Introduction:
The Path from Temptation to Sin to Destruction (2 Samuel 11):
- You're not where you're Supposed to be, doing what you're not Supposed to be doing. (2 Sam 11:1)
- You fail to immediately Flee . (2 Sam 11:2)
1 Cor 6:18 - Flee from sexual immorality.
- You Entertain temptation. (2 Sam 11:3)
- You Commit to the sin. (2 Sam 11:4-5)
- You desperately try to Cover it all up. (2 Sam 11:6-27a)
→ God Knows What You've Done. (2 Sam 11:27b)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:40-00:44
Open your Bibles with me please to 2 Samuel 11.
00:47-00:49
2 Samuel 11, are you there?
00:53-01:03
The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
01:06-01:12
And it is that last fruit of the Spirit that I really want us to be focusing upon over these next four weeks.
01:13-01:27
Because as we talk about sin, specifically sins of the body, you see the answer isn't found in having the sin nature removed.
01:27-01:28
That will come in heaven.
01:30-01:36
And the answer isn't found in anything except self-control.
01:39-01:46
So this is four weeks of a rally to go to war against sexual sin.
01:49-01:51
And I'm sure there are some people now that are thinking, "Yeah, that's right.
01:51-01:52
You know what?
01:52-01:53
That's right, Pastor Jeff.
01:54-02:07
There's so much sexual sin and you look at all this stuff with homosexuality and transgender and yeah, yeah, okay, that is sexual sin, and God will judge those outside of the church.
02:09-02:16
My concern is sexual immorality in the church.
02:16-02:17
That's my concern.
02:18-02:24
Specifically in this church, or people that watch this church online.
02:27-02:33
And I'm sure right now, somebody else is like, I've been going to church long enough.
02:33-02:34
Okay, here we go.
02:34-02:37
Here's a series about sexual sin.
02:37-02:39
And I've been to this rodeo before.
02:39-02:40
So, okay.
02:41-02:44
Here's the part where he gives us all the statistics, right?
02:46-02:48
Okay, I've heard this sermon before.
02:49-02:50
Here's where he gives us the statistics.
02:50-02:51
You wanna hear some statistics?
02:52-02:53
Here we go.
02:53-03:00
According to one survey, Pornography usage among non-Christian men was 65%.
03:00-03:05
Same survey among Christian men, it was 64%.
03:05-03:07
Not really any different.
03:08-03:13
Recent survey found that porn usage during COVID increased 12% in the first three weeks.
03:14-03:28
According to one survey, one half of self-identifying Christians believe that casual sex is okay as long as you're consenting, that you don't have to be in a relationship, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
03:29-03:32
Stats, I have a bunch of them, I can keep reading them.
03:33-03:34
I have a bunch.
03:38-03:40
And it doesn't matter, right?
03:41-03:42
Stats don't matter.
03:43-03:50
I mean, they might alarm you, but let's be honest, statistics don't move you, right?
03:51-03:52
I mean, statistics, right?
03:52-03:54
Like, okay, here's some stats.
03:54-03:58
100% of the people outside of Noah's family didn't believe it was gonna flood.
04:00-04:01
Okay, there you go.
04:01-04:06
Okay, 99% of the people in this church are Pittsburgh Penguins fans, whatever.
04:06-04:06
There's your statistics.
04:07-04:08
Who cares about that?
04:10-04:11
Here's what does matter.
04:13-04:22
If you're struggling with sexual sin, and you're hearing this, you know it.
04:24-04:24
You know it.
04:26-04:27
You know what the Bible says.
04:31-04:40
That kind of intimacy is one of God's greatest gifts and it's to be used in the context of marriage and used outside of the context of marriage as sin.
04:40-04:41
You know that.
04:41-04:43
You can get up here and preach that sermon.
04:43-04:45
Do I need to sell you on that?
04:45-04:46
Of course not.
04:47-04:55
But when you're involved in sexual sin, you know it's wrong and you know exactly what What it is that you're doing that isn't honoring the Lord.
04:55-04:56
You know that.
04:57-05:00
So I'm not going to waste your time giving you these statistics.
05:00-05:02
Look, Google them yourself if you're interested in that.
05:04-05:06
What you need to know is what to do about it.
