I feel stuck...

Well, we are continuing our series, / / Hear My Cry, looking at some lessons from the life of David in the scriptures.

Last week we looked at the story of David & Goliath, the 9ft 4in champion of the Philistine Army who stood out in a filed and shouted insults at the Israelite army, putting them down, putting down their king, and putting down God himself.

In 1 Samuel 17:10 Goliath says, / / “I defy the armies of Israel today! Send me a man who will fight me!”

That word means to expose, to uncover, defame. And that’s what giants try to do. So we looked at what it takes to defeat the giants in our lives. Because we all have them. Things we face that seem:

/ / Bigger than us

Stronger than us

Louder than us

/ / People don’t feel on our side - That other people don’t think we can overcome, even our closest friends and family, those who we thought would support us don’t always see the giant slayer in us.

And the Direct Opposition of that giant that challenges our faith and causes us to doubt any action we want to make toward it.

All of those things, we face them when we face our giants. They are real. There’s no denying them. We’re not faking it.

Life isn’t always easy. When you get into it with your kids, or your spouse, or your boss, or co-workers. When you feel like hope is far away, when you feel like you’re surrounded by the pressure of life. And it’s not a lack of faith to say this is beyond me. That might just be the thing that brings you to a place of faith, because by the nature of faith itself, it is in a God who can do what we can not!

This is what we see when we look at how David expressed himself through the poetry of the Psalms. This beautiful insight into what’s really going on in his heart behind the scenes.

That’s something we don’t always get in the bible, and I think it paints a really amazing picture. It shows the humanity of the people we read about. If all you get from the story is that David grabs lions and bears by the jaw and beats them to death with a club. That he’s this small, young kid wearing zero armor running across a field toward a giant with a stick and a sling and 5 stones in his pocket, you are NOT going to think, “Ya, I can do that...”

That’s the whole point of this story and why we are looking at it. Because it wasn’t that David was strong. It wasn’t David that was great. Even after saying all of the stuff he’d done, saved the sheep, attacked a lion and bear head on, he doesn’t attribute it to himself, he says of those situations in 1 Samuel 17:37, / / “The Lord who rescued me from the claws of the lion and the bear will rescue me from the Philistine!”

Then he looks that giant right in the eye and says, / / “You come at me with sword, spear, and javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of Heaven’s armies - the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. Today the Lord will conquer you… and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. And everyone assembled here will know that the Lord rescues his people, but not with sword and spear. This is the Lord’s battle...”

So sure, giants come at us. But like David we can pull on these things he had.

/ / Faith built on experience - Don’t forget what God has done. Thank him for the blessings in your life. Thank him for the air you breath. Listen, we don’t have to look hard to see God in our lives. And I’m not talking about, Thank God I was born here and not in a third world country, or thank God I was born into this family and not that family…But what we all can, regardless of our situation, our upbringing, our location, or anything else. Thank God for the air in my lungs. That I woke up this morning. Thank God for the sun that rises on the earth. The rain that waters the ground. We can all start there.

There’s a scripture in the book of Romans. Paul is writing this letter to the church in Rome around the year AD 57. Ya know, when we read the gospels and see the tension between Rome and the Jewish people, it just keeps growing after the death of Jesus until AD 66 there’s a rebellion in Israel and the current Emperor, Nero dispatches an army to deal with it. Four years later the walls of Jerusalem are breached and the city is absolutely ransacked, the temple destroyed. The very center of Judaism.

So, Paul is writing a letter to the church in Rome, the center of the Roman empire. A city of about a million people at that point. Where the religious culture was heavily influenced by Greek mythology AND they practiced the actual worship of the Emperor. The Caesars claimed divinity, saying that they were gods themselves. Rome contained all sorts of temples and shrines and places of ‘worship’.

That’s just to paint a bit of a picture of the climate and situation that Paul is writing to when he writes this book, Romans. And in Romans 1 he says this of all people, / / They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.

