A CRUSHING CHALLENGE...GETHSEMANE
What crushing challenge are you facing?
Is it your marriage? Your health? Your job? A temptation? You name it.
Mark 14:32-42
“They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’ He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled.
‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,’ he said to them. ‘Stay here and keep watch.’ Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. ‘Abba, Father,’ he said, ‘everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me.
Yet not what I will, but what you will.’ Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. ‘Simon,’ he said to Peter, ‘Are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.’
Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him.
Returning the third time, he said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!’”
- JESUS WAS CRUSHED AS AN OLIVE IN A PRESS THE NIGHT BEFORE THE CROSS
Gethsemane in the Aramaic language means “olive oil press”
- JESUS CRINGED AT THE CUP HE FACED
- A cup of isolation
- A cup of physical pain
- A cup of sinful shame
III. JESUS FOUND PEACE BY SURRENDERING TO GOD
What to do when you face a crushing experience:
(1) Pray
(2) Surrender your will to God
(3) Trust God’s perfect plan
- Mar 11, 2018A Crushing Challenge 3-11-18
A Crushing Challenge 3-11-18
A CRUSHING CHALLENGE...GETHSEMANE
What crushing challenge are you facing?
Is it your marriage? Your health? Your job? A temptation? You name it.
Mark 14:32-42
“They went to a place called Gethsemane, and Jesus said to his disciples, ‘Sit here while I pray.’ He took Peter, James and John along with him, and he began to be deeply distressed and troubled.
‘My soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death,’ he said to them. ‘Stay here and keep watch.’ Going a little farther, he fell to the ground and prayed that if possible the hour might pass from him. ‘Abba, Father,’ he said, ‘everything is possible for you. Take this cup from me.
Yet not what I will, but what you will.’ Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. ‘Simon,’ he said to Peter, ‘Are you asleep? Could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak.’
Once more he went away and prayed the same thing. When he came back, he again found them sleeping, because their eyes were heavy. They did not know what to say to him.
Returning the third time, he said to them, ‘Are you still sleeping and resting? Enough! The hour has come. Look, the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise! Let us go! Here comes my betrayer!’”
- JESUS WAS CRUSHED AS AN OLIVE IN A PRESS THE NIGHT BEFORE THE CROSS
Gethsemane in the Aramaic language means “olive oil press”
- JESUS CRINGED AT THE CUP HE FACED
- A cup of isolation
- A cup of physical pain
- A cup of sinful shame
III. JESUS FOUND PEACE BY SURRENDERING TO GOD
What to do when you face a crushing experience:
(1) Pray
(2) Surrender your will to God
(3) Trust God’s perfect plan
- Feb 18, 2018Conquering the Iniquity 2-18-18
Conquering the Iniquity 2-18-18Conquering The Iniquity 2-18-18
(Psalm 51)
I have met many Christians who love to tell how God used them in the past. When I ask them what God is doing in their life right now, they drop their head and tell me regretfully about something they’ve said or done. They simply feel like God will never use them again.David tells us how sin makes you feel:
Dirty- Sin makes us feel stained. David needed something no religion, ritual, or determination could do. Only God can do this type of cleansing.
Deaf- David had become deaf to the voice of the Lord. (It’s not someone else’s fault that you are deaf to God) His soft heart and spiritual tenderness toward the Lord had been overruled by his sin
Disgraced - Sin shames us. When sin is present in your life and its exposed, you feel ashamed to show your face.
Destitute - David needed a heart only God could give. He knew that his inner person, the heart, was the source of his trouble, and he was incapable of changing it on his own. David needed the Creator to create a miracle on his behalf.
Distant- David had known the Lord’s Special touch, His Anointing. David was not dealing with salvation but with God’s spiritual wisdom and hand of guidance. Now it all felt so far away.
David did this...to himself.
If you are there tonight, listen because there is hope. There is a way to restoration, and freedom.
