STANDING TALL:
WHEN THE PAST HAUNTS YOU
II Samuel 11:1 – 12:15
Psalm 32:1 – 11
S: Courage
Th: Forgiveness of sin
Pr: OUR FAILURE IS NOT TO BE THE END OF THE STORY.
?: How? How is this to be accomplished?
KW: Factors
TS: We will find in our study of II Samuel 11:1-12:15 and Psalm 32 four factors that show how our failure is not to be the end of the story.
The _____ factor is…
I. GRACE (1-2)
II. GUILT (3-5)
III. GUIDELINES (6-9)
IV. GLADNESS (10-11)
Version: ESV
RMBC 16 November 03 AM
INTRODUCTION:
ILL Caught
A lady who was speeding had an officer pull her over to the side of the road. She didn’t have her seat belt on so as soon as she stopped, she quickly slipped it on before the officer got to her window.
After talking to her about speeding, the officer said, "I see you are wearing your seat belt. Do you believe in wearing it at all times?"
"Yes, I do, officer," she replied with confidence.
"Well," asked the officer, "do you always do it up with it looped through your steering wheel?"
Well…
Have you ever been caught?
It was not so long ago, that as a nation, we were riveted to our televisions about someone who had been caught.
ILL Caught: Clinton (written by David Mains)
It was only the second time in 209 years of American history that the House of Representatives had conducted a presidential impeachment vote. Bill Clinton was charged with “obstruction of justice.” Specifically in question was whether he lied under oath in attempting to conceal his relationship with a former White House intern.
Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr made charges against him in a 445 page report containing 11 alleged impeachable offenses. This was a culmination of a four-year, $40 million investigation of the personal, business, and political lives of both the President and his wife, Hillary.
The skeleton in Clinton’s closet was Monica Lewinsky. The relationship had come to light after he gave a deposition in January of 1998 in a sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a former Arkansas state employee. That same year in August, a shaken Clinton admitted in a live television broadcast that he had misled his family and also the nation regarding what actually happened.
This scandal was highlighted for months and months. Every other newsworthy item was dwarfed in comparison to this single issue.
Our former president was not the first leader to be caught.
In fact, in Scripture, we find this sordid story of seduction.
OUR STUDY (Part 1):
I. SEDUCTION (II Samuel 11:1-5)
In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab, and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. It happened, late one afternoon, when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, "Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her… Then she returned to her house. And the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, "I am pregnant."
David had gained a great reputation.
As a young man, he had dropped the mighty Goliath with faith and a slingshot.
He was a musician and a poet.
As a warrior, he had expanded the borders of Israel.
As the king, he had centralized the nation’s religion and government in Jerusalem.
As a spiritual leader, he was known as having a heart for God.
But this same man blew it.
David dealt a mortal blow to his integrity.
While his soldiers were off at war, he was watching girls from the palace roof.
And one in particular got his attention…Bathsheba.
But instead of admiring from afar, David decided he wanted an up close adventure with her.
And why not?
He was the king.
And the king gets what he wants.
So, when it is all said and done, David sleeps with a woman that is not his wife.
It is called adultery.
But it did not end there.
There was more than just fun for David’s little fling.
There was also a pregnancy.
Bathsheba was with child, and the child did not belong to her husband.
The child belonged to David.
So, to cover his tracks, David is going to have to come up with some…
II. SCHEME (II Samuel 11:14-15)
Yes, he may have been the king, but David also knew that it wasn’t that smart to be messing with his officer’s wives.
To say the least, it did not make for good morale.
So…
David attempted to cover his immorality.
So his plan was simply this…
Let’s get Uriah and Bathsheba together.
Let’s give Uriah a break from the front and get him home for a romantic weekend with his wife.
But David’s plan of deception doesn’t work.
Uriah won’t see his wife because he believes it is wrong to enjoy the pleasures of marriage when his men can not.
So now David has to go to plan B.
He is going to have to loosen Uriah up a bit.
He gets him nice and drunk so that perhaps Uriah will breakdown and go to his wife.
David sends him home, and it still doesn’t work.
But David is determined.
It is time for plan C, and it involves even more immorality.
Note how the text tells it…
In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, "Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him, that he may be struck down, and die."
To cover his own wrongdoing, David is willing to resort to the elimination of a loyal officer.
He not only has committed adultery and deception, he has now stooped to murder.
Now David has a…
III. SKELETON (II Samuel 11:26-27)
…in his closet.
Here is how the text explains it…
When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. And when the mourning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.
David now had a past that would haunt him.
You know, now throughout the palace, the whispered conversations would begin.
Those that hadn’t been in the know originally would eventually figure it out.
And for David, the consequences would be devastating, for this ill-conceived baby will die.
TRANSITION:
But we have not finished this story.
We are going to another text written by David.
And it is here that we find that…
OUR FAILURE IS NOT TO BE THE END OF THE STORY!
As bad as it was for David, it was not the end of the story.
So if you have done something really lousy, take heart today.
If you have a past that is haunting you, be of good courage.
If you have done something that you know is evil, don’t despair.
Don’t be afraid.
Your story is not done yet.
You see, you can find…
OUR STUDY (part 2):
I. GRACE (Psalm 32:1).
Note what David writes…
Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.
David is writing this from experience.
As bad as it has been…
As bad as he has been…
David found forgiveness.
You see…
You can’t have done something so bad that God can’t handle it.