I said last week, I’m absolutely amazed at the photos coming back from the James Webb Telescope. I have to be careful not to get sucked into thinking too deeply on space because it just about breaks my brain. The size, and magnitude of this universe that God created is just unreal. And What Paul is saying here is, “If you just look around, you will see God at work...” The complexity of our lives, of our bodies, of the world around us. It screams, “THERE IS A GOD AND HE IS A GOOD CREATOR!”

But the opposite is true as well. He continues in Romans 1:21, 28 saying, / / Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn’t worship him as God or even give him thanks… Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness...

/ / Experiencing God begins with recognizing God!

Hebrews 11:6 says, / / Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him.

The very simple formula for having an experience with God in your life is this:

/ / 1. Believing that He actually exists

2. Believing that He is a good and generous God.

3. Living your life seeking after Him.

So, David had experience which built his faith. He saw God in the moments of His life, even if it wasn’t a “miracle”… We see this in the poetry of Psalm 19.

/ / The heavens proclaim the glory of God. The skies display his craftsmanship. Day after day they continue to speak; night after night they make him known. They speak without a sound or word; their voice is never heard. Yet their message has gone throughout the earth, and their words to all the world. God has made a home in the heavens for the sun.

If you’re having a hard time seeing God, start by recognizing he’s done a really good job at making what you can see around you. Honor him for that. And begin to allow your heart to see past that into your own life where He has shown his faithfulness to you.

Last week we also looked at the fact that part of David’s arsenal was that he didn’t stay quiet. He didn’t just let the giants in his life speak to him, but he spoke back. / / David declared what was true. “You come at me with a sword and spear, well I’m coming at you with the name of the Lord God who will defeat you. You see me. But I see who is with me.”

And that confidence was what pushed him forward to action. Yes, there comes a point where we have to charge ahead. How many times have I prayed, and talked about the Serenity Prayer, / / God give us grace to accept with serenity the things that cannot change, COURAGE to change the things which should be changed, and the wisdom to know the difference.

There is a point where we speak the name of Jesus over our situations, we look our giants in the face and say, The Lord will have His victory in this, And then we do what we can do. David grabbed a stone and ran...

/ / Defeating giants takes real effort. It takes real determination. And it takes a real God to help us in those moments.

So, this week we’re going to continue looking at the life of David, but this week we’re going to look at how he got stuck in some things and what he should have done, and needed to do to get out of them.

I think last week, in a story about giants we see more the things in our lives that face us physically. The broken car, the mortgage, the job, relationship issues. This past week we found another water leak on the property here, that means repair bills and water bills that financially we are not prepared for. OK, will God provide? This giant that is trying to push back…Is it too big for God? Is this the one that will win? Of course not. You come at me with broken water mains and high utility bills, I STILL come at you in the name of the Lord of heaven’s armies…

This week we’re going to look at a bit more of a personal, internal struggle that David had.

Last week we ended with this huge win. David & the armies of Israel have victory. The city is singing his praises, Saul has slain his thousands, but David his tens of thousands. And remember, King Saul knew that God had already replaced him, it just hadn’t happened yet. Well, as the story goes on it becomes clear that David is the one who will replace him.

Here’s a couple tips on leadership:

/ / Always follow God first. No matter what the role, what the job or what you are doing, follow God first. It doesn’t matter if you’re a pastor, an IT guy, work in a office, a grocery store, a farm, drive a truck or not. The best advice you will EVER receive from ANYONE is follow God first. Because He is the one who leads to life.

The reason Saul was in this situation in the first place was because he didn’t follow God’s plan. He did his own thing and as a result God decided to put someone else in that would listen to him. Remember, that’s what Acts 13:22 says of this story, / / But God removed Saul and replace him with David, a man about whom God said, ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.’

And we know Saul knew what was going on because 1 Samuel 13:14, Samuel says to Saul, / / But now your kingdom must end, for the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart. The Lord has already appointed him to be the leader of his people, because you have not kept the Lord’s command.

Saul knows it’s coming, but he doesn’t know when! And the reason for it all is because he couldn’t follow directions. He’s definitely not the first person who has lost a job for that reason.

/ / When it comes to being replaced, stay humble. I’ve seen this in virtually every industry, every job type, every level of leadership, when someone feels threatened, they run the risk of become defensive and they can become very possessive of the leadership position and end up lashing out at those who would come after them.

