flawed hero: rock bottom… ·...

Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved.

Transcript June 27/28, 2015

Flawed Hero: Rock Bottom Jake Barker | 2 Samuel 11-12

Hey Traders Point. I hope you are doing well. Hope you are having a great weekend so far. Welcome to week six of our summer series called Flawed Hero. Now, over the summer our lead pastor, Aaron, is on sabbatical. Our elders are very intentional about providing periodic times for our leaders to rest and recuperate. So Aaron is spending time with his family, spending time with God, and getting ready to come back this fall ready to go. There are a lot of exciting things that God is doing in and through this church this fall so we are excited to be a part of it. So, if you are praying this week, I really encourage you to pray for Aaron. Pray for all of the leaders here at the church. That would be awesome. We are in a series where we are studying through a highlight package in the life of David. If you are not all that familiar with the Bible you need to know that David was a central figure in the whole story. He was a shepherd and a musician. He was a warrior and a king. In fact, he was so important that when people would describe how important Jesus was they would mention that He was related to David. That’s kind of a big deal. David wasn’t from a royal family, he was not from a big city, but he was God’s chosen king and that made all of the difference. Like we said last week, at this point in the life of David he is now king David. He is no longer shepherd David, he’s no longer little brother David, he is king David. And I don’t know if you knew this but when you are the king people treat you differently. It’s very surprising. People stop saying, “No,” to you. And all they say is, “Yes, sir.” And you don’t have to worry about where your next meal is coming from. You just have to decide what kind of steak you want that night. That’s the kind of king I would be. It wouldn’t be if we are having steak, it would be what kind of steak. These are the decisions that a king makes. It’s good to be the king. He is no longer low man on the totem pole. He is now the top dog. When you are on top of the world, you see the world very differently. And David’s position has changed and it has started to change him. It started to change him on the inside and today we’re going to see how it comes out. So, if you have a Bible or a Bible app I’d love for you to join me in 2 Samuel, chapter 11. It’s where we are going to be hanging out. That’s where we will begin. So, head over to 2 Samuel 11. Now the Bible is a fascinating book because it tells the entire story. In fact, one writer said that the Bible tells the truth about people. The Bible tells the truth about people and that is one of the signs of its authenticity. If this was all fiction, all of these characters, all of these people would be mythological, super-‐heroes. They would never make a mistake. They would have zero weaknesses. But that’s not the case with the people in the Bible. The Bible is unafraid that these people, while important, weren’t perfect. Even the people who the Bible elevates as examples of faith, like, “Be like these people,” they are still obviously flawed.

Flawed Hero: Rock Bottom June 27/28, 2015

Intellectual materials are the property of Traders Point Christian Church. All rights reserved. 2

Take for instance Abraham, the father of the Nation of Israel. On multiple occasions he lied and told people that his wife was his sister because he was scared about what they might do to him. So instead of defending her dignity and honor, he was more interested in protecting his behind. That was Abraham. And then there was Moses, the great liberator of Israel. The one who saved them from slavery in Egypt. He got so frustrated with their stubbornness that he lashed out in physical anger. Then there was Peter, the vocal leader of the disciples. The one who was very loudly confident in his own abilities. And when push came to shove, when he was really tested, he revealed that he was actually kind of a coward. So the Bible is unafraid of showing us that even these people, these great heroes of the faith, still had a bunch of flaws. Their flaws point to the fact that there is only one, true perfect hero and that is Jesus. Today, as we’re spending time in 2 Samuel 11 and 12 we’re going to watch as David’s life takes a turn. See, thus far David had been very honorable, he had been a man of faith, he had been following God’s lead and God had orchestrated David’s entire path to the throne. But now that he is king, his position is changing and it’s changing him. So let’s look at it: 2 Samuel, chapter 11, verses 1 through 5. Now I have to give you fair warning. My style, if anybody has ever heard me, I love to have fun, I love cracking jokes. This one is going to be pretty heavy, alright? Hang in there. I believe it is important because if we just pretend that this isn’t heavy, we’re pretending that life isn’t heavy, and frankly some of us know all too well today that life can be heavy. And that’s exactly what David experiences here in chapter 11. Here we go: 2 Samuel 11, verses 1 though 5. It says, “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. 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. “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?” 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. And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, “I am pregnant.” See, things were different about David and David had become different. Now that he was the king he kind of felt like he had arrived. That’s a very dangerous feeling for most of us. See, when we feel like we have arrived, we become comfortable and we become secure in our surroundings. And you and I know, if we’ve interacted with God at all, that there is a difference between the way we interact with God when things are hard versus when things are good. When things are difficult, when I’m in a season of challenge, which may be a season of loss, pain, or frustration, my dialogue with God is at an all-‐time high. I’m asking questions. I’m seeking His guidance. I want His input and His wisdom. So, I’m talking to Him all of the time. But when I have arrived, or I feel comfortable, or things are going pretty well my dialogue decreases significantly and I feel like things are going pretty well. And there is even this moment when I kind of



