Series: “How Can I Best Love My Family?”
Sermon #1
Title: “The Fallout From Our Failures”
Text: 2 Samuel 12:1-13
Introduction:
Well, as I said and being true to my word, at the beginning of February, my desire was to return to the man King David. And I said I wanted to talk about David so that we could learn from David mistakes how to love our own families better. David was a man after God’s own heart, but he was not perfect in his devotion to God. The atomic bomb of sin within David’s life was his adulterous affair with a woman named Bethsheba. Well because this affair was so deceitful, a somewhat cunning craftiness, which led to the murder of Bethsheba’s husband; having lived a lie for almost a year, and killing Bethsheba’s husband as if he had drawn his own sword by sending into battle on the front lines, finally one day David was confronted about his sin. So, today we’re only looking into David’s sin and in the weeks to come we’ll see the repercussions of family downfall. None of us need to point at figure at David in accusative fashion because “there go I accept by the grace of God.”
Illustration:
Listen to this prayer! It goes along with a sermon entitled, “Prepare the Way for God to Choose You.” Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, we love you and we praise you and we thank you for the wonderful things that you do for every one of us. Thank you for wisdom and revelation. Thank you for life and light. Thank you that we can be part of a body of believers that loves you with all of our hearts and is trying to navigate our responsibilities as believers, as well as our responsibilities of cities of this grand constitutional republic within which we live. So, heavenly Father, give us grace and mercy. Father, help us this next week and a half, as we go into national elections. And Lord we pray for our country. Father, we pray that lies would be exposed. We pray that deception would be exposed. Father, we pray that wisdom would come upon our electorate and they would think with clarity and with decisiveness. In Jesus we asked these things, Amen.
Isn’t that a remarkable prayer? Folks, this is the prayer of Ted Haggard the Sunday before he was exposed for having a 3-year sexual relationship with a male prostitute in the city of Denver. He was the Senior Minister of one of the largest churches in the Denver Metro area, but one day it came to and end because of his own deception. He at first denied the allegations, but then later admitted to some of the sinful behavior. In his November 5, 2006 farewell letter to the 14,000-member church his words were read during worship as saying – “I am a deceiver and a liar.” There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I’ve been warring against it all my adult life. For extended periods of time, I would enjoy victory and rejoice in freedom. Then, from time to time, the dirt that I thought was gone would resurface, and I would find myself thinking thoughts and experiencing desires that were contrary to everything I believe and teach.
Transition:
Well, you know now what David is up against. Living a lie, deceitfulness, was it true that there was a part of David’s life that was so repulsive? We don’t know, but we do know this and every man here would agree; the search to find intimacy can lead to some very dark places. Let’s get back to David! One day after it being close to a year, David was confronted about his sin that he chose to deny and not repent of.
The Confrontation of David’s Sin (Vs. 1-7a)
The Chosen Messenger (V.1a)
“And the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to David.” Have you ever had someone report to you something you were doing wrong that was sinful? You remember what I said to two weeks ago about the discipline of the Lord. That we are not to despise the Lord’s discipline?” Sometimes the Lord sends another person to us to warn us so that the strong of the Lord doesn’t have to intervene? But the strong hand of the Lord has already come down upon David. He’s gone to far and Nathan is there to tell him what the strong hand of the Lord is going on in the future. And it’s like the apostle Paul, “Lord, please remove this throne!” So the Lord says, “No, Paul my grace is sufficient for you for in your times of weakness my power will become manifest.” You see David crying out to God in Psalm 51? “For I recognize my shameful deeds—they haunt 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 judgment against me is just.” Skip down to vs.10-13 in the same chapter, “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. (11) Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. (12) Restore to me again the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. (13) Then I will teach your ways to sinners, and they will return to you.” Now David is finally beginning to figure it out as to his purpose in life, just like what our purpose in life is to be. We’re not placed here on earth for our own good pleasure, but we’re here to serve the Lord of hosts.
Transition:
Okay, so to back to our text in 2 Samuel 12 and let’s pick it up at vs. 7b-9 – the second portion of verse 7. Now we move into that section of the text where David is going to have communicated to him his own sin by Nathan the Prophet. .
