When Good People Do Bad Things
Generous in love- God, give peace!
Huge in mercy- wipe out my bad record.
Scrub away my guilt,
Soak out my guilt,
Soak out my sins in your laundry.
I know how bad I’ve been;
My sins are staring me down.
You’re the One I’ve violated and you’ve seen it all,
Seen the full extent of my evil.
You have all the facts before you;
Whatever you decide about me is fair.
I’ve been out of step with you for a long time,
In the wrong since before I was born.
What you’re after is truth from the inside out
Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.
Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean,
Scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life.
Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
Set these once-broken bones to dancing.
Don’t look too close for blemishes,
Give me a clean bill of health.
God, make a fresh start in me,
Shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.
Don’t throw me out with the trash,
Or stop breathing holiness in me.
This is the Word of the Lord for the People of God and the entire world. Thanks be to God. Hallelujah! Amen!
Let us pray.
Father God,
Maker of heaven and earth, creator of us all, and parent to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. I pray that my words be your words today. Hide me bind the cross and let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight dear Lord, my strength and my redeemer. In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.
Psalm 51 is a passage of scripture that we can all relate to. Oh my goodness! I can relate to the anguish that David was experiencing. If anyone doesn’t know why David wrote the 51st Psalm it is based on what happened in 2 Samuel 11:2-27; 12: 1-21.
Let’s examine what happened…
David was walking on the roof top of the palace one night, and he noticed a woman in bathing in the her window, why was she washing for all to see, I don’t know, but whose to say that everyone had a bird’s eye view like David did.
Well David basically said, “This woman is fine as all get out and I just got to have her!” So he sent word to Bathsheba and told her that her presense was requested at the palace. Well before they got down, he got some personal information from her. She was the wife of Uriah the Hittite; he has been off fighting with his homeboy, and captain of his army, Joab. With all introductions aside they went on and did the deed. I know that this sounds a little steamy for church, but that is what happened. It’s in the Bible!
When all was finished, he sent her back home, and she eventually reported back to him that she was of child. Well, David was floored of course, but he was trying to find a way to remedy the situation in a way that all of them could save face.
So he sent for her husband Uriah. His plan was for him to be intimate with his wife so that when she gave him the news that she was of child that he would not question paternity. Well, Uriah came to the palace, and David treated him like a king, gave him all the drink he could drink and all the food he could eat. He basically said, “I am glad that you had a good time, but I think that it’s time for you to gone on home now. Be with your wife. I am sure she would be happy to see you.”
But Uriah did NOT go home. Instead he stayed at the palace and fell asleep drunk in the door way. David had him for dinner again, and after he got him drunk, he didn’t go home like he asked him to; he got busy with one of the maidservants in the palace. At this point, David was getting frustrated and desperate! This guy won’t go home!
David had him over to dinner a third time and he just came out and ask, “How come you are not at home with your wife resting. That is why I sent you home so you could get a break from the fighting.”
Uriah just answered, “What’s up with you dude!" I need to be out there fighting with the rest of my homeboys. You got me up here kicking like there isn’t a war going on. I need to be with my boys holding it down. And you keep trying to send me home to be with my wife. My wife, she gone always be there. I appreciate what you done. I liked kickin’ it here in the palace, but I am ready to go back to the fight.”
About this time, ya’ll know that David is mad as all get out because he is trying to not only hide his adultery, but this guy was just not complying with his plan. So in his frustration, he sent word to Joab to put Uriah on the front lines in a position where he would see a lot of battle.
When word came back to David that Uriah had died, he made Bathseba his wife. Whew! And if this was in the news paper the headlines would probably be “King Weds Slain Soldier’s Wife” story at 11.
But Nathan came to David and told him that he knew what went down and no matter how he thought he was able to manipulate the situation in his favor, God knew what he did and that the child that Bathsheba was carrying was going to die.
Bathsheba had the baby; I think that I was a boy, and David wept, fasted, prayed and mourned because the baby was born sickly. When the baby passed, David got himself together and began business as usual. The servants noticed this and he basically said, “I mourned for the child all that I could, and I prayed for mercy and forgiveness for the life of the child. But he’s gone. I can’t do anything about it. I can go to his grave, but he can’t come to me.
Soak out my guilt,
Soak out my sins in your laundry.
I know how bad I’ve been;
My sins are staring me down.
You’re the One I’ve violated and you’ve seen it all,
Seen the full extent of my evil.
You have all the facts before you;
Whatever you decide about me is fair.
Because of David’s self indulgence, he lost a child that didn’t ask to be born or apart of the situation.
How many times have we done things that we wished we would have thought twice before doing?