convince myself that I am the reason that things are going pretty well so I don’t really need God’s help. So I don’t talk to Him all that much. Now that David was on the throne, now that he had all of the fame, and fortune, and power that he could ever want, he slipped into spiritual cruise-‐control. He stop talking to God as much and His relationship with God had kind of stalled out because things were easy and things were comfortable. Not only was David comfortable, not only was he in cruise-‐control it says that it was the spring of the year and that’s when armies went out to fight. Now the reason that they would fight in the spring is because the weather was better and because food for them to eat was naturally growing in the fields. David, who was the leader of the nation, sent his army to fight a distant battle. Now you can imagine, as the commander in chief, when your army is in a distant battle it elevates your stress and your anxiety. I don’t know about you, but when I’m stressed out I am not at my best. I’m not thinking clearly and I usually jump to conclusions. Here’s David, he’s slipped into cruise-‐control and he’s stressed out at work. And then Samuel writes this. He says it kind of happened—did you notice that? It happened one day that he was on a walk and there she was. It doesn’t say that David went looking for temptation, but temptation definitely found him. David did not sit at his computer and google naked woman on a roof, but he did see her. And David wasn’t ready for it. You see, when he had slipped into cruise-‐control a long time ago, his defenses were lowered. He wasn’t ready to fight. On a better day, David would have looked away. On a better day, he would have left the roof. On a better day, he would have fled from sexual temptation. But he wasn’t ready. He wasn’t ready to fight back. You see the truth is that sin like David’s right there, decisions like David’s do not just start at 100. They don’t just start. David didn’t just wake up one day and say, “Hey, I’m going to commit adultery with a married woman.” He didn’t decide that that day. It had been growing inside of him for a very long time. See, the way that sin works is that it usually starts very small in our heart and then grows. In fact, it starts about the size of an acorn—see this acorn here, this is a seed. Now, full disclosure. This is not a real acorn. It’s hard to find acorns in June. This is a plastic acorn but it’s the size of an acorn none-‐the-‐less. This is a seed. Not very impressive. Not something you would look at if you were passing it on the sidewalk. You would just keep walking. Nothing to write home about. But given enough time, this seed starts sprouting roots. And given some more time it grows some branches until, eventually, it becomes a massive Oak tree. Out of this seed comes an unmovable object. Sin, in our hearts, usually starts as a seed and given enough time, gone long enough unaddressed, it becomes an unmovable object that takes over our hearts. David didn’t wake up one day with the Oak tree of adultery in his heart. It was an acorn a long time ago when he slipped into cruise-‐control, when he felt like he had it all together, when he realized that he didn’t need God’s help. That’s when it started. It wasn’t there on the roof-‐top. You can almost hear king David standing on the roof kind of rationalizing his behavior, can’t you? You know, it’s hard to be king. Kings have to make a lot of tough decisions and everybody online thinks that