David shows us that we don’t have to believe that lie. We all mess up at times, but God will forgive us and use us again. David’s life shows us:
Three Ways to Conquer Our Iniquity.
- Come Completely Clean
Psalm 51:2-6 Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. 4 Against You, You only, I have sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that You are justified when You speak and blameless when You judge. 5 Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. 6 Behold, You desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.
Sin shuts the lips, but grace opens the lips to praise. Have you ever just not felt like singing? Often the reason is from the guilt of sin. I have never met someone who is right with Christ and fails to worship him.
- David acknowledged that God was the only One who could take away his sin.
(vs.2) “Wash me...and cleanse me from my sin.”
- David didn’t try to hide his sin any longer.
(vs.3) “For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.”
- David admitted that he deserved God’s discipline.
(vs.4) “...I have... done what is evil in Your sight, so that You are justified...when You judge.”
- David realized he had been a sinner from birth.
(vs.5) “Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.”
- God already knows everything we’ve said, thought and done. He simply wants us to be honest about it.
(vs.6) “...You desire truth in the innermost being...”
- Call Christ For Help
Psalm 51:7 Purify me...and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Once David was honest enough to admit his sin, he was also humble enough to know that God was his only hope to be clean!?Look how God blesses the humble:
- God listens to the humble:
Psalm 10:17 O LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble; You will strengthen their heart, You will incline Your ear.
- God leads the humble:
Psalm 25:9 He leads the humble in justice, and He teaches the humble His way.
- God looks toward the humble:
2 Chronicles 16:9 For the eyes of?the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.
- God lifts the humble:
1 Peter 5:6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.
- Come Colliding Back
Psalm 51:8-12 Make me to hear joy and gladness, let the bones, which You have broken rejoice. 9 Hide Your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. 10 Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit.
The only way to have peace, joy and true happiness as a Christian is to be right with God.
(vs.8) “Make me to hear joy and gladness, let the bones which You have broken rejoice.”
It is such a beautiful collision when we submit our lives to Christ. As the crash of Sin takes you down the Collision of Repentance and Grace restores you.
Ask God to strengthen you so you don’t mess up in that area again. Become unwavering.
(vs.10) “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”
God will never abandon you just because you mess up.
(vs.11-12) “Do not cast me away from Your presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit.”
Notice that David didn’t say, “Restore to me Your salvation.” He said, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation.” A true believer cannot lose their salvation.
So what about the people who claim to be saved but just walk away from God and the church? The Apostle John described them this way:
1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us.
When a person can just walk away from God with no shame or remorse; they prove they were never really saved to begin with.
When David messed up with God, he realized the way back to Him was by being honest, humble and in a hurry to get things right with Him! Verse 13 shows how God used David again when he did this:
Psalm 51:13 Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will be converted to You.
David destroyed so much when he sinned, but when he crashed back into the Lord and served him faithfully God placed David on His Radar used him in Mighty Ways.
- Feb 11, 2018The Confrontation Implored 2-11-18
The Confrontation Implored 2-11-18THE CONFRONTATION IMPLORED 2-11-18
GUILTY AS CHARGED
2 SAM 12:1-25
Often, punishment comes not because of the offence but to stop the offence from being repeated. HUGE LESSON!!!!
“When someone gets something for nothing, someone else gets nothing for something.”
OUR SIN ALWAYS COMES AT A HIGH COST FOR SOMEONE ELSE.
David slipped and failed big time when he allowed success to get to his head.
He didn’t even resemble his former self.
The shepherd boy, the prayer warrior, and the fearless leader had given way to a monster, a whormonger, and a murderer.
His moral courage, able leadership and godly principles were gone, and he paid dearly for failing to uphold truth, justice, and mercy.
- VICTIMS MAY BE SILENT BUT GOD BREAKS THE SILENCE
12:1 The LORD sent Nathan to David. When he came to him, he said, “There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. 2 The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, 3 but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb he had bought. He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him. 4 “Now a traveler came to the rich man, but the rich man refrained from taking one of his own sheep or cattle to prepare a meal for the traveler who had come to him. Instead, he took the lamb that belonged to the poor man and prepared it for the one who had come to him.”
