Who Me?
II Samuel 11:1-17,26-27,12:1-7
I would like to use for a subject this morning “Who Me” turn to your neighbor and say Who ME? Now turn to your other neighbor and say Who Me. No close your eyes and say to yourself. Yeah You.
Now let me start off by stating that the Lord did not sent me here today with this message to make you comfortable with your present state of being. He did not send me here to praise you and tell you that you got it going on because you usher, sing in the choir, aint missed a Sunday since anyone can remember.
I want to talk about some problems we have as Christians that cause us to be out of fellowship with the Lord. Problems that cause us to loose focus on the Lord will and zero in on our will. This story of David should give us pause to be mindful and prayerful not to fall into the same traps that David experienced.
And you might say well brother preacher I’m not going to commit adultery or kill anyone; this may be true but the trap that I am talking about, and this story is teaching, is the trap of allowing the flesh to take over and rule our lives. David in his short comings of this story screams a message of “don’t be like me.” This message should ring loud and clear to us like a parent teaching a child not to make the same mistakes they have made. That I have been down the same road you are about to travel and I am trying to help you go another way. In David’s blue print of what not to do, I have three points for us to keep in mind this morning.
My first point is the fact that from time to time we all get a little too comfortable with our Christianity. We lose focus on God’s will and we allow our own will to supersede God’s plan. Getting comfortable in our Christianity is dangerous because we allow Satin to deceive us into feeling and thinking that we can relax God’s law or God’s commandments. What do you mean preacher. I’m Glad you asked. Your attitude toward sin changes the closer issues of sin get to you, Let me put it another way. You might look at divorce a little differently when it’s someone in your immediate family, or you may look differently on homosexuality, drugs, abortion and the list goes on, getting comfortable with our Christianity will cause a response of “that’s not so bad” or “that’s all right” Oh that’s just cousin my cousin, He’s alright he is just gay and he can’t help it. But we won’t allow God to use us as a Nathan to say no that’s not alright, it is wrong according to the Word of God.
We get relaxed enough to allow someone or something to come into you life and take over and that thing or that person unbeknownst to you have become your idol god and you live to satisfy that thing or that person and you don’t even realize it.
You hear the word and you know the word but you are holding on to an unpromised chance of a death bed confession of “Lord save me” or “Lord forgive me” A confession only sincere as a result of your present circumstance of death.
Becoming comfortable with your present state and taking you eyes off the Lord was the problem of David in our text this morning. No verse one of our text this morning gives us the clues of David becoming comfortable with his present state. Samuel II 11:1 And it came to pass, after the year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle, that David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the children of Ammon, and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem.
David when he should have been out in battle with his troops is back at the palace relaxing, chilling, letting his guard down, enjoying his wealth, power and his kingdom. No you know the saying about an idle mind, but idle actions permeate sin as well.
David gets comfortable and allows the flesh to take over and lead his actions and his life, Nowhere in this story before Nathan came along did David pray, talk to the Lord or have anything to do with God. Thus his situation begins to go from bad to worse and with his actions and he finds himself so out there, who knows how far he would have gone before God sent Nathan with prophetic words to cause David to come to himself. Thank God for the Nathan’s of our lives.
To comfortable in our Christianity. Who ME?
The song writer says we fall down but we get up, this morning I declare that becoming comfortable in our Christianity will not allow us to have an accidental falling down but when fighting battles of the flesh we take a dive.
And instead of getting up we merely sit up Because we have yielded to the flesh we feel that it’s not so bad down here. But we are torn because we know how good God is and has been to us. The word of God states that You cannot serve two masters; the Lord cannot use you if you are not willing to get all the way up. The Lord’s work cannot be don with one foot in His will and one foot out of His will.
So if you are crippled by an addiction, the Lord is calling you to get up,
if you are constantly mad at the word the Lord is saying get up.
If you are suffering in sexual sin the Lord is saying to you right now I am here, let me help you get up.
If you don’t feel as close to God as you use to, it is not God that has moved it is you and you need to get up.