they could do your job better than you. And everybody’s on these chat boards saying, “This is what I would do if I were the king.” And not only that but he lived a pretty good life. He’s obeyed God, he’s followed him all of the way, he probably deserves this. I mean, one little cheat, one little step out of bounds, “God will understand. God wants me to be happy. I’m the king. I want her. I know she’s someone else’s one, but I want that one. I’m taking her.” As you and I know, and as we have said here a few different times, desires are terrible decision makers. Desires (what I want) are not always what is best. Desires are terrible decision makers. See, sometimes what I desire leads me down a path of destruction. And sometimes what I want, if I follow that desire it will hurt the people I love. Yet you and I live in a world that, as a culture, we’ve all decided that, “What I desire is what I should have. If I want it then I should get it because I think I’m naturally a good person—at least I think that—so what I desire must be good. So, I’m going to allow my desires to be my decision makers.” And then we end up with messes like David. David desired her and then he took her. That language is very, very clear that this was not the act of consenting adults. This was a man of power and woman who could not say no. And David used Bathsheba for his sexual gratification and then he sent her home. This was not the budding of a romantic relationship. This was a one-‐night stand. Then Bathsheba sends David a note with three words, “I am pregnant.” Now in the right relationship those three words provide immeasurable joy. But in the wrong relationship they provide grief and anxiety. And there we have king David and he’s at a crossroads that you and I experience in our own lives. See, we have two choices. There were two different paths. One path was the path of recovery and redemption, owning his sin and really reconciling with God. The other path is the path called cover-‐up. And David made the same decision that you and I have made on multiple occasions in our lives. He was going to cover this up. King David’s master plan was that he was going to invite Bathsheba’s husband home from the battlefield. David invited Uriah to his house for dinner and his plan was that if he sent Uriah home because they have been apart for so long they will sleep together, and then in nine months no one will know any different. The community would assume that it was Uriah’s baby. Uriah will assume that it was his baby. Bathsheba will be so ashamed that she’ll never say anything. His famous last words, “No one has to know.” But the problem was that king David underestimated Uriah. In fact, Uriah’s integrity was greater than the kings. And he kind of looks back at the king and he says, “King David, my guys, my soldiers, they’re still in battle. They are encamped way over there and they don’t get to be with their wives, why should I be with mine?” He said, “I won’t go.” David tried again the next night. They had dinner again and David got Uriah drunk assuming that because he was inebriated he would lower his standards. But even through blurred vision Uriah could still see the difference between right and wrong. He refused to go home again. David knew that his cover-‐up had a time clock and he knew that the window was getting smaller and smaller to pull this off. So, he pulled out the emergency plan. David wrote a note and he sent with Uriah



back to the battlefield. The note was for the commander, Joab. David told Joab the next time they were engaged in battle to put Uriah in front in the line of danger. And when archers start shooting their arrows to pull back and leave him out to die. This is David’s plan. You can imagine, as the commander of the army, Joab couldn’t control all of the circumstances so when he executed the plan multiple soldiers died so that Uriah would die. The king, the one who was supposed to have his people’s best interest in mind, the one who was supposed to protect his soldiers killed multiple men to cover up his affair. This is a dark moment in the life of David. Once Bathsheba finished mourning the loss of her husband, David took her in to be one of his wives to live with him. And from the outside, this would have looked like a very honorable thing to do. You see, in this culture someone needed to take care of the widow. She couldn’t provide for herself. She didn’t have a son. And so she was left on her own. And from the community’s perspective it would have looked like the king was being compassionate, “Look at this guy. He’s taking care of the widow of this fallen warrior, this fallen soldier—what a good guy.” David had flipped what was potentially an embarrassing scandal into looking like a champ. This was the cover-‐up to end all cover-‐ups. He fooled the community. He fooled the army. But there was one problem. Look what is says in verse 27. I says, “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.” David could pull the wool over the eyes of the community, he could fool the army, but he was not fooling God. God saw it all. God saw through the façade, and God saw into David’s heart. And as Charles Spurgeon once said, “God does not allow His children to sin successfully.” So God puts a plan into motion and He calls out this prophet named Nathan. A prophet’s job was to hear from God and to deliver God’s message to His people, unfiltered. That was his job. It was a tough one. God would say things and then the prophet would go and deliver that message. It wasn’t always that fun. Here we have Nathan with the unenviable job of confronting the king. Remember, no one says no to the king. No one confronts the king. And here comes Nathan. Look at what he does in the beginning of chapter 12, verses 1 through 6. It says, “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 had done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.’”