After Davids sin everything changed... truth was compromised, rumors were circulating, heads were shaking, but for many months, no one dared to confront the king, no one pulled him aside, and questioned his defiance of God’s commandments, his decision to execute Uriah, or his determination to marry Bathsheba,
until Nathan’s unexpected visit.
As Nathan tells this story to David; verse 5 records David’s reaction.
5 David burned with anger against the man and said to Nathan, “As surely as the LORD lives, the man who did this deserves to die! 6 He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
- WE MAY HAVE SECRETS, BUT GOD EXPOSES WHATS REALLY IN OUR HEART
David judged himself. David dug his own grave, and hanged himself on his own rope when he took the words right out of Nathan’s mouth and said, “The man who did this deserves to die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity” (vs 5-6).
David was rebuked had no grace or compassion.
Nathan indirectly accused David of having no sympathy, sorrow, or shame in his heart.
David felt nothing.
He had developed a heart of a stone, the skin of an ox, and the venom of a snake.
***Uriah died of premeditated murder, far from home, and without a fight, a burial, or a clue.
Through it all, he did not feel a thing, blink an eye, or lose any sleep.
David thought only of himself.
He thought that people would forget eventually, that the “thing” was already done, and that Uriah was collateral damage.
God couldn’t stand David’s act.
When David was told this story he blew up!
At the moment when David blew his top, he was exposed as the world’s biggest hypocrite, playing God with much drama...an Oscar winning performance.
- GOD IS STERN IN JUDGMENT BUT FAST TO OFFER FORGIVENESS
7 Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man! This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ’I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. 8 I gave your master’s house to you, and your master’s wives into your arms. I gave you the house of Israel and Judah. And if all this had been too little, I would have given you even more. 9 Why did you despise the word of the LORD by doing what is evil in his eyes? You struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and took his wife to be your own. You killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 10 Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house, because you despised me and took the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your own.’ 11 “This is what the LORD says: ’Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you. Before your very eyes I will take your wives and give them to one who is close to you, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight. 12 You did it in secret, but I will do this thing in broad daylight before all Israel.’“ 13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the LORD.” Nathan replied, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die. 14 But because by doing this you have made the enemies of the LORD show utter contempt, the son born to you will die.”
People may treat David with kid’s gloves and regard his behavior as child’s play or kingly perks; but not God.
God slapped David with the worst possible charge
To “despise the word of the Lord.” Worse than Murder or Adultery
God wasn’t going to let David get away with what he did.
He charged David with despising the Lord’s word (v 9).
David’s sin was against Uriah and Bathsheba, but ultimately his actions and attitude were nothing short of despising the Lord and His word.
DO YOU UNDERSTAND THAT SIN IS...
a slap to and a spit in the face of God, and a slur to and a stain to the name of God, a scandal and a shock among God’s people.
David’s sin was intentional, willful, and defiant and he should be executed!
GOD didn’t sentence David to death, He gave him what was worse than experiencing his own death, which was to see some of his loved ones suffer and die.
Deceit, denial and destruction would consume, characterize, and collapse the king, his children, and his throne.
History repeated itself, lie would beget lies, and children imitated parents.
David deserved death, but the Lord had mercy on him.
Divine judgment is redemptive, not repulsive; it is compassionate, not cruel; and it is unpleasant, but not unbearable.
It is not nice, but it is not ugly.
God was more interested to make David a better person and king than a powerful or popular person and king.
God does not care if you are rich or poor, for your track record and past history, or for your superiority or success in people’s eyes.
He observes, searches and judges the heart.
God disciplines us, not demeans us. Man’s discipline can be vindictive. Man’s judgment may be condemning and destructive, but
God’s judgment is corrective and constructive.
