Dear Lord, thank you so much for the Sabbath
day. I ask that you open our hearts and our minds
and give us the Holy Spirit and gain some wisdom
and learn how to better experience renewal in
Christ. I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
So today we're going to be focusing on King David.
For those who don't know, King David was about
30 years old whenever he was coronated as the
second king of Israel. And he reigned for about
40 years. And people loved this guy. I mean,
he was a legend. He was known for being a great
shepherd that protected his flock from beasts.
And he was known as the kid that slayed the giant
with a slingshot. And he was an excellent military
leader. And under his reign, Israel was really
experiencing their golden years, so to speak.
And it really begs the question, what made David
so successful? Well, if you look throughout the
book of Samuel, you'll see that this phrase,
David inquired of the Lord, pops up quite a lot.
Whether the matters were big or small, David
always seemed to inquire of the Lord and to see
what the Lord would have to do for him. But at
some point, something went wrong. What went wrong
and when did it go wrong? And we're starting
here in 2 Samuel 11, verse 1. So basically, all
of David's men are out fighting this war, and
David decides to hang back. in Jerusalem, and
maybe reflecting on his past victories, just
kind of soaking it up. And it's interesting to
see that problems arise not whenever David is
working really hard or is super invested. This
is in a time of leisure, and I think a lot of
us can sort of fall into this trap too, and things
are going easy, and we're becoming a little bit
more self -sufficient, that sometimes that's
when Satan wants to come and mess with us. So
it goes on. One evening, David got up from his
bed and walked around on the roof of the palace.
From the roof, he saw a woman bathing. The woman
was very beautiful. So apparently, David sees
a woman, and she catches his eye, and he's a
fair bit interested in her, so he decides to
figure out who this woman is. And David sent
someone to find out about her. The man said,
she is Bathsheba, the daughter of Ilium and the
wife of Uriah the Hittite. All right, so at this
point, you know, I'm not so sure if David has
done anything wrong yet, but this is the stopping
point because now David knows that this woman
is married and that this is a no -go. So this
is a man that has been inquiring of the Lord,
a man that has had God at the seat of his throne
in his heart. And at this point, for a man like
that, this should be the stopping point. for
him and his interest in this woman. But this
desire keeps developing in his heart to the point
where it becomes not just a healthy attraction
to someone, but an unhealthy attraction one.
And we see someone who has God seated in his
heart experience a heart deterioration. And it
says that David sent messengers to get her. She
came to him, and he slept with her, and then
she went back home. And then it later says, So
David has just gotten himself into a world of
trouble. And when it comes to Satan and temptation
and doing bad things, usually Satan doesn't tell
you about the aftermath of the initial choice.
Satan tries to tell the young man to go out to
the bar and party, he doesn't tell him about
the hangover he's going to experience later.
Or whenever he tempts the thief to steal from
the store, he doesn't tell him about the lengthy
prison sentence he might have to spend if he
gets caught. And he certainly did not mention
any of the sort of pregnancies with David whenever
he tempted David to see Bathsheba. So right now,
David is at a crossroads, essentially. He has
two choices. He can inquire of the Lord, come
clean and see what he needs to do to fix the
situation, or he can double down and continue
to make bad choices. And unfortunately, that
is what David does. And ultimately, he conspires
against the husband of Bathsheba and has him
murdered. He gets away with it for about a year,
but it's probably one of the worst years of his
life. He is totally depressed, totally detached,
totally distant from God, not writing any psalms
as he's known for, and he is just in a completely
miserable state. And it's about after a year
or so that God tells Nathan the prophet what
David has done, and Nathan confronts David about
this, and he uses a metaphor about a rich man,
and a poor man and the rich man taking from the
poor man and asking David how he felt about that.
And he was enraged with the rich man until Nathan
points it out to David that he is the rich man.
And David at this point, his sins have been exposed
and he now knows the severity of his situation
for nothing in all creation is hidden from God's
sight. Everything is uncovered and laid before
the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed
or hidden that will not be made known. What you
have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight,
and what you have whispered in the ear in the
inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.
So we've reached the climax of the story. We
had someone that had a pure heart, and now we
have someone that is in need of a heart transformation.
And a lot of us find ourselves in similar situations
where... We are in a state of brokenness or emptiness
or fearfulness or lustfulness, and we are just
at a breaking point, and we're looking for a
way to experience heart renewal. And if we want
to experience heart renewal, we should follow
in the same footsteps that David takes. How do
I experience heart renewal? Well, step one is
to come clean before God. And we see this is
what David had... David does. He says, I have
sinned against the Lord. And he goes into further
detail in this confession in Psalm 51, verses
1 through 2. Have mercy on me, O God, according
to your unfailing love, according to your great
compassion. Blot out my transgressions. Wash
away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.
For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always
before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned
and done what is evil in your sight. So you are
right in your verdict and justified when you
judge. So the first step is just really just
laying it out before God and coming clean before
him and confessing what you've done and putting
yourself in a position where you're ready to
turn away from this behavior. And step two is
to simply ask God for a clean heart. And we see
this in the Psalms as well. Create in me a pure
heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within
me. When we give it all to God, when we confess
ourselves and we ask him for a heart renewal,
for a new heart, God gives that to us. And it's
not just, it's not superficial. It's not just
on paper. We actually experience a true transformation
of who we are. And I know this because when we
look into the New Testament and we look at the
mentions of David, 50 some odd times that he's
mentioned in the New Testament, never is he mentioned
as an adulterer or a murderer. And Acts 13 .22
says, God testified concerning him, I have found
David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart.
This is a true experience, a true transformation
we can experience. We can go from total dejection
to complete and fullness and joy. Whenever I
was a kid, I used to live in Sumner County, and
it was in the early 2000s, I think about 2006.
There was this horrible, horrible tornado, like
an F3 tornado that just came and just absolutely
destroyed the county, caused millions of dollars
in damage, killed several people, just total,
total catastrophe, destroyed homes. And there
was one family in particular that... The mom
was at home with the kids, and the dad was stuck
at work, and the tornado was headed right for
them, and it actually went through their house
and destroyed their house, and the mother had
to lay on top of the kids to protect them. And
thankfully, they survived, but they were found
under a pile of rubble, and the mom actually
was paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair for
the rest of their life. And the community got
together, and they did the best they could to...
get food and clothing and shelter for this family.
But they did something else as well. They got
a bunch of signatures for a petition, more signatures
than there had ever been on a petition to get
on a particular show. And it just so happened
to be the extreme home makeover show. And this
family was able to have a brand new home after
having a completely destroyed one. So where you
would go and you would see rubble and death and
destruction, you now see a new beautiful home
and a beautiful family. And this is the same
kind of transformation that we can experience
with Jesus whenever we ask him for a clean heart,
when we confess our sins to him, because he is
the master builder of our life. It may seem at
times like there's no way to... change who we
are, to become a better person, but God guarantees
us and shows us in scripture that when we come
before him, we can experience true heart transformation.
Dear Lord, thank you so much for bringing us
together here. I ask that you can create a clean
heart in all of us and strengthen us with your
spirit and continue to be the master builder
in our lives. Please bless the rest of this day,
and please be with the silent prayer requests
of everyone in this room. I ask these things
in Jesus' name. Amen.