CLOSE ENCOUNTERS SERIES
7 – DAVID, PART 2
This morning, we are continuing with our sermon series on CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
You say, “Pastor, you’ve been preaching on this for a long time, how much longer are you going to preach on this?”
Until we have CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
Because I don’t know about you, but I’m ready for…
--an old fashioned
--heaven sent
--Holy Ghost revival
I’m READY and I’M HUNGRY for CLOSE ENCOUNTERS
And one of the most definite ways to have them is to look at the lives of those who’ve had them
And that’s what we’ve been doing in this series, and already we’ve looked at…
--Adam
--Abraham
--Joseph
--Moses
--4 Great Women, last week
And a couple of weeks ago, we began by looking at the life of David, and last time, we covered basically the first half of his life
But today, we’re going to be looking at the last half of David’s life and we’re going to learn some more lessons on how to have CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH GOD
And with that in mind, let’s read…
Acts 13:36 ( KJV ) 36For David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, and was laid unto his fathers, and saw corruption:
INTRODUCTION
In our message last time, we talked about…
--how Samuel the Prophet called David out from tending the sheep and anointed him to be king over Israel
--how he went out and destroyed the giant, Goliath
--how he became the object of King Saul’s wrath, and literally had to run for his life
--how he found himself in a Cave, called Adullam, and how that in that cave, 400 men gathered themselves to David, and went on to become mighty men, themselves
--how David had a chance to kill Saul, but would not strike the Lord’s anointed, and how that was a great lesson on “Biblical Submission to Authority”
--how finally, Saul dies and David reigns in Hebron for 7 years, and then, finally, at the age of 40, David is CORONATED KING over all Israel
And one of the GREATEST lessones we learned from David’s life is that sometimes, it dosen’t happen in 2 weeks when God…
--calls you
--gives you a promised
There’s…
--a time (we’re concerned about TIME, when God is more concerned about TIMING)
--a process
--some things we have to go through
Now, in preaching that first message on DAVID, I did not have time to go into David’s friendship with Jonathon, who was King Saul’s son, in 1 Samuel 18
And there’s a beautiful story where Jonathan strips himself before David, of his sword and bow, and how that typifies our surrender to Christ
And you know, there’s a lot of people out there who teach and preach that you can know Christ as Savior, but not take Him as Lord
Well, in the New Testament, He’s called “Savior” 24 times, but He’s called Lord over 400 times
There’s no such thing as taking Him as Savior and not as Lord
He’s either Lord of All, or not Lord at All, and really, you don’t accept Him has Lord, you fall on your knees and strip yourself before Him and say, MY LORD AND MY GOD!
And we don’t have time to go into that
And neither do I have time to go into DAVID’S INITIAL FIGHT WITH THE ENEMY in 2 Samuel 5
How that one time, David asked God, “shall I pursue”, and God said “YES”, and then another time, David asked and God said, “WAIT UNTIL YOU HERE A SOUND IN THE MULBERRY BUSHES”
And that’s a great lesson in learning to serve God because it teaches us that though God never changes, SOMETIMES HIS STRATEGY DOES!
And we can’t just assume that the way He did things yesterday is the way He will do them today
And then, neither do I have time to go into the fact that David wanted to build a temple, which God told him no
And that tells us that at times we can want to do things, even SPIRITUAL things, but every God-idea is not a GOOD IDEA
There’s really, so much I could go into in the life of David, and there’s no question that HE HAD CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH GOD
But things were not always RIGHT and PERFECT in David’s life
And if you will remember, one of the MAIN THINGS I’ve been teaching you is that no matter…
--who you are
--where you’ve been
--what you’ve done
--what’s in the past
--your sins, mistakes, shortcomings and failures
You can have CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH GOD!
And this is never more true than in the life of David
Because, when we last left David…
--he has already ascended to the throne of Israel
--he has already defeated the major enemies of Israel
--he is blessed and highly favored of God
--he is writing psalms, he has passed great tests
--he has amassed a personal fortune
--he has now become the most powerful and most influential man in all the world
When we last left David, at that time, he was already…
--an author
--a songwriter
--a musician
--a father
--a warrior
--a king
But, as we come this morning to the second half of David’s life, I wish that we could end the story right there and say AND HE LIVED HAPPILY EVER AFTER
But in the second half, you will find that David’s life is filled with…
--sin
--mistakes
--consequences
But despite it all, HE WAS THE COME-BACK KID, like the Enegizer Bunny, he kept repenting and repenting and repenting
And that’s what I want to do this morning, is talk to you about the 2 BIG MISTAKES David made in the second half of his life
And the first one, we see is…
1. DAVID’S SIN WITH BATHSHEBA
Let me give you the story, that’s found in 2 Samuel 11
The Bible says that when the kings go out for war that David stays home
And he goes around on the top of the roof and sees a woman bathing and asks for her and has sex with her
She gets pregnant
And he calls her husband back in from fighting for a few days of furlough, and he hopes he’ll go home and sleep with her, but he doesn’t
He said, “How can I do this when my friends are out there fighting, go home to my house and have relations with my wife and enjoy every comfort while our men in the Army are out there fighting and enduring the hardships of battle!”