Just look at how so many of our politicians handle themselves - and that’s on every level. People just get savage and tear down their opponents for the opportunity to have a position of power.

I’ve seen it in the church as well. Leaders who don’t know how to let the next leader step in, so they push them down for fear of losing power, or leadership, or influence.

Saul fell prey to both of those. First, he stopped following God. Then, when he started to realize that it was actually David that would be taking over, he started acting very defensive AND VERY aggressive toward him.

And this is David, the same young boy that he had called into the throne room to play his harp BECAUSE he was anointed by God, he had something special, and that actually helped bring the king some peace. But now his authority, power and influence are being threatened.

See, David was pulling double duty. 1 Samuel 19 says that war broke out again, David went and led his troops against the Philistines, but it also says he was playing his harp for the king one day. So he’s going back and forth between positions where he’s visibly a leader, and where he’s serving the king. I remember when I was in Toronto I would lead worship at these conferences with a few thousand people in them, and then I would go work in the cafeteria because that’s what paid the bills, and people would leave the service, come to buy food and see me at the cash register and say, “umm… weren’t you the guy just up there leading all of us?” So I get it...

But Saul wasn’t handling that very well... 1 Samuel 19:10-11 says one day when David was playing his harp for the king, / / Saul hurled his spear at David. But David dodged out of the way, and leaving the spear stuck in the wall, he fled and escaped into the night. Then Saul sent troops to watch David’s house. They were told to kill David when he came out in the morning.

That’s TWO chapters after David saves Israel from the Philistine army and Goliath!

And then, if you remember the last thing I mentioned last week that David had that was part of his arsenal in defeating giants was his / / humility.

Unfortunately, that humility wasn’t a constant, and today’s story that we’re going to look at starts with a lack of humility which ends up causing some pretty serious problems.

We’re going to fast forward a bit. The rest of the book of 1 Samuel, straight through to chapter 31 is full of tension between Saul & David, between Israel and the Philistines, and Saul is killed in battle, and in 2 Samuel 2 David is made king. Here’s the problem. David sees incredible success in war. Victory after victory. He’s married to one of Saul’s daughters. He’s a king to be revered, and to be feared. It seems nothing was going wrong for him. But that humility he once lived by starts to wain.

We’re going to jump all the way to 2 Samuel 11 this morning and look at what David went through and how we can pull some wisdom from his mistakes. Putting this story into context it happened roughly 3000 years ago, 1000 years before Jesus is born. This is the ancient middle east. David is the King at this point and the world is a very different place.

/ / In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites. They destroyed the Ammonite army and laid siege to the city of Rabbah. However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem.

Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath. He sent someone to find out who she was, and he was told, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” Then David sent messengers to get her; and when she came to the palace, he slept with her. She had just completed the purification rites... Then she returned home. Later, when Bathsheba discovered that she was pregnant, she sent David a message, saying, “I’m pregnant.”

Ok, so, some people might read that story and simply ask, “Sounds like two consenting adults… what’s the issue?”

Great question. So the bible does not hold back on stories where these types of situations were forced, and so the simple fact that it is written in that way, ‘When she came to the palace, he slept with her.’ indicates that there was probably no foul play. Now, it may have been that he’s the king, she doesn’t rightly feel like she can say no, or the position is simply a draw, she wants to say yes. None of that is made clear. But there isn’t any indication of anything other than two consenting adults. It doesn’t say she went away in shame or fear or regret.

BUT, David is married. Bathsheba is married. And we just finished our series on the 10 commandments, right? These instructions God has given Israel so that they will live a good life in the land they’ve been given.

/ / Commandment #7, Do not commit adultery - that is, simply put, sleep with someone who isn’t your spouse...

/ / Commandment #10 Do not covet [have an intense desire to possess] your neighbor’s house, your neighbor’s wife or any of his things...

