The Fallout From Our Failures Series

Series: “How Can I Best Love My Family?”

Sermon #1

Title: “The Fallout From Our Failures”

Text: 2 Samuel 12:1-13

Introduction:

Well, as I said and being true to my word, at the beginning of February, my desire was to return to the man King David. And I said I wanted to talk about David so that we could learn from David mistakes how to love our own families better. David was a man after God’s own heart, but he was not perfect in his devotion to God. The atomic bomb of sin within David’s life was his adulterous affair with a woman named Bethsheba. Well because this affair was so deceitful, a somewhat cunning craftiness, which led to the murder of Bethsheba’s husband; having lived a lie for almost a year, and killing Bethsheba’s husband as if he had drawn his own sword by sending into battle on the front lines, finally one day David was confronted about his sin. So, today we’re only looking into David’s sin and in the weeks to come we’ll see the repercussions of family downfall. None of us need to point at figure at David in accusative fashion because “there go I accept by the grace of God.”

Illustration:

Listen to this prayer! It goes along with a sermon entitled, “Prepare the Way for God to Choose You.” Father, in the mighty name of Jesus, we love you and we praise you and we thank you for the wonderful things that you do for every one of us. Thank you for wisdom and revelation. Thank you for life and light. Thank you that we can be part of a body of believers that loves you with all of our hearts and is trying to navigate our responsibilities as believers, as well as our responsibilities of cities of this grand constitutional republic within which we live. So, heavenly Father, give us grace and mercy. Father, help us this next week and a half, as we go into national elections. And Lord we pray for our country. Father, we pray that lies would be exposed. We pray that deception would be exposed. Father, we pray that wisdom would come upon our electorate and they would think with clarity and with decisiveness. In Jesus we asked these things, Amen.

Isn’t that a remarkable prayer? Folks, this is the prayer of Ted Haggard the Sunday before he was exposed for having a 3-year sexual relationship with a male prostitute in the city of Denver. He was the Senior Minister of one of the largest churches in the Denver Metro area, but one day it came to and end because of his own deception. He at first denied the allegations, but then later admitted to some of the sinful behavior. In his November 5, 2006 farewell letter to the 14,000-member church his words were read during worship as saying – “I am a deceiver and a liar.” There is a part of my life that is so repulsive and dark that I’ve been warring against it all my adult life. For extended periods of time, I would enjoy victory and rejoice in freedom. Then, from time to time, the dirt that I thought was gone would resurface, and I would find myself thinking thoughts and experiencing desires that were contrary to everything I believe and teach.

Transition:

Well, you know now what David is up against. Living a lie, deceitfulness, was it true that there was a part of David’s life that was so repulsive? We don’t know, but we do know this and every man here would agree; the search to find intimacy can lead to some very dark places. Let’s get back to David! One day after it being close to a year, David was confronted about his sin that he chose to deny and not repent of.

The Confrontation of David’s Sin (Vs. 1-7a)

The Chosen Messenger (V.1a)

“And the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to David.” Have you ever had someone report to you something you were doing wrong that was sinful? You remember what I said to two weeks ago about the discipline of the Lord. That we are not to despise the Lord’s discipline?” Sometimes the Lord sends another person to us to warn us so that the strong of the Lord doesn’t have to intervene? But the strong hand of the Lord has already come down upon David. He’s gone to far and Nathan is there to tell him what the strong hand of the Lord is going on in the future. And it’s like the apostle Paul, “Lord, please remove this throne!” So the Lord says, “No, Paul my grace is sufficient for you for in your times of weakness my power will become manifest.” You see David crying out to God in Psalm 51? “For I recognize my shameful deeds—they haunt me day and night. Against you, and you alone, have I sinned; I have done what is evil in your sight. You will be proved right in what you say, and your judgment against me is just.” Skip down to vs.10-13 in the same chapter, “Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me. (11) Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. (12) Restore to me again the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you. (13) Then I will teach your ways to sinners, and they will return to you.” Now David is finally beginning to figure it out as to his purpose in life, just like what our purpose in life is to be. We’re not placed here on earth for our own good pleasure, but we’re here to serve the Lord of hosts.