And you know – that’s a good preaching point right there
Because SO MANY TIMES IN THE CHURCH, you’re always going to have people who are not pulling their weight
While the rest of us are out there on the field, suffering, keeping the church lights burning, so many are at home taking it easy
And that’s not the way it’s supposed to be
Some of you do what you want when you want if it fits your schedule, not realizing that there’s a fight and everyone is needed!
And so David tries another strategy, he calls him to a feast and loads him with wine and tries to get him drunk
But even then, he doesn’t sleep with his wife
And then, he does the unthinkable – he writes a letter to Joab and says, pull away from him in the battle
And then, news comes, that Uriah is dead, and David takes Bathsheba as his wife
HOW COULD HE DO THIS?
And I want us to go through this one more time
How did David find himself in this predicament – he was laying around, not active in the work of the Lord
And there’s always a great danger in SPIRITUAL INACTIVITY!
You know, the Bible teaches us that
1 Corinthians 15:58 ( KJV ) 58Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.
LISTEN! Works can’t save you, but the will keep you saved!
Secondly, notice that David was on the roof, and every roof had a ledge
And David had to be close to the ledge to look down and see Bathsheba
And that’s what happen – we don’t need to get to close to the ledge
When it comes to the move of God, we need to get right in the middle
The Bible says that the enemy attacks you when you’re on the ledge
Deuteronomy 25:18 (KJV) "[The enemy] smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary…"
Listen – the DEVIL IS NOT OMNISCIENT, BUT HE CAN READ YOUR MAIL!
And so David has greatly sinned
Who would have ever thought?
He…
--was the sweet Psalmist of Israel
--beat the giant of Gath
--danced before the Ark
You listen to me and listen to your pastor good –
1 Corinthians 10:12 ( KJV ) 12Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.
You’ll never not need…
--the church
--the touch of God
--to watch your life
--to guard your steps
--to be very careful!
Listen – SEX GOT…
--the smartest man in the Bible, Solomon
--the strongest man in the Bible, Sampson
--the most spiritual man in the Bible, David
And it might not be “sex” for you, but we’ve all got our weaknesses and we better get right in the middle of what God is doing in our lives!
And so, what happens next, Nathan the prophet comes in, and David said three words – I HAVE SINNED
And thank God he said it was SIN
It wasn’t a…
--misunderstanding
--Bathsheba’s fault (which, she had responsibility in it as well)
It was a sin
We don’t hear a lot of preaching about sin today do we!
But the MOMENT He said, “I have sinned” God said, “I have forgiven”
Listen…
2 Samuel 12:13 ( KJV ) 13And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the LORD. And Nathan said unto David, The LORD also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die.
That really means – THE LORD HAS PUT YOUR SIN ON SOMEBODY ELSE!
And aren’t you glad for forgiveness!
But here’s something you need to know – there will always be consequences
Forgiveness will remove the GUILT of sin, but it may not necessarily remove the GREIF of sin!
Nathan said…
--the sword will never depart from your house
--the child shall not live
And did it happen?
First of all, the child died
And David agonized before God that the child live
And he made one of the greatest statements in all the Bible –
2 Samuel 12:23 ( KJV ) 23But now he is dead, wherefore should I fast? can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.
I CAN’T BRING HIM BACK, BUT I WILL MEET HIM
Death ain’t no big deal for the Christian
And then, Amnon rapes his sister, Tamar
And then, Absalom kills Amnon
And then, eventually, Absalom takes over David’s throne and David has to flee for his life
Eventfully, Absalom is killed and David weeps over Absalom
2 Samuel 18:33 ( KJV ) 33And the king was much moved, and went up to the chamber over the gate, and wept: and as he went, thus he said, O my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom! would God I had died for thee, O Absalom, my son, my son!
You know why – because Absalom has gone to hell because David wasn’t a good father
The choices you make, parents, affect your children!
And then, secondly,…
2. HIS SIN IN NUMBERING THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL
The Bible says, that after he gets back on the throne, the Philistines come out to fight
And so David wants to number the people
And it brings huge consequences
The prophet gives David three choices…
--3 days of being pursued by your enemies
--3 years of severe famine
--3 days of pestilence
Wouldn’t it be great if you knew this in advance?
And so, David says, let the Lord decide
And an angel starts destroying Jerusalem and 70,000 people die!
People that had nothing to do with David sin die!
And that’s the way sin is, it brings great consequences and ripple effects to people we don’t even know!
And finally, David hastens to offer a sacrifice, and he finds a man who has a threshing floor
And the man was going to give it to David, but David said – I WILL NOT OFFER TO THE LORD THAT WHICH COSTS ME NOTHING!
And folks, sin is running rampant in this world, and if we’re going to stop the destruction, then somebody is going to have to…
--pay the price
--sacrifice
--be here when its not convenient
This is a great picture of salvation
Because of ONE MAN sinning, the innocent die
And this man went up and sacrificed his very best on the mountain
And that’s what happened – because of one man’s sin, I am under the judgment of God
But somebody went up the mountain and made the greatest sacrifice of all and stopped the plague
IN CLOSING
David is called A MAN AFTER MY OWN HEART
Thank God for grace!
He served his generation in the will of God
How many of you will do that today?