Where we seem to be at now in society is, “Well, if it’s two consenting adults then it’s all good.” But that completely bypasses any sort of moral obligation - it completely undoes a desire in society to look at what is right, what should be. And we have to remember that the instructions God gives, the leading of Jesus Christ is not so he can just control us and be a buzz kill. He doesn’t say don’t do these things, because he doesn’t want us to have fun. He says don’t do these things because these are the things that do NOT produce life, in fact, they produce death, not always you’re dead, but death in our lives, issues, problems, as we are going to see in the story of David and Bathsheba, it created a whole world of problems.

And this story is basically just the story of sin, of missing the mark, of going outside of what God’s design for David’s life, for Bathsheba’s life, and as a result, there is coverup, there is more sin, and there is consequence. And there’s a good chance, unless you are perfect, which, if you are, let me know, I want you to pray for me - we’ve all been through this type of scenario at some level or another. Not having done the same things, but gone through the same process, as we will see.

So, the first thing we want to look at is that this really is / / the journey toward sin. We’re always talking about the journey to follow Christ, but equally, there is a journey toward sin, it’s got a road map. When Jesus said in Matthew 7:14 that the road to life is narrow and hard, he also said that the road to destruction is wide and easy and many choose that road. Making the difficult decision and following through isn’t as common as you might think. I’m sure we’ve all heard it said at some point or another, something to the effect that, All people are generally good… or heard someone say, “Ya, but I’m a good person....” and I absolutely, 100% believe that all people have the potential, and the inherent ability to be good, but that takes choice, that takes the decision to do so.

The first question we want to ask from the life of David, at this point in the story, that we can all relate to is:

/ / 1. Where are you and what time is it?

Really, two questions here - where are you, and what times is it?

Why are those important? Let’s call it situational awareness. Understanding what is smart and what is not. Recognizing that you might be putting yourself in situations where the next decision you have to make is more difficult because of your surrounding.

If I’m trying not to eat hamburgers, french fries and milkshakes, parking my butt in McDonald’s when I haven’t eaten in a while is a pretty dumb idea.

The first thing this story says is, / / In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army......However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem.

Where are you? What time is it?

You could flip that question around and ask, “Where should you be?” Where would it make more sense for you to be right now?

David, for whatever reason, maybe pride, arrogance, losing that humility, he’s at home while his armies are out fighting. There are some bible commentaries that argue whether or not all kings were out at war at this time, sure, it’s not like it’s football season, Alright, time to get up and go kill some people…man, that was a great off season. I think we’ve got a super tight offence this year...

And there seems to be some indication that the same wording and language are used to say that this was the same time of year that the opposing armies were marching against Israel.

Either way, David isn’t with his people leading them. He’s at home taking naps.

Now, let’s bring that right up to today, 3000 years later, you can easily make this a digital question. What websites are you going to? What shows are you watching? What music are you listening to? What time is it while you are doing these things, when we know our inhibitions are weaker...

St Augustine, who lived in 354-430 AD is recognized as one of the greatest of the Latin theologians of the early church and one of the greatest christian thinkers of all time. He said that there were three stages of sin.

/ / Desire

This is what we would call the desire of our flesh. Things we want, and often times triggered by our senses, sight, smell and touch.

I think desire is inherent in all of us, and so there is a moment of recognition of something around us that tries to trigger that desire.

David’s situation. He’s on the roof, he’s in the wrong place at the wrong time and he sees a woman of unusual beauty.

This would have been a very quick story if it said, David was on the roof looking out over the city, saw a beautiful woman bathing in her courtyard and thought, “oh wow, she probably doesn’t even realize people can see right in there. I should head back inside...”

So, let’s just tackle that right away. 2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us to / / take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

For context there, it’s ultimately talking about things that attempt to break down or come up against the teachings of Jesus and the reality of God - Paul says, we destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.

So, we see something, hear something, smell something, and it triggers the desire of the flesh, which is contrary to God’s desire for our lives and in that moment we have the opportunity to take that captive and make it obedient to God’s teaching, or we walk into the second stage of sin that Augustine described as...

/ / Contemplation

The desire moves from the mind as simple recognition where we can remove it pretty quickly - to the heart where Augustine says, “one is satisfied with the mere pleasure of thought.” meaning the mind likes what it saw, likes what it smelled or whatever that trigger was and it stays with it, rather than referring it to God, taking it captive to obey Christ, it is not just allowed to stay, but it is dwelled upon.