My second point that David is speaking to us to watch out for is Denial. Now just like David in our text denial has caused disruption in our church, our homes, on our jobs everywhere we go. A symptom of denial is using improper mirror angle. What are you trying to say preacher, what is improper mirror angle. We I’m glad you asked.
We often walk around with an “I can save the world” attitude and I’m going to tell everyone about themselves. I am going to hold my mirror in everyone else’s face so they can see themselves for what they are, see the error in their ways, so they can see their sin.
We even change the angle of our mirror and instead of telling that person about themselves, we invite another person to our private viewing session and together you being to rip this person apart for their shortcomings, their downfalls and anything else you can think of. Oh but its time, Its time to put down that mirror made by man, that mirror that man often uses to judge, and pick up the mirror that God has given us which is his word. And the angle on God’s mirror is right back at you.
God’s word is where we will be able to take a good look at ourselves instead of continually finding fault with others. Who Me? Denial is sometimes called the “everybody else” syndrome. “I’m the example” not the problem. “If everyone would act like I do or I tell them to act, we would not have as many problems.”
I tell you, When we are in Denial we allow pride to move. And we don’t just allow humbleness and humility to move out, we evict them, we throw them out because we have now elevated ourselves to super Christians. Let’s look at David with his wealth, power, and many wives. He had it all, but he allowed his status to cloud his judgment, to blind his rational thinking as it related to himself. He was in denial.
He understood right from wrong, but he did not want to look into the mirror of Judgment at himself. At this time, he felt that he had enough power and money to right any wrong. David was in serious Denial.
He was denying the fact that he had got himself into a situation that he could not control, and that was totally out of control. Can you just hear David saying, every time he receives news that has gone from bad to worse, “all right I can fix this, it’s not that bad just think, think, think all right I got it, since he will not go to sleep with his wife, I’ll kill him, no I cant kill him, I am the king, I will have him killed so it will look like and accident, that will make everything right. When we stop following the Lord we allow satin to move in and deceive.
You begin to think foolish thoughts just as David did. You are in denial. You begin to think you can erase sin with sin. IF you have a cup of dirty water and you pour more dirty water into the cup you just have more dirty water. The denial of thinking you can erase sin with sin will cause you to say, Well I can erase adultery with murder,or fornication with abortion,or substance abuse with lies and deceit. No! you need to come off of your high horse and realize that it is God who is in control, and not you, and operating outside of His will, there are no successes only degrees of failure. So to overcome denial we must recognize that we have a problem, we are sinners and the solution comes not from man or ourselves but from the blood of Jesus.
Our road to recovery leads me to my third point which is self examination. When we examine ourselves we often look through Rose-colored glasses; meaning what we see in ourselves is all roses, everything is right and in order.
Matthew 7:3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
Matthew 7:4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
Matthew 7:5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
Oh but its time to clear up that distorted, skewed picture of near perfection we often attribute to our own state of being. You might say well, I don’t go around talking about how good or that I am perfect, well this may be true I declare that you might no talk about yourself but it is the same as talking about how bad or bad off someone else is. And what is interesting is that you can be involved in the same situation of sin as your neighbor but your subtle classification of your actions are a mere minor transgression, but my neighbor, oh they are going to hell on the express train. but you have done or are doing the same thing but your examination of yourself did not equate to the same outcome as the deep examination of your neighbor. David is no different, when confronted with the parable of the lamb he is furious, looking a verse 5 of chapter 12 he could hardly be contained.
Completely ignoring the law, in his rage, David commands death for this man. Then he paused because death was contrary to the law on sheep stealing, so David says alright he will get the maximum penalty for his crime under the law, he will repay this man four fold.
Can you just see David pacing, saying I cannot believe that someone could be this cold hearted, inconsiderate, inhumane, unkind, this man is rich and is going to steal the poor man’s lamb, what kind of low down dirty snake in the grass could do such a thing to another human being, if he was here right now I’ll. And just t that moment Nathan stops David and says it’s you, It’s you, you are that man.