05:06-05:07
That's what you need to know.
05:07-05:08
Like, "I know I'm stuck.
05:09-05:15
I need to know how to get out of this." And the answer is self-control.
05:19-05:24
But first, as an on-ramp, I'm going to tell you how to fail.
05:26-05:32
And you're like, "Well, thanks for that Pastor Jeff, but honestly I already know how to fail." Do you though?
05:34-05:35
Then why do you deceive yourself?
05:38-05:48
Second Samuel chapter 11, we're going to the Old Testament and we are going to be looking at one of the greatest men to ever walk on this planet.
05:48-05:49
And that is King David.
05:49-05:51
You know David's story, right?
05:52-05:56
The little shepherd boy turned giant slayer.
05:56-06:03
When everybody else was scared of Goliath, David stepped up, took him down, ba-bam, right between the running lights, done.
06:04-06:07
That guy became the king.
06:07-06:08
You know the story, right?
06:09-06:13
Best buds with Jonathan on the run from Saul and had his mighty men.
06:13-06:15
David wrote the Psalms.
06:15-06:18
David, one of the greatest men in history.
06:19-06:19
Awesome!
06:21-06:21
Awesome story.
06:27-06:31
But like the rest of us, he did not have a perfect record.
06:32-06:36
He had some sins that he struggled with.
06:37-06:38
Like the rest of us.
06:39-06:45
So minor spoiler, if you're unfamiliar with this story, he failed in the area we are talking about over the next four weeks.
06:46-06:49
He failed big time.
06:51-06:52
One bad day.
06:53-07:01
One terrible decision led to an absolutely horrible series of events that we're going to be looking at today.
07:04-07:10
Now, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ, Yeah, your sin is forgiven. Absolutely.
07:12-07:19
The Bible tells us that when Jesus Christ was on the cross, He took our sin upon Himself.
07:21-07:26
And while He was on the cross, God was punishing Jesus for my sin and for yours.
07:26-07:32
God was pouring out His wrath on His Son, so that we would never have to experience His wrath.
07:35-07:38
Jesus rose from the dead to give us eternal life.
07:40-07:52
And at the same time, even as Christians, even as born-again sons and daughters of the King, we can deceive ourselves.
07:55-07:56
We can be open to temptation.
07:59-07:59
And we can fail.
08:02-08:04
So on your outline, how did I get here?
08:05-08:09
Simply today, we're going to look at the path from temptation to sin to destruction.
08:10-08:12
There's the path. How do you get there?
08:15-08:19
Break this down. First of all, number one, you're not where you're supposed to be.
08:20-08:22
And you're doing what you're not supposed to be doing.
08:23-08:24
That's where it starts.
08:25-08:33
I had a New Year's resolution about keeping my sermon outlines more concise, Ryan, but I'm not out of the gate very strong on that.
08:34-08:35
But number one, write this down.
08:35-08:38
You're not where you're supposed to be, doing what you're not supposed to be doing.
08:38-08:39
Look at verse 1.
08:40-08:52
It says, "In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah.
08:53-09:01
But David remained at Jerusalem." See, the king was supposed to be with his army.
09:03-09:05
And the Scripture very clearly points that out.
09:05-09:28
This was the time of year kings went to war with their army, and very explicitly it says, "But David stayed home." And church sin always takes its opportunity when we expose ourselves to it by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
09:32-09:46
You know, Jesus, when He taught us to pray, an interesting phrase in the Lord's Prayer, He says we need to pray like this, "Lead us not into temptation." Think about that.
09:46-10:42
Jesus didn't say, "Lead us not into sin," in because that's pretty obvious, isn't it? Jesus said, "Lead us not into temptation," meaning, "God, help me to discern the places that I might put myself where I could be exposed to temptation, and I don't want to go there because if I'm exposed to temptation, I'm going to blow it." So God, help me to have the discernment to take the wide path, to go around it. Don't let me go where I might be tempted. Help me to keep myself in a place where I won't even face temptation because I don't want to fail and dishonor you. David, that's how his story starts. It's the verse 1 seems very innocent. Then he went to where David stayed home. Seems so innocent but pointing out here, no no no. He wasn't where he was supposed to be.
10:45-10:48
And I'm telling you, that's where you are going to fail.