In the world of addiction recovery we call that the Mental Obsession. For an alcoholic it can simply start as, “Man, it’s just not fair that person can drink...” And instead of employing the tools to move away from that, instead of, “God, give me grace to accept with serenity the things I cannot change and the courage to change the things I can...” it becomes, “I’m pretty sure I’m strong enough now. I can have just one...”

For me that is, “Gosh I miss pizza...” And I’m not kidding. Or not even the taste, it can be the satisfaction I had of sitting down with a bag of chips and not having any desire to stop. The weight of, “you are only allowed to eat this much” was overruled by, “Bet ya can’t eat just one...”

Here’s the thing. You can’t tell the world to stop existing. An alcoholic can’t just will for all the alcohol to be gone, or for all his friends to also stop drinking, or for the commercials on the TV to stop running. A Food addict can’t just avoid food for the rest of their lives.

But we can choose where we are, and recognize what time it is when we have that trigger, SO THAT we can take that thought captive.

And yes, I’m talking from an addicts perspective, but it’s no different for people who aren’t. How many people have ever wanted something, let’s say a new car. You decide, ya, I would love a new Silverado 2500 pickup.... And suddenly, what do you see on the road all the time? It’s not the truck you do have. It’s the truck you don’t have. The desire has wiggled its way into your heart.

And y’all know I’m not talking about you having a vision board at home with the things you want. I think we get the idea here.

David didn’t leave the roof. He watched Bathsheba and then was like, “Who is that? Someone tell me who she is...” and at that point, he’s already gone too far. So when the response is, “That’s Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite..” All David was saying was, “you had me at bath.....”

Not that she was someone’s daughter. Not that she was someone’s wife. Just that she was something he wanted.

This is why Jesus said in Matthew 5:27-28, / / “You have heard the commandment that says, ‘You must not commit adultery.’ But I say, anyone who even looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.”

The sin, the mark that God has set for us, has already been missed at this point. So then at this point Augustine says we fall to the third stage of sin:

/ / Consent

Consent of the will, when the action of sin takes place. Yes, Jesus has already defined that the act isn’t the moment of sin, because the sin took place in your heart before this point, but this is the follow through that has consequences you can’t undo.

The path out of sin from thought vs action is a different path. Yes, they are both directed to Jesus, the end result is the same, but the path out is very different.

I heard it said in a meeting once, I would rather deal with the anguish of denying myself the object of my addiction, than the consequence and regret of giving in to it.

Both are hard. Both take choice. Both require a decision to change our focus and ask God for help.

Well, David just goes barreling right through all three stages of this process. From desire, to contemplation to consent. And it’s done. And maybe David thought that was it, one time deal. But then he gets word. How long later? Scripture indicates that it would’ve had to have been about a month before she had real evidence she was probably pregnant. She may have had some indication, but she’s probably not going to jump to “King David, I’m carrying your baby.” If she just woke up sick one morning.... She probably waited until she was really sure... it’s not like she had a Walgreens down the street to grab a pregnancy test.

And Where’s David, still at home. His armies, still out fighting…

/ / Then David sent word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” So Joab sent him to David. When Uriah arrived, David asked him how Joab and the army were getting along and how the war was progressing. Then he told Uriah, “Go on home and relax.” David even sent a gift to Uriah after he had left the palace. But Uriah didn’t go home. He slept that night at the palace entrance with the king’s palace guard.

When David heard that Uriah had not gone home, he summoned him and asked, “What’s the matter? Why didn’t you go home last night after being away for s long?”

Uriah replied, “The Ark and the armies of Israel and Judah are living in tents, and Joab and my master’s men are camping in the open fields. How could I go home to wine and dine and sleep with my wife? I swear that I would never do such a thing.”

“Well, stay here today,” David told him, “and tomorrow you may return to the army.” So Uriah stayed in Jerusalem that day and the next. Then David invited him to dinner and go him drunk. But even then he couldn’t get Uriah to go home to his wife. Again he slept at the place entrance with the king’s palace guard.

