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Advent HOPE Sabbath School

Luke Cloete

Our Mistakes and God’s Purpose

I just wanted to ask, did you miss me yet?

But then the second 1 thing, I just wanted to ask a huge favor.

Last time I spoke at Advent Hope, I was told that I was speaking so incredibly quickly, I had no idea I was speaking fast.

So if you're a friend or even if you're not, and my eyes lock with yours and you want me to slow down, just give me a signal.

So that's a special request on my behalf.

Okay, so let's before we begin, let's bow our heads for a word of prayer.

Dear Heavenly Father, I just thank you so much for this opportunity to share in a group of friends.

Lord, you know that we each struggle with a sense of purpose, and sometimes we battle with the mistakes we've made in the past.

But dear Lord, please help us to walk away from this presentation knowing that you are the architect of our futures.

And yes we may fall, yes we may stumble, but you ultimately, your will will be done in our lives.

So I'll let you know right off the bat, I'm going to steal my thunder, because I don't have confidence that you'll get this point at the very end, so I'm going to give it to you right at the beginning.

So number 1 is God's plan for our life and His ultimate purpose for our life is not dependent on the mistakes we make.

Because we will see that in these 3 stories that we go through, that without a doubt, God will work His purpose out in our lives if we will just surrender to His will and walk with Him step by step.

So what we're first going to do is, in order for us to know what is God's ultimate purpose for our life, we need to ask, we need to know what is God's purpose So you came to the right place because we're gonna know exactly what our purpose is God's ultimate purpose in our life So you can thank me later So we'll read a few verses just in quick succession and please just you know Try and put you try and put your thinking and you know just think about this and see if you can find a common thread that goes between these.

So first we read Romans 12 verses 1 to 2, which is, I beseech you therefore brethren by the mercies of God that you present your bodies a living sacrifice wholly acceptable to God which is your reasonable service.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God." Next we'll go to 1 Peter 4 verses 1-2 where it says, Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind.

For he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God." Then we read Colossians 1 verses 9-10 which is, For this reason, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will, and in all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you may walk worthy of the Lord fully pleasing him being fully being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God So I hope you've been able to pick up a golden thread, but just in case you weren't able to We'll go to 1st Thessalonians 1 verses So first Thessalonians chapter 4 verse 3 and he has a golden thread is It is God's will that you should be sanctified.

And I know that's very strange because there's a lot of baggage that comes with that term.

But what we read in these passages is a simple purpose of our life.

God's ultimate purpose for our life is sanctification, which simply means becoming more like Christ as we walk with Him.

I know there's a lot of arguments that can be had in the background, but that's the simple truth.

So now we know God's ultimate purpose for our life, which is our sanctification, which is walking with Him.

So many of us feel that God's purpose for our life is the details of it, like hey where we live, who we marry, what jobs we take, you know whatever, all the little details, the cars we buy, and so often those are just distractions, those are side issues to God's ultimate purpose.

So I hope by the end of this presentation that you rightly understand that yes, we have a lot of these details of life that are important to us, but our ultimate purpose is, well God's ultimate purpose for us is our sanctification.

So as I mentioned in the video on YouTube, I mean on Instagram, we're going to be going through 3 stories.

The first story is we're going to look at what is it like when we make mistakes that we can't come back from, that have lifelong consequences.

We'll look at the story of David and Bathsheba just to see how God is able to turn that around to work his ultimate purpose in that situation.

Next we'll look at sometimes we feel that we are living the consequences of other people's mistakes.

I know a lot of us have been given life circumstances or we just feel like we've been dealt a hand as a result of decisions that other people have made.

And we'll see in the story of Eric Little how even that can be a place, even in those situations, God can work His will out in our lives.

And then finally we'll look at those situations where we, through our own stubbornness, prolong the agony of the mistakes that we make.

And we'll look at the story of the prodigal son to illustrate that.

But without further ado, let's dive into our first story, which is David and Bathsheba.

So if you turn with your Bibles in 2 Samuel chapter 12, we won't read, for sake of time, we won't read the full story, but we'll glean a few important points.

And now we're going to just look into the descent into madness with David's mistake.

Just to illustrate the mercy of God, even in this situation.

Okay, verse 1 says, It happens in the spring of the year, at the time when the kings got to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him and in all Israel and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rahab but David remained in Jerusalem." First point.

Then it happened 1 evening that David arose from his bed and walked to the roof of the king's house and from the roof saw a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful to behold." Stop right there.

So far, Daniel's just, I mean not Daniel, sorry, David is just being a naughty boy.

He's gotten to this point, at this point there's been a couple of off-ramps.