Here Nathan, wisely, confronts David with a story. He doesn’t start with a punch to the gut, he begins with a story. A story of a man with all the power who abused a man who had only one thing. And apparently David did not get the story. That seems pretty clear. Either David was completely in denial or he had lived so long with his secret that he convinced himself that it was okay. Maybe you’ve done that. Maybe you’ve lived with a secret for so long, for months, and years and you have played it over and over in your head. And you saw it from all of the different angles. And you’ve lived with it for so long that it’s become a part of who you are. It’s actually become part of your identity. It’s part of the past. And because you need to face the day you’ve been able to rationalize it away to where you feel okay with that sin. Maybe this is where David was. Nathan refused to allow David to ignore the obvious. Look how he confronts him in verse 7. Four powerful words, “Nathan said to David, ‘You are the man!’” You are the man. The prophet said to the king, “You are the man.” I imagine that David just fell back into his chair. Now Nathan knew. David thought that he had pulled it off. He thought that he had covered it up and now, not only did Nathan know, but God knew. This is what we call rock bottom. And some of you have experienced this. It’s that moment when the darkest thing that you have ever done, the thing that you were doing everything to cover up, the thing that you had rationalized away, the thing that you pretended had never happened it was found out. Someone knew, some two knew, and everybody—it felt like the world knew what you had done. You were [like David] laid bare there in the throne room, confronted by his friend Nathan, confronted—most importantly—by God. God’s message to David was clear, “David, man, I gave you everything. I gave you the throne, I gave you the power, I gave you the palace, and I even promised to give you so much more. And you went and took the one thing that wasn’t yours—you messed it all up, David. And now, all of this peace that you’ve been experiencing in your family is gone. Your family will be defined by dysfunction for the rest of your life. And on top of that, you’re not getting away with this any longer.” David had been covering this up for over nine months. He had been pretending and lying all over the place and God said, “No more.” Look how God says it in verse 12, “For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the sun.” See, God promised to expose David’s secret. Now, why would God do that? Wasn’t it enough that Nathan, his friend, now knew his deepest secret? And wasn’t it enough that God knew? And wasn’t it enough that when he saw Bathsheba and he saw the baby that he was reminded about what he had done? Wasn’t that enough? Doesn’t this seem mean-‐spirited? Doesn’t it seem vindictive to drag out all of David’s dirty laundry into the sun? Why would he do that? Well, here’s the truth. Nothing healthy grows in the dark. Nothing healthy grows in the dark. Maybe you’ve been in a house or a building that hadn’t been opened up for a long time. And someone threw open the doors and the windows and out came dust and it was musty and the things that were growing in there were things like mold and fungus and things that you would not want. That’s the kind of stuff that grows in the dark. Here’s the truth. Sin, left unattended, does not just shrink, and it does not just dissipate, and it does not just go away it only grows.