The second question we need to ask, that David should have asked himself is, / / 2. What could you possibly gain by trying to cover this up?

David is trying to cover up his sin, to make it disappear - like that’s possible in our own efforts.

David tries to manipulate the situation with lies and deception. Another thing we talked through when looking at the instruction of God, the commandments and law of God, that God takes very seriously how we use our words and that he is very opposed to us using deceptive means for personal gain.

David was a true believer in God, He deeply loved God. This is the same man who wrote The Lord is my shepherd, I have all that I need. Some translations say I shall not want. And yet, here he is desiring and wanting what is not his, what he should not have, leading him to a place of abandoning the humility and trust he had in God.

Again, the bible is a unique religious text for this very reason, it does not hide the struggles of humanity.

David, who the bible says is a man after God’s own heart, was a tremendous failure at times.

And when he realizes he can’t cover this up by means of deception, he decides to cover it up by continued sin.

Maybe you haven’t dealt with this recently, but how many remember a time where you lied and that one lie ended up having to have another one and another one and another one just to keep people believing the first one? Sin, going down the path of following our own desire instead of God’s tends to require more of the same unless we are willing to come to the end of ourselves and act in humility and get back on the path that leads to life. That’s why the road to destruction is wide and easy, because there’s lots of room to walk all over the place and trip all over yourself...

The enemy will try to use this in our lives. It’s at the very beginning of the story. If you remember the story of Adam and Eve. God has created this paradise, a garden for them to live in, and tells them there’s only 1 thing they can’t do. Don’t eat from this one tree. And the enemy convinces them to eat from that, and as soon as they do, and realize the horrible mistake that it was, what do they do? They hide, they cover themselves, because they realized they weren’t wearing any clothing and they feel completely exposed.

Just like we saw last week with Goliath and external threats, these giants that we face internally, of sin and desire, of falling short of God’s best for our lives, can make us feel exposed, completely naked, when we fail.

“If people saw who I really was they would hate me, reject me, deny me, leave me, hurt me.”

It takes such absolute humility to say, “You know what, I feel completely exposed here, but I am not doing well. I messed up. I am messing up. I’m not doing right. And this is what I did and I’m willing to do what I need to do to get back on track.” That is not easy.

And if the enemy can convince you that you’ll lose more by doing that, by being honest, you’ll try to save yourself by covering up. In the Message translation of Luke 17:33 Jesus says, / / If you grasp and cling to life on your terms, you’ll lose it, but if you let that life go, you’ll get life on God’s terms.

And it’s the RESULT of life on God’s terms that we all want, but it takes living by God’s terms to find it. And as evidenced by the life of David, he couldn’t do that. When trying to trick Uriah into going home didn’t work, he comes up with another plan because he felt exposure would ruin him, so he had to cover up. Which pushed him deeper down the rabbit hole.

/ / So the next morning David wrote a letter to Joab and gave it to Uriah to deliver. The letter instructed Joab, “Station Uriah on the front lines where the battle is fiercest. Then pull back so that he will be killed.” So Joab assigned Uriah to a spot close to the city wall where he knew the enemy’s strongest men were fighting. And when the enemy soldiers came out of the city to fight, Uriah the Hittite was killed along with several other Israelite soldiers.

Then Joab sent a battle report to David. He told his messenger, “Report all the news of the battle to the king. But he might get angry and ask, ‘Why did the troops go so close to the city? Didn’t they know there would be shooting from the walls? Wasn’t Abimelech son of Gideon killed at Thebez by a woman who threw a millstone down on him from the wall? Why would you get so close to the wall?’ Then tell him, ‘Uriah the Hittite was killed, too.’”

So the messenger went to Jerusalem and gave a complete report to David. “The enemy came out against us in the open fields,” he said. “And as we chased them back to the city gate, the archers on the wall shot arrows at us. Some of the king’s men were killed, including Uriah the Hittite.”

“Well, tell Joab not to be discouraged,” David said. “The sword devours this one today and that one tomorrow! Fight harder next time, and conquer the city!”

