Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

I’ve gotten into the habit of watching car wrecks on YouTube.

It’s strange, I know, but it’s kind of become my thing.

It’s about the cleanest thing you can find, after all.

It’s one of those things where you’re always driving by car accidents on the road, and you always wonder what happened; so, watching them on tv allows you to see how it happened.

I’ve begun to start seeing some common patterns that come from wrecks.

And now, that I’ve been able to see the patterns, I’m usually able to predict where the wreck is going to happen before it happens.

It seems so obvious to me.

I’m yelling at the TV telling them that they can’t see over the hill or that the light is red, but they’re totally oblivious.

They have no idea.

They don’t see it.

It’s really similar actually to what I often see in ministry.

Over 16 years of ministry, you begin to be able to start identifying some common patterns in people who are headed toward a crash.

And, it can be quite traumatizing because it’s like you’re in another car watching someone headed toward a crash, and you just feel powerless to stop it.

You want to wave your arms and keep them from danger, but they just don’t see it.

They just barrel onward toward an inevitable demise.

God’s Word

That’s really how I feel when I read about David’s secret sin with Bathsheba.

You see him barreling down on his own demise, and you just want to shout and raise your hands and warn him about the dangers ahead.

It seems like it should be so clear what he should do and not do, where he should go and not go, but he doesn’t any way.

He goes any way.

And, what’s interesting is that God calls David his very son.

So, here’s a man that knows God and loves God, a man who is even filled with the Holy Spirit as God’s anointed, and he totally self-destructs.

What are we to make of this?

David helps us to continue trying to discern how a person can live a secret life.

He shows us that any person holds a great capacity for self-destruction within them.

In fact, David shows us that each one of us has the ability to self-destruct ourselves.

But, as we continue on with the story, we’re able to see how we can understand, avoid, and even return from a time of self-destruction, and it can help us as we cope with what to do with those we love who self-destruct.

Three Lingering Questions of a Self-destructed Christian (Headline):

How does a Christian “self-destruct”?

David was content to move on with is life.

He’s destroyed everything in his path.

He’s brought devastation into the lives of Bathsheba and Uriah.

And, he just wants to close the door and pretend like nothing happened at all.

That’s the human impulse, isn’t it?

Just close the door to the junk closet of your life — to the secrets you’ve kept and the pain you’ve caused.

But, God sent a preacher, and he sent a preacher so that David would have to look at the things in his life that he didn’t want to look at.

David couldn’t see how bad it was.

2 Samuel 12:1-6 “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.

The rich man had very many flocks and herds, 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.

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.”

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, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.””

Why did Nathan have to tell David a parable?

Why didn’t Nathan didn’t just come and tell David that he’d sinned against God and that God was displeased with him?

Verses 5-6 make clear the reason.

David is totally oblivious to the significance of his sin.

David hears this whole story, and it doesn’t even register with him that he’s the rich man.

In fact, Nathan even gives him clues.

In verse 3, he says that the poor man’s ewe lamb is like his “daughter”, or in Hebrew, his “bath” (bot).

And, who did David have an affair with?

“BATHsheba” (Daughter of Sheba).

There’s these clues being given, but David isn’t hearing them.

So, Nathan tells the story because it’s easier to see evil from the outside in than it is from the inside out.

David hears how this poor, innocent man has been taken advantage of, and he becomes enraged.

But, his rage is hypocritical because he’s the man.

Most of the times that I’ve watched someone self-destruct they couldn’t see it.

From the outside, you can perceive that the person is changing and moving and distancing, but if you point it out to them, they’re oblivious.

It should give us real pause when people who love us and care about us see warning signs we don’t see.

David could justify every action.

2 Samuel 12:7-9 “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.

And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah.

And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more.

Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight?

You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.”

In verse 7, God is speaking to David directly through Nathan.

You’ll notice that He speaks in the first person.

Imagine how it must’ve sent a shiver down the spine of David to hear God describe to him the details of his own sins.

And, if we think about what God says to David, we’re able to see what else characterizes his self-destructing heart.

First of all, God reminds David of all that He’d given him.

(king/delivered you/your master’s house/your master’s wives/the house of Israel and Judah) God had given him power, wealth, and success, but it wasn’t enough.

David was discontent.

David received the generosity of God, and his response was “I need more than this.”

Then, God reminds David of all that He’d made him to be.

In other words, the emphasis is on what “I (God) have made you to be.”

David was just an outcast shepherd boy, but God had made him a hero, a king, a man of honor.

But, David had become arrogant.

He begun to live like he was entitled.

Not only was David saying, “I need more than this,” but he was saying, “I deserve more than this.”

And, lastly God reminds him that He had been open-handed with David.

(“If this were too little, I would add to you as much more.”)

David only had to ask, and God would have given more.

But, David was way past asking; now, he was taking.

Remember what it says in 11:4 when David acts upon his lusts: “So David sent messengers and took her...” Do you hear how David justified his actions?

“I need this!

I deserve this! I’m going to take it!”

How many affairs are justified the same way?

“I needed more!”

How many people justify what they’ve stolen the same way?

“My family deserves better!” There’s no evil that the human heart can’t justify.

And, when you begin to make yourself feel good about evil, you can be certain you’re headed toward self-destruction.

David didn’t care what God thought.

2 Samuel 12:9 “Why have you despised the word of the Lord, to do what is evil in his sight?

You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.”

But, be sure to hear the ultimate charge that God makes so that you can see what all of this amounted to.

God asks, and I want you to imagine him asking you this face-to-face like He did David, “Why have you despised my word?”

You see, David didn’t see how bad his sin was; he could justify every, single thing he did; and, he’d gotten to the point where he really didn’t care what God thought about it.