Remember, sin does not start as the Oak tree. It begins as the acorn and when we plant the seed of sin in the darkness of our heart it grows unless we do something about it. So, when we allow the seed of doubt to be planted in the darkness of our heart and we do not attend to it, it grows into insecurities and paranoia. If we allow the seed of frustration to be planted into the darkness of our hearts it grows into anger and cynicism. And when we allow the seed of curiosity to be planted in our hearts it grows into lust and addiction. See sin, unattended, does not shrink. It does not dissolve. It only grows. So God was not only interested in forgiving David for this one sin this one time. The reason that God was dragging out David’s dirty laundry was to expose it so that He could kill it. God was not just interested in forgiving this one instance. He wanted to kill the sin that was growing inside of David. Now here we are again with another situation where David’s response says a lot about his character. No one says no to the king. No one confronts the king. David could easily have had Nathan killed right there in the moment for even speaking to him like that. But watch how David responds. My suggestion is that David’s response to this confrontation should set the tone for the way that we confess our sin. David’s simple words were this. Verse 13, “I have sinned against the Lord.” David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Simple, to the point, “I have sinned.” David confessed without denial or excuse. First of all David confessed without denial. He didn’t lie about it. He didn’t dance around it. He didn’t run from it. He said, “Yeah, I did that. On the roof top. I was there. I was in control. I could have stopped but I didn’t. I wanted that thing.” Confession without denial says, “You know what? I made that decision because I wanted to.” That’s a different kind of line that most of us don’t deliver, “Hey, I sinned because I wanted to because I thought it would be fun. I thought it would feel good. I thought it was better than what God was offering me so I chose to sin.” That’s what David said. Confession says, “I own it.” And he did it without excuse. You see, David did not shift blame. He didn’t blame his stress at work. He didn’t say it was a result of his circumstances. He didn’t look at Nathan and say, “Man, she was the one who was naked on the roof. What was I supposed to do? I’m just a man. I can’t control my urges. This isn’t my fault. It’s really her fault. Really, I’m a good guy because I took her to be my wife.” He didn’t do any of that. He confessed without denial and without excuse. He owned it. He said, “It was my decision and my decision alone and I did it because I wanted to. It isn’t anyone else’s fault.” Then he recognized against whom he had sinned. Not only had David hurt the people and his family. Not only had he hurt Bathsheba. Not only had he killed Uriah but he also hurt the God whom he loved. See, he understood that the biggest ramification of his decision was his effect upon his relationship with God. There was now this great chasm between him and God that didn’t used to exist. There was a great separation that he couldn’t close. A problem he couldn’t solve. He said, “I have sinned against the Lord. I know that. I own that.” You see, God was leading David to confess because He knew that it was the only way for him to heal. In fact, John Owen once said, ““Be killing sin or it will be killing you.” Be killing sin or it will be killing you. In the battle between us and sin one of us will always be the aggressor. There is no neutral in the battle between us and sin. Either we will be aggressively attacking our sin or it will aggressively attack us. There’s no neutral. There’s no staying passive. One of us is taking ground.



So God was leading David along this path of confession that was very embarrassing, it was very painful, but it was because God wanted to kill the sin that was about to take over David’s life. Growing up my dad, he is a plumber by trade and when you think about the most convenient people to grow up with a plumber is one of them. Things got fixed in our house all of the time when I was growing up. Now that I have my own house, my own family, we just learn to deal with broken stuff. I don’t know how to do stuff at all. One day, my dad took me on a job and it was this elderly couple’s house. It was well manicured on the outside. We went inside and everything was put together. It smelled like a grandma’s house, whatever that smell is. Apricots I think, I don’t know but that’s what it smelled like. Everything looked good but they said, “We have a problem. Our garbage disposal doesn’t work.” My dad said, “Okay, we’re going to fix it.” And he told me our job was to get into the crawl space underneath the house. It was a summer day. We were on our hands and knees crawling under this house. Now, he did not tell me what the solution was to a broken garbage disposal. He just told me to get under the house. So he grabbed his bag and he takes his tools, and I’m like, “Okay, Dad.” I didn’t know what was going to happen. I give him the saw. That was the tool. And he gets to the pipe and he just starts cutting—cutting, cutting, cutting, cutting. Apparently the solution to a clogged garbage disposal is to cut the pipe and let it all flow out. I did not know that. It was the worst thing that I have ever smelled in my entire life. I do not know how long it had been clogged. I’m guessing around 45 years. That was my experience. There were decades of grossness all up in this pipe. Now, when I think of confession unfortunately I think about that pipe. You see, what happens in my life, this is what happens in mine maybe not yours but definitely in mine, is that when I sin without the regular act of confession, I’m just jamming sin into the pipe over, and over, and over again and it’s piling up and it’s backing up until stuff stops working. Life stops flowing. And I have to keep up with what I’ve told people. And I have to keep up with the act so that no one finds out what’s in the pipe. But confession is cutting the pipe. Confession is the solution to unclogging all of the stuff that is holding up our lives. The reason that some of us are stalled out in life is because we’ve clogged this thing up and we haven’t provided the solution. Now, I would love to tell you about a different kind of confession that is very pretty. And I would love to tell you that there is a kind of confession that smells good. Confession is going to be embarrassing, there is going to be some pain, there is going to be some shame but it’s the solution, the singular solution to living the life of freedom. We cannot unclog that pipe; we cannot unclog that sin any other way. So, God was dragging David’s secret out into the sun, not to embarrass him, not to hurt his feelings, but simply so that he could live the life of freedom that God intended. That’s why David needed to confess. So David saw his sin completely exposed, unfiltered, there for everyone to see. He confessed without denial or excuse. And then watch what God does next. Verse 13, “And Nathan said to David,” these amazing words, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.” You see, before David could offer an animal sacrifice, before David could say a special prayer with special words, God forgave David of his sin. See the language is very, very clear that God put away