The story goes on, and God sends Nathan, a prophet to David to confront him about it all. The sin was not without consequence. In fact, the child that Bathsheba gives birth to ends up getting sick and dying.

Now, we aren’t looking at this because we’re all struggling with the depth of these issues. I mean, this is deep. Abuse of authority, adultery, lying, cheating, manipulation, coercion, conspiracy, murder, cover up… But, the spiral of sin is the same no matter what the situation is. That’s the point. David, in this story, gives a masterclass on how not to live a righteous life.

/ / David in the wrong place at the wrong time

/ / David entertained desire instead of shutting it down

/ / David gave way to that desire, dwelled on it to the point where he wanted to act on it

/ / David acted on the desire and the sin of thought became the sin of action

/ / David’s lack of humility and fear of exposure caused him to try to cover himself

/ / When he couldn’t cover himself from people knowing, David sinned further and removed what could expose him.

That cycle is always the same.

If you pay attention to the atmosphere around you, you can learn to walk away before you even have to deal with #2-6. That doesn’t matter if it’s being around someone you shouldn’t for temptation to do the wrong thing, or being around conversation that leads you to gossiping, or avoiding situations that you know there will be alcohol around when you know you have a hard time stopping, or walking away from the table when the pizza shows up.

I think we need a new perspective on sin.

Romans 3:23 says, / / For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.

James 2:10 says, / / For the person who keeps all of the laws except one is as guilty as a person who has broken all of God’s laws. For the same God who said, “You must not commit adultery,” also said, “You must not murder.” So if you murder someone but do not commit adultery, you have still broken the law.

What is all of that saying? Sin is sin. And the the word sin, hamartano means you missed the mark.

God said, if you want to find life, do this, and you missed that and did something else…

If I want to live a long and healthy life I need to eat healthy, exercise, avoid the wrong things, and every time I miss that, I put that life that I want at jeopardy. God’s not trying to be a buzz kill, his intention is that all of us would experience life.

So whether we are like David, killing a woman’s husband so no one finds out he slept with her while he was out to war and David should have been but he wasn’t, he as at home taking naps and playing peeping tom on the roof, OR you’re Robert Augi, giving in to the desire to eat more than he should, eat when he shouldn’t, eat the wrong thing, to a point where his body is in a state of pain and let’s call it what it is, death… it doesn’t matter. Sin is sin. We are missing the mark on the journey to life.

So, what’s the remedy?

Well, that’s where David got it right. See, even a thousand years later, Luke can still write in Acts 13:22, / / ...a man about whom God said, ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.”

Did he? Maybe he did everything God wanted him to do, but what we know for sure is that he definitely did more than he was supposed to.

/ / The remedy, the answer is in that phrase, “A man after God’s own heart.”

There’s two ways you can read that, the first is ideal, the second God can work with.

The first way to read that is:

You are a man [or woman] who does things in the way that God would approve of. You are righteous. Your life exemplifies God’s character and teachings. You are a person after His own heart. You do what He would do.

That’s the ideal, you’re winning. You’re doing what you should. You’re ticking all the boxes. This is not to gain approval, or to gain acceptance or to gain salvation. We can’t win salvation by good works, we can only receive forgiveness and salvation because Jesus took all of our wrongdoing on himself, as he was nailed to a cross. Our sin, our falling short died with him. But that doesn’t mean we don’t try. First, a life of doing right honors God. 1 John 5:3 says, / / Loving God means keeping his commandments… And that’s really just echoing what Jesus said himself in John 14:15 when he said, / / If you love me, obey my commandments...

Paul said over and over again to the churches he was leading, we can’t make grace about being allowed to do whatever we want because God will still forgive us. That’s not what it’s about. In his grace is the power to do the right thing. This is why I pray so often, God give me grace to accept with serenity.... God give me grace - which means, I can’t do it on my own, I need more than I have, I need your help.

That brings me to the other meaning of “A man after God’s own heart”.

You don’t always get it right. You don’t always do the right thing. And sometimes, you mess up so bad you spiral, just like David. BUT, when confronted with the truth, when called to account, when the opportunity presents itself, you recognize it, and you turn after God’s heart.