He's been, he was meant to, he's neglected his duty, should be out with his armies, leading his armies into battle like the kings are meant to do.

He's walked out onto his own roof and he just so happens to see a beautiful woman bathing.

At that point in time there was an off-ramp for him to make the right decision, but he didn't.

Instead he decided in a bursary, he said, so David sent and inquired about the woman and someone said, is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliim, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, the second off ramp?

At that point in time he should have known this is somebody's wife, it's a no-go.

Then David sent messages and took her and he came to him and he lay with her for she was cleansed from her impurity and she returned to her house.

We can see he went from a naughty boy to a bad boy, and now we're gonna see to a very, very wicked 1.

And what I find so funny is as we're looking into, again, the mistakes that we make and the progression of the mistakes that we make, is that look, even in a situation where David is doing something so reprehensible, we can see he's even concerned about the ceremony of it all, identifying that for she, that is Bathsheba, was cleaned by her impurity.

And this is a side point, but I just want to encourage each 1 of us that I know sometimes we feel that when we're in the midst of temptation or we're having, in the midst of temptation, we're falling, we're making a mistake and we can feel that we're making a mistake.

There are times that we can almost act religious, like David.

He's cleansing Bathsheba from her uncleanness as he's cheating on her, well, cheating with her And it's just a terrible, terrible decision.

So I just encourage you, don't hide behind religion.

So then we can go on to verse 7, and we will see, we'll read to, yeah we'll continue.

So she sent and told David and said I am with child.

And David sent to Joab saying send me Uriah the Hittite and Joab sent Uriah to David.

And it goes on in from verse 6 to about 12 where David is now concocting with Joab the whole idea, the whole plan to kill Uriah in an accident on the battlefield.

And we can see again how David is making a mistake that the deeper he goes the more he can't come back from it And we'll continue.

We'll go further along in the story, and we will read from verse 22.

Now this is at This is after the deed has been done to Uriah.

So the messenger went and came and told David all that Job had sent by him.

The messenger said to David, surely the men prevailed against us and came out to us in the field, and we drove them back as far as the entrance of the gate.

The archers shot from the wall at all your servants, and some of the king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is also dead." Again, we've gone from adultery, we've gone from just an accident waiting to happen, and we've gone from adultery to murder and now if we even go to verse 14 of chapter 12 we'll see something also incredibly sad.

However, because of this deed, that is the deed that David and Bathsheba did, you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme the child also who is born to you and to you shall surely die.

So not only do we see David ruining his own character, we see him blemishing the reputation of Bathsheba, We see him implicating Joab in his horrible you know situational murder whatever you want to call it and then we see him now killing Uriah the Prophet which is absolutely awful and now we see even the child that was conceived in that whole act has to die.

Is there any way that you could come back from this?

Sometimes the decisions that are made in life, the mistakes that we make, are terrible.

I know that's not a comforting thing to hear, but in all seriousness, that's what happened.

But the reason I'm bringing this up is because I know some of us have made those mistakes.

Maybe not, hopefully not to the same degree as David, but we have made those mistakes.

But now where does, how does God turn it around in the life of David in this situation?

How many of you have been encouraged by Nathan's rebuke over the years?

I know I have amazingly because it shows that God if for those of you who don't know Nathan came to rebuke David and used the illustration of a rich rich man take 1 sheep Or 1 lamb of a poor man in order to feed the guests of the rich man.

That is given such an amazing view of God's character knowing that God sees and knows the oppression of the mighty, of the rulers against the oppressed.

And again we see God's ultimate purpose being fulfilled which is sanctification and which is ultimately a great revelation of his character.

Because we see people understanding a little bit more of God, even in this horrible situation, that God cares about the small things and the small people.

And he's even there to avenge Uriah in this whole situation and knowing that God's will be done.

And then finally we see an amazing, amazing road map on what it means to have true repentance.

Even though David has made mistakes that he cannot come back from, we see in Psalms 51 a road map not only to what it means to to repent but also what it means for God to accept true repentance.

So it's just remarkable to me and if you want to turn that we can read just a couple of verses which again it just means so much.

Because just ask yourself if David hadn't done this and this chapter wasn't in the Bible, what would we not know about what it means to be truly repentant?

And would some of us have doubt that God would accept us?

I know that's been my concern at times with the mistakes I've made, but here we see a murderer, adulterer, and somebody that's just implicated so many people in his nonsense that he is able to pray this prayer, which is, have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according to the multitude of Thy tender mercies.

Blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly through my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sins are every before me." Again, these are these lifelong consequences.

Against you, you only have I sinned and done this evil thing in your sight, that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge.

And it goes on, again I highly encourage you to continue reading this.

Our Mistakes and God’s Purpose

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