You Are The Man Series

In 2013, a 19 year old Austrian skier named Teresa Stadlober became the 1st Austrian skier to take the gold and silver medals in the Junior Skiathlon (in the Czech Republic).Ever since that time she’d been training for the Olympics, and in 2018 (at the age of 25) she was at the Olympic Winter games in South Korea.

As the race was being run… it was obvious Stadlober was a shoe-in for 2nd place and the silver medal. But (PAUSE) with less than a 1/3 of the race yet to complete, she mysteriously veered right on a downhill slope, while the rest of the skiers went left. By the time she realized her mistake and had corrected her course she had fallen from 2nd place to ultimately finish 9th in the race. Her hopes… for an Olympic medal… vanished in a moment.

Commenting on what had happened, she said: "I don't know. I really don't know. I took the wrong way, and I did this twice. The 2nd time I wasn't sure anymore. I had a blackout. I don't know why I took the wrong way." Her trainer said he believed that she’d simply taken her eyes off the track for a moment… and she lost her focus. (https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/22574076/cross-country-skier-teresa-stadlober-loses-chance-medal-wrong-turn Associated Press: Feb 25, 2018, 06:27 AM ET)

Now, there’s a couple things I want you to notice about that story. She made a bad decision, and it cost her something that was valuable to her. She took her eyes off the path for just a moment and she lost the race.

(PAUSE) In our story today, we’re looking at one of the important men in the Old Testament. A man named David. He became a hero when he was just a young man when he faced off against a giant named Goliath, and he took that giant down (snap fingers) just like that. And from that day on he was destined for greatness. Ultimately he became a powerful warrior; a great leader; a man of God; The King of Israel!

(PAUSE) But then… he took his eyes off the path and he looked where he shouldn’t have been looking. In II Samuel 11:1 we’re told that “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle…” David didn’t. David stayed home. He’d seen Bathsheba taking a bath next door and fell into LUST over her. He invited her over for a little personal time, and before you know it she’s pregnant with David’s child. Worse yet she’s the wife of one of David’s closest friends - a man named Uriah the Hittite.

David tried all kinds of things to make it look like Uriah was the father of the child, but nothing worked. So finally, David realized that the best way to bury his sin… was to bury Uriah, and he arranged to have him killed on the battle field. Then he took Bathsheba for his bride… and he was home free with no one the wiser.

But God was wiser. God knew. And God sent the prophet Nathan to confront David about his sin. Nathan told David a parable about a rich man who stole a poor neighbor’s lamb to feed some important guests who’d come to his home. The more David heard of the injustice of the story the angrier he became. And “he said to Nathan,

‘As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.’

Nathan said to David, ‘YOU ARE THE MAN! Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if that had been too little, I would have given you much more! Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’” II Samuel 12:5-10

And suddenly, David’s family fell apart - and it was NOT a G rated story. David’s firstborn son (Amnon) raped HIS half-sister Tamar (PAUSE) and David did nothing to punish Amnon. Then, 2 years later, Tamar’s full-blooded brother Absalom had Amnon assassinated. (PAUSE) And again… David basically did nothing. As time went by, Absalom so hated his father that he staged a revolt to try to take away the throne from David… and Absalom died in battle.