2 Samuel 12:13 says that after Nathan had challenged David, he responded to him and said, / / “I have sinned against the Lord.”

No more hiding it. No more lies. No more coverup. I’ve been exposed and only the mercy of the Lord can make this right.

As I said, the baby ends up dying, and when that happens 2 Samuel 12:20 says, / / Then David got up from the ground, washed himself, put on lotions, and changed his clothes. He went to the Tabernacle and worshiped the Lord...

We’ve been reading the Psalms which give a bit of insight into the heart behind the man. And we see the heart of David in Psalm 51.

It says in its introduction, / / A psalm of David, regarding the time Nathan the prophet came to him after David had committed adultery with Bathsheba.

I can picture him, after that conversation with Nathan, David is alone in his room and this is what comes out of him.

/ / Have mercy on me, O God, because of your unfailing love.

Because of your great compassion, blot out the stain of my sins.

Wash me clean from my guilt. Purify me from my sin.

For I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night.

Against you, and you alone, have I sinned;

I have done what is evil in your sight.

You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgement against me is just.

For I was born a sinner - yes, from the moment my mother conceived me.

But you desire honesty from the womb, teaching me wisdom even there.

Purify me from my sins, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.

Oh, give me back my joy again; you have broken me - now let me rejoice.

Don’t keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt.

Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me.

Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.

Then I will teach your ways to rebels, and they will return to you.

Forgive me for shedding blood, O God who saves; then I will joyfully sing of your forgiveness.

Unseal my lips, O Lord, that my mouth may praise you.

You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one. You do not want a burnt offering.

The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit. You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God.

Look with favor on Zion and help her; rebuild the walls of Jerusalem.

Then you will be pleased with sacrifices offered in the right spirit - with burnt offerings and whole burnt offerings. Then bulls will again be sacrificed on your altar.

David’s heart, even though he was terribly wrong. We can all look at him and say, “you went WAY too far.” And your punishment should be severe. Yet, he turned back to God.

And you can see, this Psalm gives us such incredible insight into the journey and the toll that this thing took on him. This is another reason God gives instruction, because he knows the internal anguish that sin causes in us. Look at what David says, / / have mercy on me…I recognize my rebellion; it haunts me day and night… remove the stain of my guilt… restore my joy… renew a loyal spirit in me… make me willing to obey you… forgive me for shedding blood…

He was in anguish. This whole time, the hiding, the fear of exposure was tormenting him.

I recognized last year as I started to go to recovery meetings, that one of the very first things that addiction tries to do in us is cause hiddenness. If the enemy can get you to hide what you’re thinking, hide what you’re feeling, hide what you’re doing, he’s got you stuck because to hide something you have to keep it in darkness.

Jesus said in John 3:20 says, / / All who do evil hate the light and refuse to go near it for fear their sins will be exposed.

And so Paul says to the church in Ephesus, [Ephesians 5:10-11,14], / / Carefully determine what pleases the Lord. Take no part in the worthless deeds of evil and darkness; instead, expose them..... the light makes everything visible.

1 John 1:5-9 says, / / This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

Yes, of course the ideal is that there is no sin in our lives, we’re hitting that mark left, right, and center. But if you’re like me and you’re not perfect yet, we can learn from what David went through, that sin will only cause us to desire to cover, and hide, and try to lead us into more of falling short of God’s way. And the remedy is to face it head on, ask for God to shine his light on it. Yes, expose it, Yes get it out in the open. I don’t mean the whole world needs to know what you’re doing. But there is real power in being open and honest, first with God, but also with someone who can lead you to Jesus. Who can pray with you.

James 5:16 actually says, / / Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

Like I said, if you aren’t perfect yet. I know, shock of all shocks, but maybe you aren’t perfect, and you haven’t been a person after God’s heart in the way that you’ve done all the right things, and you’ve followed Him perfectly, then at least be a man or woman after His own heart that you would recognize you haven’t always got it right, be humble enough to say you can’t fix it all on your own, and ask for mercy and grace to move foreward. / / Be AFTER His heart which will lead you to life.