall, God can still bring redemption—just as David’s confession in Psalm 51 leads to restoration.

🔑 Big Takeaway for Students

Sin is stronger than you think.

Truth is more painful than you want.

Grace is greater than you deserve.

I want to welcome you all this morning to Day 4 of Spiritual Emphasis week. So far the week has been powerful and we’ve been learning all bout the life of King David.

Today we continue in that trajectory. but today I want to put up a picture of something. And I’m going to ask you a question. I want just a few quick answers, but it’s an intense question....

Are you ready?

Ok here goes… show the picture of the One Ring.

If this ring gave you unlimited power, but it’s one draw back is that it would slowly destroy you… would you still wear it?

Allow answers...

That’s the same tension that King David faced... David thought that he could handle a small look… but one choice broke him.

One Choice Can Break you… (turn)

Let’s go to God in prayer before we go to His Word.

When prayer is done sit on the one chair in the middle of the stage. While reading the verse.

The tile of this message today is One Ring, One Choice.

See like I alluded to earlier, David had one choice to make and that choice brought major consequences to his life.

Let’s read.

2 Samuel 11:1–3 ESV

1 In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. 2 It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. 3 And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, “Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?”

In the springtime when Kings go to war, David stayed home. His throne was full, but his life was empty and that’s when temptation came.

The reason this verse starts off like this is because it’s telling us right off the bat. David wasn’t where he was supposed to be. Instead of being off at war like all Kings did. Instead of being with his army fighting the good fight. He was at home in his throne. Probably chilling watching some Netflix, maybe scrolling through Instagram. And it happened that late one afternoon David probably had enough of Netflix that he arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of his palace. Probably the balcony.

Here’s the truth about this next part. Sin often begins when we’re not where we are supposed to be.

How many times have you gotten yourselves into trouble, with sin mind you. Because you were at your boyfriends house when you should not have been. Because you are that party you should not have gone to.

I want to warn you this morning. For you sake...

ONE CHOCIE CAN BREAK YOU....

I. Don’t Get Caught Slippin.

Because for David, that’s when his Instagram feed went dark. He sees a woman bathing. And the Bible says that the woman was very beautiful.

David had been idle and let’s face it that was the first wrong thing he did. His sin started off small. Just a glance, then it was Just an inquiry who is this woman?

Now mind you, when his servants said is that not Uriah’s wife? He should honestly have been done with it. But temptation doesn’t work like that. See David got caught slippin.

Let me show you a clip from LOTR that illustrates this moment perfectly. In this movie Frodo is given a ring that he must take to Mount Doom and destroy. This ring is the cause of every great evil in the world. This is the ring I asked that if you would take the ring if it gave unlimited power but destroyed you slowly from the inside out. Let’s watch the clip really quick.

Video #1

This is the famous moment when Boromir, previously noble and trustworthy, succumbs to the Ring’s allure and attempts to take it from Frodo. It basically show how temptation can corrupt even the best individuals.

The Bible calls David a man after God’s own heart.

The truth is that anyone can Get caught slippin. Even a Man after God’s oeventually Sinwn heart. Why because Sin promises power and pleasure, it promises the world, when what it actually delivers is death.

The worst part about it is that David’s temptation doesn’t end there. Look at the rest of the verses.

2 Samuel 11:4–9 ESV

4 So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.) Then she returned to her house. 5 And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.” 6 So David sent word to Joab, “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent Uriah to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing and how the people were doing and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. 9 But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his lord, and did not go down to his house.

David gave in completely. He sleeps with Bathsheba, and then we find out probably one month in that She is pregnant and she sends word to David.

One choice can break you…

David knew that he go caught slippin so as you can see he tries to get Uriah Bathsheba’s wife to come back and go home.

But instead of going home and sleeping with his wife. Uriah stays in the palace. When David asks why he did that.

Uriah basically says that he couldn’t go home and have fun while his brothers were fighting for their King. He needed to be with them.

Young People, you don’t realize this but sin leads to more sin. Sometimes because you keep falling and sometimes because you want to mitigate the consequences of the first sin. It’s what David did because one Choice broke him.