- Feb 4, 2018The Crashes Impact 2-4-18 AM
The Crashes Impact 2-4-18 AM
THE CRASH’S IMPACT
There is Pleasure in Sin, then what?
2 Samuel 11
David’s nose dive and ultimate Crash began when he had nothing better to do with his time. At the time when kings were off to war, David was hanging out.
The king and his men’s struggles were so different.
The same two struggles are represented here today.
His men’s struggle was whether they could get out alive...
David’s struggle was whether he should get out of bed...
The soldiers wondered how long they could go on fighting...
The king wondered how long he could go on sleeping...
The men fought against fierce defenders
The king flirted with beautiful women.
Why did David nose dive when he was in his prime and at his peak?
- LOSING YOUR SELF-CONTROL LEADS TO DISTORTED PERCEPTION
11:1 In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. 2 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, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanliness.) Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
Lust... a... restless heart, untamed passions, and loose morals.
“lust with attraction; it turns quickly to dissatisfaction; it results in fixation.”
Lust is “to use another person for my excitement.”
David’s glance became a gaze, his gaze became a gamble.
David staked and risked all he had on a short fling, a sexual encounter, or a one-night stand with a married woman. He went up, looked down, and sought out.
He already had 6 wives and multiple concubines but lust desires more.
Bathsheba was attractive, cute, striking, shapely and stunning, but her beauty was in the eye of the beholder, while Abigail was truly the fairest of her era. If that was not enough, David could summon any sweet young thing from near and far to be his wife or concubine.
God gave David everything and more except one, because Bathsheba was married to Uriah.
David’s disobedience was compared to man’s disobedience in the garden when he picked from the one forbidden tree. In fact, the only other time the two words for Bathsheba’s beauty – “good” and “looking” – appear together in the Bible matched the description of the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil that God had made that were pleasing to the eye and good for food (Gen 2:9)
Stagnation, boredom, and listlessness were dangerous to David.
David should be somewhere else, somewhere far, somewhere needed.
The battlefield was not as dangerous as the palace, the roof, or the bed.
It’s been said, “Idle hands are the devil’s playthings.”
David forcibly took Bathsheba although she was no angel or blameless herself.
- LOSING YOUR SANITY LEADS TO DEVIOUS PRACTICES
6 So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house. 10 When David was told, “Uriah did not go home,” he asked him, “Haven’t you just come from a distance? Why didn’t you go home?” 11 Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!” 12 Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home.
David was blinded in his eyes, cruel in his heart and ruthless in his actions to cover his tracks.
Uriah’s passion was for king and country, but David’s passion was for women and sex.
David had lost his mind, head, and marbles.
He was cold, calculated, and cunning.
David slept with another man’s wife (v 4), but Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants (v 9), turned down sleeping or lying with his wife (v 11) in such times, and slept on his mat among his master’s servants (v 13).
Finally comes the crash. The crash always comes.
- LOSING YOUR SOUL LEADS TO DUE PUNISHMENT
14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In it he wrote, “Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.” 16 So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. 17 When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died. 18 Joab sent David a full account of the battle. 19 He instructed the messenger: “When you have finished giving the king this account of the battle, 20 the king’s anger may flare up, and he may ask you, ’Why did you get so close to the city to fight? Didn’t you know they would shoot arrows from the wall? 21 Who killed Abimelech son of Jerub-Besheth? Didn’t a woman throw an upper millstone on him from the wall, so that he died in Thebez? Why did you get so close to the wall?’ If he asks you this, then say to him, ’Also, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.’“ 22 The messenger set out, and when he arrived he told David everything Joab had sent him to say. 23 The messenger said to David, “The men overpowered us and came out against us in the open, but we drove them back to the entrance to the city gate. 24 Then the archers shot arrows at your servants from the wall, and some of the king’s men died. Moreover, your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead.” 25 David told the messenger, “Say this to Joab: ’Don’t let this upset you; the sword devours one as well as another. Press the attack against the city and destroy it.’ Say this to encourage Joab.” 26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27 After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the LORD. (2 Sam 11:1-27)
True Love is a tricky emotion!
