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Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

A Man After Gods Own Heart: King David

David Wright

01 The Nobody Nobody Noticed

02 God’s Heart, God’s Man, God’s Ways

03 Giant Lessons Worth Remembering

04 Aftermath of a Giant Killing

05 Every Crutch Removed

06 How to Lie to Your Pastor

07 I Hate To Wait

08 Is This God’s Will or Mine?

09 Living Above Retaliation

10 Lying Appearances

11 When Seeing is not Believing

12 When Your Enemy Falls

14 Pulling Down Strongholds

13 Power Grab And Civil War

16 When God Says No

17 When Grace Calls You By Name

18 A Perilous Thing to Lose Dependence On God

19 Restore To Me The Joy

15 But God Knows My Heart

The United States had been involved in Vietnam for almost 20 years.

People were getting frustrated, anxious, upset.

And so on September 20 of that year, a gang of 5 anti-Vietnam War activists in Newburyport, Massachusetts, robbed the Massachusetts National Guard Armory.

And they took 400 rounds of ammunition, stole many, many weapons and stockpiles, and then set fire to the facility, causing significant damage, which in today's dollars would be well over a million dollars in damage.

Then they took those weapons, and 3 days later, this same group robbed a bank in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, carrying these handguns, a shotgun, a submachine gun.

Unfortunately, Walter Schroeder was the first police officer to show up and in the whole process he was shot and fatally wounded and died as a result.

They escaped the bank with $26, 000 in cash, which again, doesn't sound like a lot of money, but then it was certainly a lot more.

And the whole idea was they were going to use the weaponry, they were going to use the finances, and they were going to overthrow the government in some way, shape, or form, the federal government.

And it was Catherine Ann Power who was behind the wheel of 1 of the 2 getaway vehicles.

3 of the gang members were very quickly apprehended.

The other 2 were put on the FBI's most wanted fugitive list.

Her friend eluded arrest for 5 years before being caught.

But Catherine used various aliases, living in women's shelters, and a number of other things, was able to evade arrest.

Eventually, she got married, eventually had a son, all while living under the radar.

Not an easy thing to do when the FBI is on your tail.

As the years and decades passed, the internal turmoil became too much.

She wasn't caught by the FBI, but rather she was caught by her own conscience, the haunted memory of the crime, and it wouldn't let her go.

She eventually became so emotionally and psychologically worn down that she could no longer go on.

She knew she had to do something about it, and so after some intense therapy, she finally decided to come clean.

And so after 23 years, it was Catherine herself that turned herself in to the FBI.

Her husband told news outlets she wanted her life back, she wanted her truth back, she wanted to be whole, end quote.

And Catherine herself is quoted as saying, "'I know that I must answer this accusation from the past in order to live with full authenticity in the present.'" Essentially, I'm tired of living a lie.

And perhaps in some small way, you can relate to Catherine's story.

You did wrong, you knew it, you feel guilty about it, and perhaps you know all too well the feeling of harboring some secret wrong.

And you know you can't expect freedom from guilt until you make things right.

You see, secret sin cannot coexist with inner peace.

In fact, nothing is more grinding than an unforgiving conscience.

But if you can relate in any way to Catherine's story, the good news this morning is there is hope for you.

And I've entitled the sermon today, Restore to Me the Joy, and quoting from the verse.

And so if you brought your Bibles I invite you to turn with me.

We are continuing in this series on the life of David and we are in 2 Samuel.

Last week we were in chapter 11 where we found King David coveting Uriah's wife that led to an abuse of power, committing adultery, getting Bathsheba pregnant, a host of lies to assist the cover up that ultimately led to premeditated murder of his friend and the thought That he got away With it all and so we pick up this story this dark chapter in David's experience in 2nd Samuel chapter 12 beginning verse 1 and if you recall all the way through verse 11 and even going back or sorry chapter 11 and chapter 10 we see David sending, sending, sending.

It says David sent and he sent and he sent he is in the position of power he is taking care of things but notice here in chapter 12 it says then the Lord sent Nathan Even though David thinks he is in charge of the situation, ultimately, who's in charge?

That would be an interesting situation to be in, to be sent by the Lord to the king to call out his sin.

And I believe the only reason he goes is for the simple fact that the Lord sent him.

But notice God did not send him the very moment that he sinned.

In fact, some commentators believe perhaps 9 months have gone by, perhaps even a year, many say has gone by since things have all gone down.