II The Cover up Costs More

David tries to cover up his sin and it just led to more lies and eventually Murder dun dun dunnnnn

Lets keep reading Gods word

2 Samuel 11:14–27 ESV

14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. 15 In the letter he wrote, “Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die.” 16 And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. 17 And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died. 18 Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting. 19 And he instructed the messenger, “When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, 20 then, if the king’s anger rises, and if he says to you, ‘Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelech the son of Jerubbesheth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died at Thebez? Why did you go so near the wall?’ then you shall say, ‘Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.’ ” 22 So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. 23 The messenger said to David, “The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. 24 Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king’s servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also.” 25 David said to the messenger, “Thus shall you say to Joab, ‘Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now one and now another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it.’ And encourage him.” 26 When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. 27 And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.

I want you to focus om that last verse. David: A Man after God’s own Heart...

Displeased the Lord

But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.

I don’t know about you, but I do not want to be on the receiving end of Displeasing the Lord.

Don’t get me wrong we do it all the time… but still. Those are scary words. Especially being that the chapter ends with those words

Young people what we try to bury always comes back. David tried to bury his Sin. and that One Choice Broke Him.

If you remember when I spoke about the RIng in LOTR in this next scene Gollum the original ring bearer debates with himself over the ring. Let’s watch it real quick

Video 2

Like David’s attempts to cover his sin… Gollum’s confusuion reveals how obsession consumes you. It reveals how trying to cover up you sin, places you in a spiral web of lies and brokenness that just consumes you.

Covering sin never erases it, it just multiplies it. What we try to hide eventually just controls us.

Why cause One Choice can Break You.… but One choice can Remake you...

Here’s the beauty of God...

Even though it had displeased the Lord he sends someone to Help David realize that he had done wrong.

III. Getting Called Out

Let’s read what happens in the next passage

2 Samuel 12:1–7 ESV

1 And the Lord sent Nathan to David. He came to him and said to him, “There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had very many flocks and herds, 3 but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up, and it grew up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms, and it was like a daughter to him. 4 Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.” 5 Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against the man, and he said to Nathan, “As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, 6 and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.” 7 Nathan said to David, “You are the man! Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul.

YOU ARE THE MAN

Nathan didn’t go up to David and say like someone from the world would have done, yooo David, You got Bathsheba? You had her husband killed? You are the Man!!!

No it was You are the man that did this horrible thing in the eyes of the Lord

God loves us enough to confront us with the truth. In this case God brings accountability in the form of Nathan the prophet because that was God’s mercy. Not judgement.

Just like when He had asked Adam and Eve in the Garden where they were to see if they would fess up and take responsibility for their actions instead of blaming anyone else.

Why does God bring Nathan, because in all honesty Without conviction there can be no confession. If you don’t realize that you have done wrong. Then why would you confess your sins to God.

I want you to see another clip from LOTR in this clip Sam confronts Frodo and becomes that accountability for him. It’s one of the reason side not that we need Godly people around us.

Video 3

Sam challenges Frodo not to give into the ring. They’re almost there at Mount Doom, the Ring is about to be destroyed and Frodo is pretty much giving up. But Sam picks him up and carries him the rest of the way

This was Sam’s reminder that Frodo was not himself when enslaved to sin. When enslaved to the Ring.

One Choice can Break you… One choice can remake you

We have arrived at the final point of the day.

IV Fall Fail Forgiven

2 Samuel 12:13 ESV

13 David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.

“I have sinned against the Lord.” (2 Samuel 12:13)

Forgiveness is real, but sin still carries consequences.

God restores when we repent (Psalm 51).

David was broken but not abandoned.

Illustration (Clip #4):

Frodo at Mount Doom (Return of the King).

He gives in to temptation, but redemption still comes — the Ring is destroyed.

Even in failure, God can bring restoration.

Here Frodo, overwhelmed by the Ring, fails to destroy it, yet restoration comes through Gollum’s fall and grace prevails. It illustrates that even when we fall, God can still bring redemption—just as David’s confession in Psalm 51 leads to restoration.

Psalm 51:10–12 ESV

10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. 11 Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

David was broken in his sin but whn he confessed God retores soul.

He came alive again

David thought that he was finshed but when he praye this God brough him back to life

That’s what he wants for us tonight tobring dead hearts back to life

Pray Call Come Alive