Thomas Fuller (1608-1661) said, “Lord, before I commit a sin, it seems to me so shallow that I may wade through it dry-shod from any guiltiness; but when I have committed it, it often seems so deep that I cannot escape without drowning.”
The last sentence of the chapter and the first word of the sentence in Hebrew sought justice for Uriah: “But evil the thing David had done in the eyes of the Lord.”
Oliver Stone observed at the height of the O.J trial: “The line between thinking murder and doing murder isn’t that major.” (8/2/94)
Do not satisfy your passions, silence your conscience, or sell your soul.
1 John 2:16 “For everything in the world-the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-comes not from the Father but from the world,”
James 1:13-14 says, “When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed.”
God is not looking for perfection in a man, but He cannot tolerate pretension and perversion.
- Jan 28, 2018The Caution Ignored 1-28-18 AM
The Caution Ignored 1-28-18 AM"The Caution Ignored 1-28-18 AM".
The Caution Ignored
In the world that we live in we often look at sin as just another action that “just happens.” I have learned in my life that Sin never just happens but that God in his Grace and Mercy gives you and I warning signs. Warning signs are great if we obey them, but they are mere happenings when we don’t.David had many warnings before he crashed into sin. You and I will always have many warnings before we find ourselves in the rubble.We are so accustomed to sin in this world that we are desensitized to it. We ought to be shocked and horrified, but the sins of this world are just too common.Before we begin to look at the story of David spiraling out of control, it would be wise for us to go ahead and make this statement, “I too am capable of committing the sins of David, or ones just as evil.” As long as we know that we are one step away from committing these sins we will be cautious of where we step.Sin often brings along a certain atmosphere with it. There are certain things in life that caution us for problems in the future. When we neglect certain things, it usually comes back to bite us.
I want to set up David Ignoring the Warning signs by reading Proverbs 7:
Proverbs 7:6–27 (NLT) 6 While I was at the window of my house, looking through the curtain, 7 I saw some naive young men, and one in particular who lacked common sense. 8 He was crossing the street near the house of an immoral woman, strolling down the path by her house. 9 It was at twilight, in the evening, as deep darkness fell. 10 The woman approached him, seductively dressed and sly of heart. 11 She was the brash, rebellious type, never content to stay at home. 12 She is often in the streets and markets, soliciting at every corner. 13 She threw her arms around him and kissed him, and with a brazen look she said, 14 “I’ve just made my peace offerings and fulfilled my vows. 15 You’re the one I was looking for! I came out to find you, and here you are! 16 My bed is spread with beautiful blankets, with colored sheets of Egyptian linen. 17 I’ve perfumed my bed with myrrh, aloes, and cinnamon. 18 Come, let’s drink our fill of love until morning. Let’s enjoy each other’s caresses, 19 for my husband is not home. He’s away on a long trip. 20 He has taken a wallet full of money with him and won’t return until later this month.” 21 So she seduced him with her pretty speech and enticed him with her flattery. 22 He followed her at once, like an ox going to the slaughter. He was like a stag caught in a trap, 23 awaiting the arrow that would pierce its heart. He was like a bird flying into a snare, little knowing it would cost him his life. 24 So listen to me, my sons, and pay attention to my words. 25 Don’t let your hearts stray away toward her. Don’t wander down her wayward path. 26 For she has been the ruin of many; many men have been her victims. 27 Her house is the road to the grave. Her bedroom is the den of death.
As we read this story everyone wants to run after the woman and say how could she do that to that young man? But the reality is that the young man blew it long before the woman came out. He began to make unwise choices early on.
He Ignored the many Cautions that were present.
I like to sum up Proverbs 7 with just 4 words, “ Don’t Even Go There.”