10:48-10:52
That's the first verse of your story if you fail.
10:54-11:00
And if you're somebody who has failed, I'm sure you could get up here and give testimony, "Yeah, that's how it happened to me.
11:00-11:01
I wasn't where I needed to be.
11:01-11:04
I wasn't doing what I was supposed to be doing.
11:07-11:17
And that's why I blew it." We need to discern how we can avoid those situations where we know we're weak.
11:18-11:20
Or where we know we might be tempted.
11:22-11:24
That's why I don't counsel women.
11:26-11:36
Or I've had women on a professional, "Hey, can we go get coffee together?" "No." They're like, "Well, what's the matter, Pastor Jeff?
11:37-11:38
Are you afraid you're going to have an affair?
11:39-11:43
Are you afraid you're going to be tempted?" answer is I'm not gonna find out.
11:46-12:13
And you're like, "Oh, what's the matter Pastor Jeff, are you weak?" And the answer is, "Yeah, I am. Because much stronger men than me have blown it with this. And I'm not just talking David, I'm talking pastor friends that I've known who have not had such safeguards in their lives, who are no longer pastors?
12:16-12:20
And you need to know where you're weak, and you need to know where temptation can get your attention.
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Is it going on certain websites?
12:27-12:30
Is it going to certain places like a bar or a nightclub?
12:30-12:32
I know I shouldn't go there, but...
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And then every time I do go there, I end up doing...
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Don't go there!
12:37-12:38
Get where you need to be.
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Why in the world would you go where you could be exposed to temptation?
12:45-12:48
Because you think that this time you're going to beat it, right?
12:48-12:50
I'm going to beat the system this time.
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I'm going to beat the temptation this time, and I'm not going to fall for it this time, Satan.
12:58-12:58
Foolish.
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That's foolish.
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That's where it starts.
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You're not where you're supposed to be.
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doing what you're not supposed to be doing.
13:08-13:11
Secondly, you fail to immediately flee.
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Look at verse 2.
13:12-13:32
It says, "It happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house." Okay, so he's up high walking on the roof and he looks down and says, "Then he saw from the roof a woman bathing." And the woman was very beautiful.
13:36-13:47
So from David's vantage point, he was able to look down at other houses and he saw there was a very attractive woman bathing.
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And yeah, it's easy for us to say since we're reading about it and not standing on the roof with him.
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But like, dude, you should have immediately turned away from that.
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"Oh, ho, I did not need to see that!" But you know, like David, you're going to discover that you don't need to go look for temptation, because it's going to find you.
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But something that David didn't put into practice that I would commend to you is this, the sooner that you flee, It is to flee.
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And immediate is best.
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1 Corinthians 6.18 says to flee from sexual immorality.
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Look at the word.
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Flee from sexual immorality.
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Notice it doesn't say fight sexual immorality.
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Why doesn't the Bible say fight sexual immorality?
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You know why?
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because you'll lose that fight.
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'Cause you're weak like me.
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What does the Bible say to do when faced with sexual immorality?
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Flee, do you know what flee means?
15:06-15:07
Do you know what flee means?
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It would be like, if I'm up here, and I look down and I saw there was a rattlesnake slithering, there's not, we're pretending here, but if I saw a rattlesnake there, and I'm like, holy smokes, right by Jack, there's a rattlesnake.
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you would know really quickly what it means to flee, right?
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You wouldn't stop and examine it, you wouldn't try to play with it, and you probably wouldn't try to fight it while Jack might.
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You wouldn't try to fight it.
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You'd flee, and you better not get in my way 'cause I will bowl you over, Costanza style.
15:50-16:36
But that's what we are to do when we're faced with sexual immorality, with temptation, get out of there because here's the thing, the longer that you entertain it, the harder it is to resist. David didn't take that to heart because on number three on the path from temptation to sin to destruction is you entertain temptation. You fail to immediately flee and instead you entertain it. Look at verse 3. It says, "And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, "Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" Stop there.
16:38-17:03
Now, let's be honest. David didn't look from his roof at the the woman bathing and immediately think to himself, "Wow, what a beautiful woman. I how it goes. It says he inquired about her. I'm not sure who that is. Who is that?