But I believe what we see here in the lapse of time is not a God that simply wants to confront David and nab him, no, he wants David's heart.

You say amen rather quickly, But aren't we quick to doubt God's timing?

But God waits for the perfect time, for the right time, when David, I believe, will be open, and he sends David someone he respects and he gives Nathan a very wise way to do it.

He doesn't just say, David you're a despicable dude.

Did he pray for wisdom to know how to put this all together?

We're not told, except that the Lord sent Nathan, armed with the truth and with courage, to go to the king and call out his faults could be the end of you but Nathan goes and he starts to tell this story there were 2 men in 1 city 1 rich and the other poor everybody likes stories David's drawn in The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing except 1 little ewe lamb.

That's a little female lamb, oftentimes still nursing.

We could say an innocent little lamb, which he had bought and nourished and it grew up together with him and with his children and it ate of his own food and drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him." This is a sweet little story.

He has a soft spot in his heart as a former shepherd, and he loves the little lambs when they're just young and they're having a hard time on their feet, let's care for them, let's provide them a safe place and fresh water, and so David is enraptured with the story, and then we get to verse 4, and a traveler came to the rich man who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare 1 for the wayfaring man who had come to him.

But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come." Verse 5, so David's anger was greatly aroused against the man and he said to Nathan, as the Lord lives, David is making a vow.

As the Lord lives, you can be sure the man who has done this shall surely die And he shall restore fourfold for the Lamb because he did this thing and because he had no pity.

And without even realizing it, David has just pronounced his own death sentence.

Verse 7, then Nathan said to David, you are that man.

And I imagine after a pregnant pause a change in the expression of David's face Nathan continues thus says the Lord God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul, and I gave you your master's house and your master's wives and your keeping, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that had been too little, I would have given you much more.

Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight?

You have killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon.

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.

Thus says the Lord, behold, I will raise up adversary against you from your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this son for you did it secretly but I will do this thing before all Israel before The son I imagine David must have reeled in shocking disbelief as Nathan's words Plunged like a knife into his heart Suddenly he saw himself for what he was an adulterer a liar a hypocrite a thief, and a murderer, a wretched man.

He was the man that deserved to die and his anger turns to grief and remorse as meekness and shame replace his fiery outburst.

David appeared to be moving on with his life like nothing had happened.

But how do you suppose his sin affected his relationship with God?

Did he pick up with God right where he left off before?

That's the thing about sin, it separates.

And no amount of rationalization or justification can change the fact that sin separates.

In fact, I think we have reason to believe that the king became increasingly more physically ill and emotionally distraught.

The longer he refused to come to terms with the enormity of his guilt Look at what he writes Proverbs 32 beginning verse 1 in the New Living Translation.

It says it this way Oh the joy for those whose rebellion is forgiven whose sin is put out of sight.

Yes, what joy for those who record the Lord has cleared of sin, whose lives are lived in complete honesty.

When I refused to confess my sin, I was weak and miserable and groaned all day long.

Day and night, your hand of discipline was heavy on me.

My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.

Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide them.

I said to myself, I will confess my rebellion to the Lord, and you forgave me, and all my guilt is gone." Did you hear the cry of his heart?

When he stayed silent, he groaned all day.

In his mind, he could see his sins written across the ceiling.

And he tossed and he turned day after day, night after night, week after week, month after month.

It doesn't say, but I wonder all the ways that David might have tried to medicate the problem.

I would imagine that Nathan's story, while it was painful to hear, I imagine it brought some relief to David's tortured soul.

Verse 13, so David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord.

And we're told that David's confession was genuine.

Series

A Man After Gods Own Heart: King David

19 Restore To Me The Joy

Transcript

Parent Series

Sponsor

Recorded

Repent the Right Way and Be Forgiven

47m

Christianity 24-7

Christianity 24-7- Part 3

1h 16m

The Plan of Salvation

04 The Nature of Christ

1h 14m

Book Keeping for Life

38m

Steps to Christ

Repentance

51m

When Does God Forgive Sins?

27m

A Man After Gods Own Heart: King David

10 Lying Appearances

38m

Jesus On Prophecy

The Cornerstone of Bible Prophecy

52m

The Sanctuary

8. The Books Don’t Lie

48m

How to Have a Newstart- Part 2

37m

Getting Acquainted With Jesus

2 - My Drowning Brother

28m

WYC 2012 Plenary Sessions

Repentance and the Latter Rain

1h 19m

Sound Doctrine