How many times have we asked for forgiveness from God for whatever reason?
How many times have we cried out with guilt?
I have many times… But the restoration that we get from forgiveness comes with consequences. A lot of the time, the repercussion is worse than the sin itself. The consequences from our actions can have a lasting affect that can go on for years. But the repercussions are used to wean us from our old way of doing things.
I remember when I had to tell my parents that I was about to have my daughter. I didn’t know how to tell them. I was scared beyond my belief. I wanted to anything else, but tell them about what happened. I knew that I had brought shame on my family. (Pause) Young people, whatever is done in the dark, God brings it out in light for all to see.
I disappointed my family, myself, and worse of all; I disappointed God because I was foolish enough not to save myself for marriage. (Pause) Now I am left raising a daughter on my own without a dad. Dedra knows who her dad is, but like so many young men that become dads before they are ready, he is an absentee parent.
That part is alright though because I am grateful that he chooses to stay away for Dedra’s sake. I would rather raise her by myself than to for her to have a dad that does not have sense enough to want to live a better life for his children or who does not believe in God. Those two things right there is why I am thanking God that the Dedra’s dad chose to stay away.
But what would my life be without her? To be honest with you, I don’t want to ever think about my life without her in it. When I look into those big brown eyes, I see everything that I wish I was. She makes me want to work harder, be smarter, and have more faith.
This young lady has had a lasting affect on so many people in this world. She has blessed so many people with just her presence.
When I look at her, I realize that the Lord has the uncanny knack of turning our worse mistakes into the most bountiful blessings.
I’ve been out of step with you for a long time,
In the wrong since before I was born.
What you’re after is truth from the inside out
Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.
Soak me in your laundry and I’ll come out clean,
Scrub me and I’ll have a snow-white life.
Tune me in to foot-tapping songs,
Set these once-broken bones to dancing.
Don’t look too close for blemishes,
Give me a clean bill of health.
God, make a fresh start in me,
Just like David asked for restoration, I did too, and so do so many of us who are truly sorry for some of the things in life. Once I asked for forgiveness, I forgave myself. Once I forgave myself, I was able to move on and look to the future with new hope and new life, just like David did.
But we have something that David didn’t have. We have grace. And regardless of the love and godly wisdom that we obtain in life, it is grace that brings us closer to the Father. This grace gives us redemption. And because of this redemption, we are totally dependent on God for everything.
John Edwards gave a poignant illustration of redemption in his book Closer Walk. John says this:
The redeemed are dependent of God for all. All that we have-- wisdom, the pardon of sin, deliverance, acceptance in God’s favor, grace, holiness, true comfort and happiness, eternal life and glory--we have from God by a Mediator; and this Mediator is God. God not only gives us the Mediator, and accepts His mediation, and of His power and grace bestows the things purchased by the Mediator, but He is the Mediator. Our blessings are what we have by purchase; and the purchase is made of God; the blessings are purchased of Him; and not only so, but God is the purchaser. Yes, God is both the purchaser and the price; for Christ, who is God, purchased these blessings by offering Himself as the price of our salvation.
And through this salvation, we are redeemed.
I would like to end this message with a story from Our Daily Bread that sums up everything that I have been trying to say.
A story told by Paul Lee Tan illustrates the meaning of redemption. He said that when A.J. Gordon was pastor of a church in Boston, he met a young boy in front of the sanctuary carrying a rusty cage in which several birds fluttered nervously. Gordon inquired, "Son, where did you get those birds?" The boy replied, "I trapped them out in the field." "What are you going to do with them?" "I’m going to play with them, and then I guess I’ll just feed them to an old cat we have at home." When Gordon offered to buy them, the lad exclaimed, "Mister, you don’t want them, they’re just little old wild birds and can’t sing very well." Gordon replied, "I’ll give you $2 for the cage and the birds." "Okay, it’s a deal, but you’re making a bad bargain." The exchange was made and the boy went away whistling, happy with his shiny coins. Gordon walked around to the back of the church property, opened the door of the small wire coop, and let the struggling creatures soar into the blue. The next Sunday he took the empty cage into the pulpit and used it to illustrate his sermon about Christ’s coming to seek and to save the lost -- paying for them with His own precious blood. "That boy told me the birds were not songsters," said Gordon, "but when I released them and they winged their way heavenward, it seemed to me they were singing, ’Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed!"
You and I have been held captive to sin, but Christ has purchased our pardon and set us at liberty. When a person has this life-changing experience, he will want to sing, "Redeemed, redeemed, redeemed!"
May the Lord bless and keep and may his face shine upon you and be gracious and give you peace.