17:04-17:14
Huh. I'm just, look, I'm not gonna do anything. I'm just curious, right? I'm just curious. I mean, I'm the king, right? Shouldn't the king know the people that live in his kingdom?
17:15-17:58
And I see a woman, I don't know who she is. I just want to know who she is. What's to be a good king and a good king knows everybody in his kingdom and I just I just didn't reckon I just want to know she is that's all that's all come on what's what what oh the little lies we tell ourselves and again this is one of those things church we can look at David and just be You're like, "Oh, shame on you, shame on you." But we do the same thing, right?
18:00-18:10
When we're like, we'll just stop and say, "Hello's not gonna hurt." Or, look, I'm not gonna pursue anything.
18:11-18:17
If I just send this flirty little text, yeah, I'm gonna send, it's not gonna be like explicit.
18:17-18:22
I'll just send like a little flirty text It might be able to be taken a couple of different ways.
18:22-18:31
I'll send a winky emoji because you know, that's sort of nudging to see if the door's open for any more of this kind of dialogue.
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It doesn't work at all doing anything.
18:32-18:33
It's just innocent.
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It's just innocent flirting and maybe two winky emojis.
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No, three.
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Three is the right number of winking emojis, right?
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But I'm not gonna do anything.
18:48-19:01
You know, I'm gonna send this message to her through Facebook, and it's gonna be mildly provocative, but we're just joking around, we're just kidding, we're just joking.
19:04-19:09
And then the next thing you know, we're like obsessing to see if we got a response.
19:10-19:11
She didn't see my message yet?
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She didn't see my message yet.
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"Oh, it says she read it, but she didn't reply." Why didn't she reply?
19:26-19:28
Fishing for the response.
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You're entertaining temptation is what you're doing.
19:35-19:37
And that's what David was doing here.
19:38-20:41
"Who is that girl? Huh. She's her family. Huh." opportunity where he could have stopped all this. And this is where it gets really rough because here he finds out that she was married. Which is bad. Marriage isn't bad. It's bad that he found out and he was still pursuing. But I want to show you what makes this really bed, he finds out that she was married to one of his mighty men, one of his best buds. And you would think at that point, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, she's married to one of my best soldiers?" You would think at that point David would be like, "What the heck is the matter with me? My troops are out fighting and I'm sitting at home and I'm I'm like looking at their wives bathing?
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Like what is wrong with me?
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What kind of a sick person am I?" But he still kept it going.
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Because look at verses 4 and 5.
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How do I get here?
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"The path from temptation to sin to destruction, you commit to the sin." 4 and 5 says, "So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her.
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Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.
21:19-21:27
Then she returned to her house, and the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, I am pregnant.
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Here's the next stop on the path.
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As you commit to the sin, and you're like, "Hang on, Pastor Jeff. Don't you mean you commit sin?
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Isn't that the proper way to say that?" No, I mean you commit to the sin is what I mean.
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Like, what do you mean by that?
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Because when you get to this point, you've crossed a line.
21:54-21:59
You started down a sinful path, that when you get to this point, you're not turning around.
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And verse four seems to imply that it was an immediate act.
22:05-22:10
That is, he said for her, as soon as she came, he committed adultery with her.
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And then she informs David that she's pregnant.
22:20-22:22
Now you're like, well, hang on, what's this parenthetical statement?
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Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness.
22:27-22:31
What this is, you're like, is this TMI or what?
22:31-22:33
No, this is actually very important information.
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What this is saying is, before she came to be with David, she had gone through a cycle, and according to Jewish law, she had to go through the purification.
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This happened before she was with David.
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Meaning, that before she came to be with David, she was not pregnant to Uriah.
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Do you understand?
23:04-23:07
Come and see me afterwards if you still don't understand.
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But the point is this, there's no way she was pregnant to Uriah.
23:16-23:20
But what David did here was he cornered himself.
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Remember when I said the longer you entertain sin, the harder it is to resist it?
23:31-23:34
And see, this is where he crossed the line. This is where he committed to the sin.
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Because think about it. Which is easier?
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Turning your glance away from a bathing woman or resisting the woman when she's in your bedroom?
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Which one's easier?
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Turning the glance away, right?
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Because once she's there, man, you're committed.
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And it is almost impossible to turn back at that point.
