Everybody Needs A Nathan

EVERYBODY NEEDS A NATHAN

2 Sam. 12:1-12:14

INTRODUCTION

A. HUMOR

1. A honeymoon couple made a long awaited trip to Washington, DC and stayed in the infamous Watergate Hotel, where secret tapes were recorded during the Nixon Presidency. Once in the room the concerned bride asked, "What if the place is still bugged?"

2. The groom said, "Honey, I doubt it after all these years but I’ll look around." He looked behind the drapes, behind the pictures, under the rug. Finally, he said, "Aha, I can’t believe it!" Under the rug was a disc with four screws. He got his Swiss army knife, unscrewed the screws, and threw the screws and the disc out the window.

3. The next morning, the hotel manager asked the newlyweds, "How was your room? How was the service? How was your stay at the Watergate Hotel?" The groom suspiciously asked, "Why are you asking me all of these questions?"

4. The hotel manager replies, "Well, the couple in the room under you complained that their chandelier fell on them."

B. TEXT & THESIS

1. Watergate is a story we all know well. It all started with a man. He wasn’t just any man, he was the most powerful man in the nation. He had arrived, but power is a dangerous thing; the person at the top often feels that they are not accountable to anyone – that he can do what he wants and nobody can stop him.

2. And that’s how Nixon’s rise to fame become a story of betrayal. Inevitably a cover up took place, but the truth always comes out in the end.

3. This morning we’re going to take a look at a man who followed a very similar course to Richard Nixon; King David.

4. TEXT: 11 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army…But David remained in Jerusalem. 2 One evening David…saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the…wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her…5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.” 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” 13 But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home. 14 David wrote a letter to Joab…15 “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.” 12:1 The Lord sent Nathan to David. [Nathan] said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and…it was like a daughter to him. 4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare…. Instead, he took the ewe lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.” 5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.” 7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel…8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms….And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the Lord by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ 13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Nathan replied, “The Lord has taken away your sin. 14 But because by doing this you have shown utter contempt for the Lord, the son born to you will die.” 2 SAM. 11:1-5,8, 13-15; 12:1-10, 13-14.

C. TITLE: “Everybody Needs a Nathan!”

I. THE FALL OF DAVID

A. ABSENT FROM DUTY

1. The evening began innocently. It was such a beautiful night the King decided to take a walk on the rooftop of his palace. Many years earlier as a young shepherd boy, David often spent nights gazing at the vast expanse of the universe above and writing songs of praise to God. But this night he saw a beautiful young woman bathing on her own rooftop, and he began to desire what was not lawfully his: one of his soldier’s wife.