David’s sin. Our sin can’t just be forgiven. Someone has to pay the debt that we owe. David owed a debt for his adultery. David owed a debt for the cover-‐up and he could not pay it. This is the moment—like we’ve been doing all summer long—where we say, “Hey, everybody, by the way, this isn’t about David anymore. David is not the main character of his story any more than you and I are the main characters of our stories. This is now about Jesus. This is about Jesus. God had to put David’s sin away and put it on someone else. And that is the Good News of the gospel. Jesus was the one who took the sin of David. Jesus was the one who took the sin of you and me. Our sin has been put away on someone else. Someone has paid the debt that we owe. David was able to experience forgiveness and freedom not because of anything that David did. It wasn’t about the sacrifice, it wasn’t a prayer, it wasn’t about David living a really good life for the next decade and finally paying off the debt. He couldn’t pay it. Jesus was the one who paid the debt for David’s sin and He paid the debt for you and me. This is why confession is so important. Confession is not payback it’s surgery. Confession is not payback—God wasn’t being vindictive. He didn’t have hurt feelings. He wasn’t trying to get back at David. What He was trying to do was heart surgery on David because, like we said, God was interested in more than just forgiving David of this one sin, He wanted to kill the sin that growing inside. You see surgery on us—our heart surgery—is God getting inside and rewiring some stuff. Rewiring some stuff so that we can look more like Him. There are two different kinds of prayer that we pray when we confess our sin and we repent. One sounds like this, “Hey, God. It’s me again. I did that thing that I said that I wasn’t going to do again. I really appreciate all of the forgiveness. I’ll try harder next time.” That is not the prayer of repentance. In fact, trying harder next time has never worked for a single person, ever. A prayer of repentance looks like this, “Hey, God. It’s me and I did that thing and I own it because I chose it. And God I want you to change me. I don’t want to want that anymore. I want you to change my desire so that I desire the things of You instead of the things of me. I want You to get inside and I know that it’s going to hurt, and I know it’s going to be invasive, and I know it might be a little embarrassing for You to see all of the stuff I’ve been keeping down there, but You know already. So, rewire me to love the things of You.” David confessed, not so that God could get even but so that God could change him and that’s the beauty of confession. Now even though God was forgiving of David it doesn’t mean that there weren’t very real consequences of David’s decision. There were very real, earthly, temporary consequences to the decision that David made. In fact, David and Bathsheba lost their son. They lost that baby because of David’s sin. And while sin can be spiritually forgiven it still can have immediate pain and consequences here on earth. Affairs can be forgiven, but they can wreak havoc on family relationships. And addictions can be forgiven but they can have negative impacts on our physical, and emotional, and relational health. See David was forgiven. His spiritual status was as if he had not sinned. But it doesn’t mean that it didn’t affect his life here on earth.