24:08-24:10
Resisting wasn't an option for David now.
24:12-24:12
Committed to the sin.
24:13-24:15
So many chances to stop it.
24:15-24:21
so persistent to pursue it, and that's how it's going to be with you when you keep entertaining sin.
24:21-24:36
Keep the little flirty things going, keep the little meetings going, keep the provocative conversation going, keep entertaining it, and you're gonna end up like David.
24:37-24:44
Sin always has consequences, and now the consequences of David's sin, It's going to be impossible to hide.
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Right?
24:48-24:57
Because it's one thing to have an affair, which is bad, but now the affair resulted in a pregnancy, and we're not going to be able to hide that.
24:59-25:01
But that didn't stop David from trying.
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That's why number five says, "You desperately try to cover it all up." You desperately try to cover it all up.
25:13-25:14
We're going to look at this passage here.
25:15-25:16
We're going to go through this rather quickly.
25:18-25:21
But note, at this point, David should have just come clean like a man.
25:22-25:27
He'd be like, "Look, you know what? I messed up. Bad.
25:29-25:31
I sinned inexcusably.
25:34-25:41
"And I'm gonna do whatever I have to do to make this right." That's what he should have done.
25:43-25:48
But instead, David did what so many of us try to do, damage control.
25:48-25:50
Like, "I gotta try to cover this up.
25:50-25:54
"Maybe there's a way that I can get out.
25:54-25:57
"Maybe there's a way I can get out of this." And look, he makes three attempts here.
25:57-26:02
You're gonna see in this passage, look at the first one, where we have verse six.
26:03-26:05
So David sent word to Joab.
26:06-26:10
He goes, "Send me Uriah the Hittite." Like fetch him back from battle, okay?
26:11-26:14
And so Joab sent Uriah to David.
26:14-26:22
When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing, how the people were doing, how the war was going, and blah, blah, blah.
26:22-26:23
It was just chit-chat, right?
26:24-26:24
Hey, how are you doing?
26:24-26:25
How's it going?
26:26-26:28
You know, your shoes fit well, they look good on you.
26:28-26:30
Just chit-chat.
26:30-26:34
you know, just sort of setting the stage.
26:36-26:43
Then David said to Uriah, get down to your house and wash your feet.
26:44-26:47
And you're like, okay, that's weird.
26:48-26:49
Like, hey, how's it going?
26:49-26:52
By the way, your feet are nasty, crusty, funky.
26:54-26:56
Why don't you go home and scrub them things up?
26:58-27:02
That go wash your feet was a euphemism, okay?
27:04-27:13
Because, you know, sandals, dirt roads, you didn't just jump into bed without washing your feet, right?
27:14-27:22
So it was a euphemism in that day for going to bed with the missus.
27:23-27:26
And that's what David was like, nudge, nudge, wink, wink.
27:26-27:36
He's like, "Hey, hey, why don't you, "Why don't you go home and wash your feet?" If you still don't understand, see me afterwards and I'll explain it to you.
27:40-27:44
Uriah went out of the king's house and there followed him a present from the king.
27:44-27:47
Now literally that was a present of food.
27:48-27:55
What David was saying was, "Why don't you go home with the missus and you don't go to worry about food.
27:55-27:57
I'm going to send a catered meal.
27:58-28:04
Why don't you go home, turn on the Netflix, I'll have the food right there.
28:04-28:15
Why don't you just spend a nice long quality night with your wife?" You see the plan here, right?
28:16-28:30
David's like, if Uriah spends the night with his wife, and then Bathsheba is showing her pregnancy, Uriah is going to think, David's like, he's going to think that's his kid.
28:32-28:51
Problem solved, right? Problem solved. It says, "But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his lord and did not go down to his house." Uriah wouldn't even go home.
28:53-28:57
When they told David, Uriah did not go down to his house.
28:58-29:00
David said to Uriah, have you not come from a journey?
29:00-29:01
Why did you not get out of your house?
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Uriah said to David, the ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths and my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are camping in the open field.
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Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and lie with my wife as you live?
29:16-29:19
And as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.
29:20-29:22
Here's something David wasn't counting on.
29:25-29:26
Integrity.