3 WARNINGS DAVID IGNORES
1st WARNING: HUMBLE YOURSELF
James 4:10 (NKJV) 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.
David was not a teenager anymore. He had begun to have success as the king. He had won many battles and he was self-confident, after enjoying victories and prosperity[1]
Note: The moment you think you have full control over sin is the moment you will begin to take your guard down.
Proverbs 4:23 (NLT) 23 Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.
Make sure you have people who love you enough to hold you accountable and keep you humble. Because if we just listen to our heart it will puff us up to think that we deserve to have what we want.
Jeremiah 17:9 (ESV) 9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
David began to think that he could have and do what he wanted to do with no regard to Holy God who placed him in the position of prominence.
2nd WARNING: HELP IN BATTLE
In a time of war, a solider was not to indulge himself in the normal comforts of life, including sexual relations with his wife, (yet alone someone else’s wife.)
2 Samuel 11:1 (NLT) In the spring of the year, when kings normally go out to war, David sent Joab and the Israelite army to fight the Ammonites. They destroyed the Ammonite army and laid siege to the city of Rabbah. However, David stayed behind in Jerusalem.
Most of the time we never try and keep sin to where it affects only us. We often try and include someone else. David tried to persuade Uriah to sleep with Bathsheba while the battle was still going on.
2 Samuel 11:7–11 (NLT) 7 When Uriah arrived, David asked him how Joab and the army were getting along and how the war was progressing. 8 Then he told Uriah, “Go on home and relax.”David even sent a gift to Uriah after he had left the palace. 9 But Uriah didn’t go home. He slept that night at the palace entrance with the king’s palace guard. 10 When David heard that Uriah had not gone home, he summoned him and asked, “What’s the matter? Why didn’t you go home last night after being away for so long?” 11 Uriah replied, “The Ark and the armies of Israel and Judah are living in tents, and Joab and my master’s men are camping in the open fields. How could I go home to wine and dine and sleep with my wife? I swear that I would never do such a thing.”
In the first part of verse 7 David is simply diverting attention away from the real matter. He asks all about the leadership, the war, and his people but in reality he simply wants Uriah to go home and sleep with Bathsheba.
When people are living in open sin, they will often divert attention to everything other than the real issue that is at hand.
By David not going to the battlefield with his men, it gave room for idle time.
3rd WARNING: IDLE HANDS HURT
In this idle time David let his mind wonder, which opened the workshop up to devise a sinful plan.
Proverbs 16:27-29L (TLB) 27 Idle hands are the devil’s workshop; idle lips are his mouthpiece.28 An evil man sows strife; gossip separates the best of friends.29 Wickedness loves company—and leads others into sin.
2 Samuel 11:2 (ESV) 2 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.
It is late afternoon and David has been lounging all day. He finally gets up to take a walk on the roof and something catches his eye. Lets stop right there.
You think that David didn’t know what was about to happen? You see when someone has a relationship with Christ there is no way to escape the convictions from the Spirit.
But when we become idle, we devise plans that suppress the sprit and allow the flesh to take over.
James 1:14–15 (The Message) The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us. We have no one to blame but the leering, seducing flare-up of our own lust. Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin! Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.
What Warnings are you ignoring? As the instruments begin to scream “pull up, pull up,” will you simply continue on the path of destruction or will you repent, and listen to the instruments?
You may be flirting with sin right now, but soon that sin will conceive and give birth, and grow into an adult, and will ultimately lead to death.
- Dec 17, 2017Cultivate #6 12-17-17
Cultivate #6 12-17-17"Cultivate #6 12-17-17".
- Dec 10, 2017Cultivate #5 12-10-17
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- Dec 3, 2017Cultivate #4 12-3-17
Cultivate #4 12-3-17"Cultivate #4 11-3-17".
- Nov 29, 2017Cultivate #3 11-29-17
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- Nov 26, 201711-26-17 Cultivate #2
11-26-17 Cultivate #2"11-26-17 Cultivate #2".