And for the first split second, I can see the expression on David’s face saying WHO ME? And Nathan does not sugar coat it, he does not beat around the bush, he gets straight to the point. Yes it is you who has been given everything by the Lord thy God and it obviously was not enough.
At that moment can you see David’s vision becoming clear, can you see his denial becoming reality, can you see his self-examination beginning, can you see him probing around finding his sin and realizing how he has hurt his Father which is in heaven and it hurt ooh it hurts. This is the pain we should feel when we sin because it separates us from the presence of God. This is the meaning of Matthew 5:4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
When was the last time you mourned for your sins or the sin that is around you? David has realized and is now mourning for his sin. Let me tell you that self-examiniations are not easy, they are not fun but they are absolutely necessary for spiritual growth and working in the will of God.
Let me tell you a good self examination is just like the doctor when you go in for surgery and he says well we went in to fix one thing but we found this wrong in addition to that wrong, it took a little more time but we got it. When you begin to do a self-examination with the word of God as your scalpel, you are going to find more than you thought was there.
It’s not a quick examination, and it is an examination that is never ending. We must continue to examine ourselves constantly because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God and all will continue to sin and come short of the glory of God. And this is not an excuse to give in to sin but a wake up call for how much you need Jesus in your life, around your life and as the Head of your life. As David has shown us when you allow sin to take over your life the result is usually your death or the death of someone around you. Daily self examination will make you realize why David wrote in Psalm 23 “The Lord is my Shepard, I shall not want.” Self-examination with the Word of God will have you coming to the House of Prayer with a smile on your face and an attitude of praise.
Self examination will make you nice to you neighbors and church members, your co-workers instead of always having at attitude of I can’t stand them.
Can you see the help that David is giving us this morning through his downfall? Actions speak louder than words therefore let us all take the actions of David and learn from them. David is trying to steer us clear of a moment where we have to ask the question who me? But instead of waiting for a who Me moment, lets just come to ourselves and say Lord its me.
· It’s me Lord that needs deliverance from this addiction,
· It’s me O Lord that needs deliverance from these sexual sins.
· It’s me O Lord that has made my schedule so busy that the is no time for You.
· Its me O Lord that does not come to bible study or Sunday school like I know I should
· Its me O Lord that is walking around with a chip on my shoulder, mad at the world,
· Its me O Lord that has let the material possessions of this world separate me from You
· Its me O Lord that has not been a good steward of the talents that you have given to me.
· Its me O Lord that has not brought my tithes to the store house like you told me.
· Its me O Lord that claims to love you, and have never seen you, but hate my brother who I see every day.
· Its me O Lord that tries to disrupt the church when things don’t go my way.
· It me O Lord that will fight for my cause but run and hide when it comes time to fight for yours.
· Its me O Lord that can’t put down the cigarette
Its me O Lord that can’t put down the bottle
· Its me O Lord that can’t put down the pipe
· Its me O Lord that can’t put down the knife and fork
· Its me O Lord that claims Your grace is sufficient but my actions show other wise.
· Its me O Lord that feel that I have to get myself together before I come to church.
· Its me O Lord that use the excuses of coming church of:
I’m tired,
I got to cook,
the grass needs mowing,
I’m playing golf,
the game is coming on,
nothing to wear,
My hair’s not done,
I got to clean my house,
I aint been to church in years,
that’s too early,
my kids won’t act right,
Your church service is too long,
my car been acting funny,
I was out too late last night,
its raining,
its snowing,
its too hot,
everyone looks at me funny,
and that preacher, you know that preacher is always, always talking about me.
Well the time for excuses is over, its decision time, time to snap out of the state of denial, time to accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal savior and join the body of baptized believers. You may be thinking that you have time, but time is not promised to you. With God in you life and God as the Head of your life anything is possible, Do you believe that. Then if you believe that then why even take a chance on you messing everything up trying to fight sin all by yourself. Then accept Christ as your Savior today, because tomorrow is not promised.
Minister Cedric A. Portis Sr.
cedque8@cs.com