There are no “skeletons” that scare God off!
So, please see and understand this…
God blesses the person whose sins are forgiven.
God loves to take the heavy burden of sin and carry it away.
Not only that, God does not hold grudges.
When you are forgiven, you really are forgiven.
ILL Notebook: Past (historical)
Andrew was telling a friend about an argument he was having with his wife, “Every time we have an argument she gets historical.”
The friend corrected him and said, “You mean hysterical, don’t you?”
“No, I mean historical. Every time we fight she drags up stuff from the past and holds it against me.”
Well, we have good news.
God doesn’t do that.
Note what David says in Psalm 103 (v. 11-12):
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far does he remove our transgressions from us.
If you are forgiven, don’t worry.
It’s taken care of.
But, David clues us in on how difficult this has been because there has been plenty of…
II. GUILT (Psalm 32:3-5).
ILL Notebook: Guilt (EA Poe)
In Edgar Allen Poe’s story, “The Tell-Tale Heart” the main character commits murder. Unable to escape the haunting guilt of his deed, he begins to hear the heartbeat of the victim he has buried in his basement. A cold sweat covers him as he hears the beat-beat-beat of a heart, that goes on relentlessly. Ultimately, the heartbeat drives the man absolutely mad, not knowing that it was not coming from the body in the basement, but from the heart within his own chest.
David’s experience was certainly similar.
See how he describes it…
For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer.
When you sin, you want to hide it.
It is natural.
But…
Living with sin as a pampered friend leaves us constantly worried about the exposé.
What is going to happen if and when it comes out?
In the meantime, though, we hide it.
We push it back to the recesses of our mind.
We try not to think about it.
But little by little, it begins to eat away at us.
We keep up a good front.
But our body aches and our stomach churns.
We can’t sleep and depression begins to set in.
We are literally stuck in the past.
And every time something goes wrong, we know that it is God finally giving us what we deserve.
But David does find the way out…
I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, "I will confess my transgressions to the LORD," and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.
He finally stopped trying to hide the sin.
He opened the door of the closet and revealed the “skeleton.”
For David, though, he did not do it willingly.
It had to be pointed out to him by the prophet Nathan.
The admonition to us is, “don’t wait.”
Don’t wait until you are flat out cornered like our former president!
Expose it yourself before the huge embarrassment of someone else having to do it for you.
To be released from the guilt, we must confess to what we have done wrong.
You see, we can’t expect God to cover that which we are unwilling to uncover.
So, we must follow the example of David.
David calls his sin, sin.
He doesn’t argue about the meaning of “is.”
He doesn’t say he made an error in his thinking.
He does not say that he made a mistake.
He does not excuse himself by calling it a lapse in judgment.
No.
Instead, he said he had sinned against God.
In so doing, he was now ready for the…
III. GUIDELINES (Psalm 32:8-9).
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with my eye upon you. Be not like a horse or a mule, without understanding, which must be curbed with bit and bridle, or it will not stay near you.
Here is good news…
God loves us too much to leave us the way we are.
God definitely desires to give us a new path if we are willing to learn.
He wants to instruct us!
He wants to teach us.
He desires to counsel us.
He longs to watch over us.
He will give us the direction.
But we must be careful to not get stubborn again.
This is what has gotten us in trouble in the first place.
We have chosen our way and our direction over God’s.
But God does not leave his own alone.
God will put the bridle of suffering on and pull you back to repentance.
When we get it right, though, we receive…
IV. GLADNESS (Psalm 32:10-11).
Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the LORD. Be glad in the LORD, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!
Our relationship with God is not dependent on how good we’ve been, but on how faithful He is.
Our relationship is not based on how good or bad we are.
It is based on a faithful God that is worth singing about.
It says in I John 1:9…
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
God is trustworthy and faithful.
He grabs us.
He loves us.
He doesn’t give us some ritual to make it right.
There is no penance.
He just kisses us and loves us back into right living.
The great thing is that we don’t have to beg God to forgive.
In fact, He wants to forgive us more than we want to be forgiven.
APPLICATION:
So…
What do you need to do to get past your failure and sin?
You may think, oh, I am not so bad.
I’m not a drug dealer.
I haven’t robbed a bank or convenient store.
I haven’t killed anyone.
That kind are the bad people.
The worst that I have done is take a paper clip from my third grade teacher or scraped peas off my plate and fed them to the dog and said I ate them.
But take a closer look.
Perhaps you really do have some skeletons in your closet that are hidden.
Perhaps what you call stretching the truth is really lying.
Perhaps what you call a bad temper, really is anger and hate.
Perhaps what you call sharing a prayer request, is really gossip.
Perhaps what you call admiring the opposite sex, really is lust.
Perhaps what you call a demand for justice is really a matter of bitterness.
It is the time to end your silence.
Your joy has left.
You are in over your head.
It is time to open the closet and get this right.
The failure does not have to be the end of the story.
God has been offended.
But amazingly, God so much wants to forgive.
So confess, and get the joy back.
BENEDICTION: [Counselors are ]
Don’t let failure be the end of your story – acknowledge your guilt; because the consequences of guilt will drive you crazy or they will harden you into bitterness.
Don’t let the poor decision of your life be the end of your story – instead let God guide you; don’t be so stubborn; the Lord really does have a better way.
Don’t let sin be the end of your story – God desperately wants you to know His grace; for blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven.
Now to him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.