The story doesn’t end there. See, this is a story of redemption. David and Bathsheba went on to have another baby and his name was Solomon. And Solomon was the heir to the throne. Solomon would grow to be the wisest man to ever live. Solomon was the fulfillment of God’s promise to David. Notice this. Chronologically speaking God made a promise, David messed up, God kept using David. That’s a very important timeline there. God made a promise, David messed up but God wasn’t done with him yet. He put away his sin on someone else and kept using David. He kept using David. That’s so important because some of us have convinced ourselves that, “God made a promise to me but I messed it up so badly that there’s no way that He can keep using me.” That’s not the story of David. The story of grace says, “Yes God made a promise. Yes he messed up but Jesus paid the price that so that he had a future.” This is a beautiful story of redemption. So, what does the story of David and Bathsheba… What about David’s mistake, what about David’s decision, what about his sin impacts the way you and I live? I asked three questions of myself this week as I was reading this. I’d like for you to ask the same questions and answer them honestly for yourself. Question number one is this: What sin are you tolerating? What sin are you tolerating? Again, no one starts at rock bottom. That’s not the way it works. No one starts at their worst moment. They ease in. It starts as small as an acorn and grows as big as an Oak tree. What sin are you tolerating? It’s not yet taken over but it could. And right now you kind of describe it as your challenge, your struggle, you know it’s something that you are wrestling with but left unattended it’s not going to shrink. It’s only going to grow. C. S. Lewis wrote a book called The Screwtape Letters and it’s an illustration of the way that temptation works in our lives. Here’s how he described it. He said, “Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.” See, temptation is not going to start us at rock bottom it’s going to ease us in and we won’t even feel it. And then one day we’ll be on the roof top, and our guard will be down, and we’ll make a decision, and we’ll make a choice, and we’ll end up where we never thought we would be. So let me ask you this. Students, in your dating relationships right now I know it started as some innocent kissing when parents and friends weren’t around, but it’s going to feel good and you’re going to want more. And if left unattended those seeds that are growing in the darkness of our hearts will put you in a position to compromise your purity and make decisions that you will regret for the rest of your life. Are you tolerating? Because, if left unattended that sin will kill you. Or maybe it’s at work and you told everybody that it was just a season and that as soon as this project was over you’d be back home, you’d be reengaged, you’d have time for the kids but along the way you became addicted to the business and you wore your fatigue as a badge of honor and it gave you your identity because you were needed at work and maybe you didn’t feel all that needed at home and so now you are a workaholic. It didn’t start that way. It started small and it grew and then it took over. Or maybe it was just one simple story, this one time. And you didn’t really mean it. You just kind of let it slip but you aired out some else’s dirty laundry and it felt good. It felt good to acknowledge that you weren’t the only one who was struggling with stuff. And it felt good to show how they weren’t all that perfect after all. And now what started as a very small seed has become the fact that you can’t have a