Communication of David’s Sin (7b-9)
(V.7) – “Then Nathan said to David, "You are the man!” Don’t be blaming anybody else! You’re the only one that’s done this. You are the man that has done this terrible thing in the sight of the Lord. So, this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. (8) I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms.” All that belonged to Saul became David’s as King of Israel. “I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. 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. Now we enter into the consequences for David’s sin. And the first consequence is a permanent consequence.
· Permanent Consequence (V.10)
(V.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.” In other words, God’s blessing of peace will depart from David’s happy home. What a discouraging thing to have happened, and he can’t wipe away this past mistake. The Lord for murder and adultery is prosecuting him. How can we be fore warned of David’s sin? Look what it says in 1Corinthians 6:18 – “Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.” In other words, there is a sense in which sexual sin can destroy us as a person. Ted Haggard’s words cry out to the membership of the church were he served to this day, “I was a deceiver and a liar.” The second consequence as a result of David’s sin is to be a public consequence.
· Public Consequence (Vs. 11-12)
(Vs. 11-12) “This is what the LORD says: ‘Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. (12) You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel." You see the truth of the matter is David’s sin that was committed in secret (1) diminished respect for his family, (2) weakened the authority of his government, and (3) encouraged the prevalence of many disordered events throughout his kingdom. Someone within David’s family is going to get raped by a family member, but also what David did in secret is going to be proclaimed from a rooftop in broad daylight Absalom his own rebellious son, third within family tree, rapes his own concubines on his own rooftop in board daylight. Why? Dad didn’t do anything to punish the stepson that raped his full sister Tamar. I’m going to talk about this lesson this next week in a message I’m entitling, “Parents, Please Protect Your Daughters.” Now, we have two more consequences; let me cover these quietly. This perhaps one of the greatest consequences for any of us to face, the wait of our own sin up us.
· Private Consequence (V. 13)
Then David confessed to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." Nathan replied, "Yes, but the LORD has forgiven you, and you won’t die for this sin. Now folks, I want you to get a picture in your minds of David’s personal guilt that he was to bear daily. Look what it says in Psalm 32:3, and this is the Living Translation. He said, “When I refused to confess my sin, I was weak and miserable, and I groaned all day long.” The guilt was destroying David, making him an older person. You look at every President on TV, how much older they look after 4 to 8 years of serving the nation as commander and chief. A lot of that aging process isn’t just natural, but worry and stress. (V.4) “Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me. And my vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer.” The final consequence was a painful consequence.
· Painful Consequence (Vs. 14-19)
David poured himself out for the life of the baby that Bethsheba would give birth to only to see the child die and know it was his fault.
Conclusion:
Okay, so now, when you know you can’t do anything to rectify you past mistakes. You know what you did was wrong. How do you take control of your life as to move into the future? In the same say David did. Here’s my conclusion, “How do we bounce back with class and style? (1) You make a commitment in your heart to God. This is not a public confession this is between you and God – (2) Pick yourself up and get back into the flow of life. (2 Samuel 12:20) “Then David got up from the ground, washed himself, put on lotions, and changed his clothes. Then he went to the Tabernacle and worshiped the LORD. After that, he returned to the palace and ate.” (V.21) - “His advisers were amazed. "We don’t understand you, while the baby was still living, you wept and refused to eat. But now that the baby is dead, you have stopped your mourning and are eating again." Now, here’s my reason for this point in (Vs.21-22) “David replied, "I fasted and wept while the child was alive, for I said, ‘Perhaps the LORD will be gracious to me and let the child live. (23) But why should I fast when he is dead? Can I bring him back again? I will go to him one day, but he cannot return to me." What a mature response!
There wasn’t anything more David could do to change God’s mind, so it’s time to accept what his future would hold for him. He couldn’t change the past, so you on with the future and accept what you’ve got coming to you. This time David is fully committed to the Lord. And when you commit your trust to the Lord you have hope for the future. You can’t change your consequences, but God promises to help you through the tough times. .
Let me close with this one final input. They say that Ted Haggard was at the pinnacle of his career and a minister in the Denver Metro area. He was President of the National Association of Evangelicals; God had developed him into a progressive and energetic leader. He had enviable access to the White House and was consulted frequently by members of Congress because of his work to amend Colorado’s constitution to define marriage as between one man and one woman, yet he didn’t life what he believed in his heart. However, because he has confessed his sin, I believe God will bless him with hope for the future. How about you? How about your friends? If you’re struggling with some heavy consequences you can’t change, why do you place your trust in the Lord?
Prayer:
