Made For A Mission-Fear God
4-6-08 2 Samuel 12:1-12 and Acts 5:-11
Think back for a moment when you were growing up. How many of you had a person in your family that you had a healthy dose of fear and respect for just because of the way the person carried himself or herself? In our family, it was Aunt Helen. It did not matter if you were her child or one of the cousins, when Aunt Helen spoke, you listened and not only did you listen, you did what she told you to do.
She had a way of saying, “it you don’t get in here I’ll bust ya.” I never quite new what “I’ll bust ya”, meant but I did know, I did not want to be the first one to find out. I feared Aunt Helen, and to this day I love her dearly, and she has been my second mom since I was 11 years old. My fear of Aunt Helen helped keep me from making some bad decisions.
Fear is one of the emotions God has given us to protect us. Yet as we search the Bible, we find the only thing we are commanded to fear is God. The bible tells us in Proverbs 1:7, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. If God is love why are we to fear God? God is not only love, God is all Powerful, God is Just, God is Awesome, and God is worthy to be praised. God tells us that because God loves us, God will discipline us for wrong behavior. Is there anybody here that ever got a good whupping, because your mom or dad cared about how you behave? Love and discipline go together.
We have changed God from being awesome and frightening into being more of an old grandfather who is just begging us to do the right thing or pointing his finger saying you better stop. As a result we think we can lock God up in a room and check him out on our schedule. As much as we like to think we can fool God, we forget the word of God teaches, the eyes of the Lord are in everyplace, looking at the good and the evil that we do. Part of how well we carry out our mission is going to depend on how much we truly fear God.
Let’s continue with our series of David the King. David had been walking on his roof one night and spotted a beautiful woman bathing. He found out she was Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah one of his trusted servants who was away in the military fighting for David. It didn’t matter to David, because he wanted to satisfy his sexual lust for Bathsheba. She came to the palace that night, they had sex and she went home. A few months later she found out she was pregnant. She sent word to David to help her out.
David sent for Uriah to come home from the battlefield. David wanted Uriah to go home and have sex with his wife Bathsheba. Uriah came but didn’t go home. David tried twice to get him to go home, but Uriah would not enjoy his wife while his fellow soldiers were risking their lives. David sent Uriah back to the commander of the army with a note saying, “put him on the front line of battle, and then draw away from him, so that he gets killed in action.”
Uriah is killed. Bathsheba mourns for her husband. Then David calls Bathsheba back to the palace to be his wife. He looks great in the eyes of the people in that he is going to marry a pregnant widow whose husband was killed in battle for his country.
David was convinced he could cover his tracks. He was convinced that God was not going to do anything about the situation. He was convinced that he could sin and get away with it. He even thought he could continue on in his relationship with God with their being no consequence. But the last verse of chapter says “but the thing David had done displeased the Lord? Have you ever been there, in which something you did, you know in your heart displeased the Lord.”?
Now there are times when tragedy comes into our lives simply because we live in a fallen world. People are killed by drunk drivers, not because of some sin in their lives, but because when drunks get behind the wheel somebody else dies. There are difficulties that come into our lives because of poor choices that we make. You go off on your boss, you will be fired and find yourself in a severe financial crisis.
There are difficulties that come into our lives because we are under a Satanic attack in which the enemy is seeking to discourage us from following God’s will for our lives. All kinds of things go wrong at the same time, when we’re doing our best to live for the Lord. There are also difficulties that come into our lives, because God is disciplining us for our behaviors. That’s the one we find in this passage in 2 Samuel 12.
David had temporarily lost his fear of the Lord, and God is about to show up in his life to let him know that God is still in control. God had great things in mind for David’s life. David had come from a little known family. He was the least likely candidate to become a king because he had seven older brothers. But one thing David did have was a love for the Lord.
God gave David victory after victory wherever he went. He took David all the way to the top in making him king. But somewhere David started thinking; he had somehow gotten to the top through his own strength, his own wisdom, his own determination and his own will power. He lost the fear of the Lord and started thinking about what he deserved. He figured he deserved what he wanted regardless of what God had to say about it.
God sent Nathan the prophet to David to tell him a story. In the story basically a rich man who had many sheep needed a sheep to feed a guest who had arrived. Instead of killing one of his sheep, the rich man went and stole a poor man’s lamb that was like a pet to the man’s family, and had the lamb slaughtered so that rich man could feed his guests some lamb chops. David immediately got angry at someone who would do this severe act of injustice. He got so angry, he said the rich man deserves to die, and must pay back four times as much as he took because he had shown no pity.
David was ready to have the guy arrested when Nathan said, “We have already caught the guy and brought him in. That guy is you.” Isn’t it amazing how much easier it is to spot sin in others, than it is to see it in ourselves. Here David is trying to play Mr. Righteous to impress the prophet of God, only to discover that the prophet knows all about what David thought he had successfully covered up.
The prophet says, “You’re right something needs to be done to the person who did this. Look David, think about all that God gave to you and where he brought you. God says if you really needed something else, he would have given it to you. So why did you kill Uriah with the sword. Because you did, you’ll be running from the sword for the rest of your life. Why did you steal another man’s wife? You thought you were having sex with her in secret. I’m going to give your wives to another man, only he will have sex with them out in the open for everyone to see.”
At this point, David is struck with the fear of the Lord, because he knows that God has the power to make all these things the prophet is prophesying to come to past. He had no idea at the time, than in taking another man’s wife, he was putting his own wives in jeopardy. He had no idea that in giving that death note to Uriah, that he would find himself fleeing for his life from the sword. Saints we need to fear God, because God is looking out for our own best interest when he gives us His commandments.
David immediately finally confesses his sin. He says, “I have sinned against the Lord.” Do you ever see your behavior as having sinned against the Lord? Not just I did such and such to him or to her or to them or to the church. But I have sinned against the Lord. Confession leads to repentance, which brings about God’s forgiveness. David finally gets this sin he’s been hiding off of his back.
Nathan says, “The Lord has forgiven your sin, and you are not going to die, but because by doing this you have made the enemies of the Lord show contempt, the son born to you will die.” Our actions reflect on our God. God is saying people are saying, why should we fear and serve David’s God, when David doesn’t even fear and serve Him.” It is an honor and privilege to be called a child of God, a friend of God, and a servant of God, but with it goes the responsibility to live it.
You may say, but isn’t it unfair of God to strike the innocent child, instead of striking David. All I know is that God is just in the punishment and the discipline God chooses to give. God had another plan for that child. I do know that David knew that God was serious. Because as soon as Nathan left, the child became ill, and David went into an immediate period of fasting and praying for the life of the child. This was such an intense period of prayer and fasting that he would not get up from the ground.
The elders around him begged him to get up and eat, but he would not do it. This went on for 7 days. On the 7th day the child died. They were afraid to tell David that the child had died, because they though he might try to commit suicide or something. Do you see how sin can take our lives into directions we never imagined?
We are now a year away from that wonderful night of pleasure that begins with an innocent look that was nurtured into a lust thought and plan that ended up in a specific act. What must have been going through Bathsheba’s mind as she experienced the death of her husband, Uriah, and now the death of her son? There must have been grief upon grief.
While David was there on the ground praying, he saw his servants whispering to each other. So he asked them “Is the child dead.” “Yes the child has died,” they said. Then what David did shocked them. He got up, went and took a bath, shaved, went into the house of the Lord and worshipped God. He then went home and requested that they serve him some food.
The elders were shocked because they were expecting him to wail, scream, curse God and who knows what else. So they asked him, “what’s the deal with your behavior. You go from praying and fasting, and then when you didn’t get what you prayed for, you’re acting as though you did get what you prayed for.”
David has learned what it means to fear God and to acknowledge the power of God, and to know that God is in control. He said look “while the child was alive, I fasted and prayed because I thought, who knows the Lord, may be gracious to me and let the child live. But now that the child is dead, I know it’s not over. I can’t bring the child back to me, but I can and I will go to him?”
David then comforts Bathsheba. For the first time, everything is out in the open between them and between them and God. He has to admit to her his role in the killing of her husband. She recognizes he is not the man she thought he was. When we do not fear the Lord, we often get far more suffering than what we had expected to receive out of something that looked so good. Remember you don’t have to say yes, just because something is offered to you.
David and Bathsheba. Can now begin to build their lives upon truth and fearing the God in their relationship. For those of us who have blown it, I want us to see that God remains a God of the second chance. Even though the way Bathsheba and David got started was all-wrong, and there are yet prices that are going to be paid, God does not cast them by the wayside. He forgives them both, but God’s sentence for them is still going to come past. How do we know that God forgives them and removes the barrier in their spiritual lives?
Well Bathsheba gets pregnant once again by her husband David, and God immediately sees something special in this child. They named him Solomon, but the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to them a second time and said, “Rename the child Jedidiah which means, “Loved by the Lord.” This child is going to become the next king of Israel.
If the story stopped here, you might think it had a good ending after all. But the fallout from David’s not fearing the Lord is just about to really begin. The baby dying is only the first son of three that David will lose. You see when we do not fear the Lord, we teach others to go ahead and take a chance. But just because God does not act today, does not mean that God does not see. You need to fear the Lord. Just because God does not act within the month, does not mean God does not care. You still need to fear the Lord. Just because God let you cover things up, does not mean, God has decided to let you slip by.
Sometimes for our own good, God makes the truth known. Sometimes for the church’s good, God makes the truth known. Sometimes for God’s own namesake, God makes the truth known? We need a much bigger picture of who God really is. God is not some Santa Claus, that we simply try get gifts from when we want something. God is not an old man, with a long beard, that’s suppose to come running to us, when we get in trouble. God is not fooled, by the promises we make when we get in trouble, that we throw out the window the moment we see things are going to get all right.
Some of us afraid of losing the friendship of people, so we compromise. Some of us are afraid on criminals out on the street, so we buy our alarms and carry our guns. Some of us are afraid of missing out on the fun in life, so we start trying stuff just for this one time. But I’m telling you, we’ve got something much bigger to be afraid of.
Jesus said, 4 "I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. 5 But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.” You see there are a lot of people who can take us out of this world, but there is only one who can see to it that we stay out of hell.
Some people want us to think, that all the hell there is, is right on earth. I agree that there is plenty of hell going on in people’s lives, but it’s nothing like the burning flames, the dark smoke, the gnashing teeth, and the screaming and wailing that lasts for all eternity.
We can take God lightly if we want to. We can fool around during praise time and mock God if we want to. We can pretend we’re living for Jesus on Sunday if we want to. Our bible tells us in the New Testament in Hebrews 12:4, that the same God who sent His Son to die for us “is a consuming fire.” That tells me, that God is either purifying our lives to remove the sin or God is God to set us on fire as payment for sin.
Jesus can do a lot for your life while you’re living, but His purpose in coming to this earth was not to get you a Rolex watch, or nice bank account, or a good looking husband. His purpose was to help us escape the fires of hell. That comes about by us having a healthy fear of the Lord. If we fear God, our lives will show it. If we fear God, we won’t go there any more. If we fear God, we’ll let it go. If we fear God, we’ll choose to do the right thing.
Listen to John 3:16-17 John 3:16-18 (NIV) 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son.
You can’t begin a right relationship spiritually unless you know there is God that you must fear to grow as one of His children.
Sermon Outline Pastor Rick
4-6-08 Samuel 12:1-12 Acts 5:1-11
A. Who Did You Fear
1. Aunt Helen- “I’ll Bust Ya”
2. Fear From God To Protect
3. Prov 1:7 The Fear Of The Lord Is The
Beginning Of Wisdom
4. God Is Love, Powerful, Just
Awesome Worthy
5. God Disciplines Us
6. A Real Good Whupping
B. Who Changed God
1. The Old Grandfather
2. The God In The Box
3. The Eyes Of The Lord
C. Catching Up With King David
1. David & Bathsheba-The Sin
2. David & Uriah
3. Murder & Cover Up
4. “But The Thing David Had Done
Displeased The Lord.”
D. Four Reasons For Sufferings
1. We Live In A Fallen World
2. We Make Poor Choices
3. We Come Under Satanic Attack
4. We Come Under God’s Discipline
E. David Loses The Fear Of God
1. David’s Background
2. David’s Elevation
3. David’s Self Determination
F. The Prophet Nathan Comes On The Scene
1. The Rich Man, The Traveler
2. The Poor Man , The Lamb
3. The Injustice Of The Act
4. David Pronounces Judgment
5. Caught In Your Trap
G. Nathan Reveals God’s Hand
1. The Price Of The Sword
2. The Price Of Adultery
3. David Struck With Fear
4. The Confession
5. I Have Sinned Against God
H. Nathan Announces Judgment
1. Our Actions Reflect Our God
2. Responsibility Of The Believer
3. The Loss Of A Child
4. David Fasts & Prays
5. The Leaders Are Afraid
6. Where Sin Can Take Us In A Year
7. The Pain Of Bathsheba
I. A Man Is Revived & Changed
1. A Child Dies
2. A Change In David
3. When Prayer Answer Is No
4. God’s Mercies Are New
5. David & Bathsheba Together
6. A Relationship Healed
7. Don’t Say Yes, Just Because It’s
There
8. God Gives A Second Chance
9. Another Child Is Born
10. It’s Not Quite Over
K. The Mission Is To Fear God
1. A Day, A Month, A Cover
2. Our Good, Church Good, God’s Name
3. Not A Santa, Not An Old Man
4. Not Easily Fooled
5. Fearing People, Criminals, Mission Out
6. Jesus Said Fear God-2 Kinds Of Power
7. This Life And Hell –Dark
L. Now’s Not The Time To Play With God
1. Making Light Of The Lord
2. Hebrews 12-4 God Is A Consuming
Fire
3. Why Jesus Really Came
4. Watch Out For Hell
5. John 3:16-18
6. We All Need Some Fear