single conversation without talking about someone behind their back. Gossip has taken over. It starts small and grows, and grows, and grows. So, what sin are you tolerating right now? The one that seems small, the one that seems like it’s not going to be all that big of a deal. May I suggest that either we are killing sin or it is killing us and one of will be the aggressor. So let’s kill the sin today in the power of Jesus. Second question is this. Second question. Ask yourself honestly: Who gets to call you out? Who gets to call you out? You see, in this story with David and Nathan David needed Nathan because Nathan was more than a prophet. He was more than just a mouthpiece for God. He was David’s friend. And the relationship between David and Nathan could sustain the confrontation. That was wildly important. Nathan knew that their relationship could hold up underneath the pressure of the confrontation. God sent Nathan for a purpose because He knew that David, left to his own devices, was going to allow this to grow until it took over. He needed to be called out. Here at Traders Point we believe that life happens best in community. We love gathering as this big group, but we believe that this is only part of the expression. We believe that this is only part of the process. We want this big group to be broken down into small groups. This is why we do Life Groups. We believe that not only does life happen best in community but so does spiritual growth. Now, again, left to my own devices I would not offer this stuff up, I would not offer this garbage unless I have multiple Nathans in my life who have permission to call me out. Who have you given the keys to to confront you? See I’m in a group with three other guys. It’s a men’s Life Group. We meet on Tuesday mornings every week at Cracker Barrel. Sam is our waitress. Sometimes she pays for our coffee. It’s awesome. That’s great. We talk about the Bible, we talk about our families, and then I have invited those three guys to be my Nathans. I’m worse than David. I need three Nathans. That’s what it’s like with me. So I said, “Guys, look here are my struggles. Here’s where I know that I am weak. Here’s where I know that I slip and you guys have 100 percent permission to call me out when you see it. You have that. I trust you. I love you enough. Our relationship can sustain the confrontation. You get to call me out.” So it was this very week, this Tuesday I was saying, “Look, guys. I feel like right now my speech has gone out of control. The way I talk to people is not lifting them up, it’s not encouraging them, and it’s not loving them.” In fact, I’m really good at having jokes on hand, I can cut people down, I can be really sarcastic (it’s my spiritual gift) I have all of that. And this weird thing happens. No one appreciates my gift. No one comes to me and says, “Oh, man. That was so cool how you made fun of me in front of all of those people. Like I feel so much better now.” And I said, “Look, guys. I feel like it has gone from a kind of an endearing, funny thing to where I’m losing influence. And I feel like I’m actually hurting some people in the process. And I’m not honoring Christ in my words. So you guys, you’re around me all of the time. You have 100 percent permission to call me out—on the spot. You don’t have to wait till later, you don’t have to send me an email. You get to call



me out because I am willing to face that truth. I am willing to face that embarrassment because I know that if I’m not aggressively killing that sin in my heart, it will kill me.” So, who gets to call you out? Who have you intentionally invited, given the keys, and 100 percent permission—you’re not going to get mad at them, you’re not going to quit talking to them. Who gets to call you out? Final question is this. Answer this honestly: What do you need to bring into the light? What do you need to bring to the light? In a room like this—I know that we look good, and we sound good. We kind of look all put together but there are some dark burdens here in this room. And there are some secrets that have been growing for days, for weeks, for months, and maybe for years. Stuff that you’ve never talked about. Stuff that you’ve been covering up. Stuff you hope that no one would ever have to know. I’d just like to suggest that that is not healthy, that disease will eventually take over, and that confession is the road to freedom and to healing. Is it possible that today is the day that you steal the power back from the sin because it’s no longer a secret? Sin loses its power as soon as we start talking about it, as soon as we start praying about it, as soon as we start sharing it. So can we, together, just start embracing the fact that we need to start talking about some stuff? Stuff that we’ve been avoiding to talk about for a long time. At the end of the service there will be some people down here and they would love to meet you, and greet you, and they would love to pray with you. And I have ultimate confidence that they will receive you well because they are sinners in need of a savior just like you. They have experienced the same grace that David experienced and the grace that you need. So there is no intimidation, there is no frustration—you can easily come here and be prayed for. I’d like to suggest that this might be the very first day that instead of taking the path of cover-‐up we take the path to recovery where God is going to do some work on our hearts, do some surgery, so that we can finally live the life of freedom He intended. I’d love to pray for you. I’d love to pray for the courage to take that step to where, through confession, God can give us the freedom that He intended. Will you pray? Father we come to You and we are humbled and we are broken. Man, there is just a lot of stuff built up and we don’t want to talk about it because it’s going to be embarrassing but it’s eating us alive. So will You give us the courage to say something, for the first time, for the tenth time, for the thousandth time will You give us the courage to step forward and own it without denying it and without excuse. Give us the courage to lay it all out. God, we need Your grace. We are so grateful that You sent Your Son and put our sin on Him. He paid the price that we couldn’t pay. Give us the courage to take hold of Your promise that You will forgive, that You will redeem, and You will give us freedom. It’s in Your incredible name that I pray. Amen.

flawed hero: rock bottom… ·...

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