29:27-29:44
Uriah was like, "You mean my brothers are out there on the battlefield fighting and risking their lives and while they're doing that I should be at home lounging around with my wife, eating and playing around?" He goes, "No, no, no.
29:44-29:45
I can't do that.
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I just wouldn't be right.
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I can't do that.
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No, man, I can't do that.
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I'm not even gonna go home.
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I can't do that to my brothers.
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So attempt number one at cover up did not go off as planned.
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Here's attempt number two.
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It says, "Then David said to Uriah, "'Remain here today also, "'and tomorrow I will send you back.'" Looks like buying a little time, right?
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"So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next.
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And David invited him, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk.
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Okay, so you see plan number two.
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David's like, "All right, too much integrity.
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I know what'll fix that. Alcohol." So David has Uriah over, and like, "Hey, eat up.
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How about a drink? How about another drink?
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How about another drink? You don't tell the king, no, right?
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How about another drink?" And then he got Uriah good and toasted.
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He goes, "Well, there goes all his inhibitions.
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Now he's gonna go home.
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He's gonna have that lovely night with his wife.
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He's gonna think the baby's his.
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And I'm in the clear.
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And then I'll stop talking like this." It says, "In the evening, he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his Lord, But he did not go down to his house.
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You see, even drunk, off his mind, Uriah had more integrity than David was expecting.
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So here's the third attempt.
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It says, "In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand of Uriah.
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In the letter he wrote, 'Set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him that he may be struck down and die." And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men.
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And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David among the people fell.
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Uriah the Hittite also died.
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So you see that David sent some certified mail, sealed, in the hand of Uriah, like, "Hey, give this to Joab." And obviously Uriah didn't know what it said, but it was his own death sentence.
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Like, "Hey, mail from the king." Joab opened it, and you do what the king says, right?
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And this was the plan.
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Get in the midst of some heavy fighting, everybody retreat, but don't tell Uriah.
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Make sure that he gets struck down.
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That's what happened.
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It says, "Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting.
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And he instructed the messenger..." Okay, so he was telling somebody to go tell David, right?
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He wasn't texting or calling or Skyping or anything, right?
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So he was sending it through a messenger.
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"He instructed the messenger, 'When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, then if the king's anger rises, and if he says to you, 'Why did you go so near the city to fight?
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Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?
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Who killed Obimelech, the son of Jerubashev?
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Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at Thebes?
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Why did you go so near the wall?
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Then you shall say, "Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also." Okay, so the messenger was instructed like, "Hey, you're going to go report to David, and if he gets upset, make sure you tell him this.
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Tell him that Uriah died.
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So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell.
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The messenger said to David, "The men gave an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate.
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Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall.
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Some of the king's servants are dead, and your servant, Uriah the Hittite is dead also.
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David said to the messenger, "Thus you shall say to Joab, 'Thanks for the message. I'm going to tell you what to tell Joab now.
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Do not let this matter trouble you, for the sword devours now one and now another.
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Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it, and encourage him.'" Wow. Really?
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How callous we get when we are so immersed and committed to our sin.
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That's all we can think about.
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And when we're in this damage control, trying to cover things up, trying to protect...
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How callous!
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The message gets back, "Hey, there have been quite a few casualties, including one of your best men, Uriah." And do you see David's response?
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"Hey, sword devours one as well as the other.
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You can't make an almond without breaking a few eggs.
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I mean, you go to war, you expect a few people to croak.
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Like, what's the matter with you?" You know how it is when your sin becomes your obsession.
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That's what's driving you.
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That's what was driving David.
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All he was thinking about at this point was, "Got to cover it up, got to cover it up, got to cover it up." And it's going to be a lot easier to cover up if her husband, the awesome soldier, is dead.
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It says, "When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband, was dead, she lamented over her husband.
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And when the morning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son." So she mourns over the death of her husband.
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And David's like, "Hey, wait a second now.
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I can bring her into my house.
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I'll marry her.
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I'm a hero." Here's this widow of a man who died for his country.
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And the poor pregnant widow, and I, me the gracious king, I brought her into my house.
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I'm going to come out of this looking pretty good.
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I'm going to look like a hero taking care of this poor woman.
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So David marries the woman, and they have a son.
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The end.
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They all lived happily ever after.
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And David flopped down on his throne and went, "Oh!" For a minute there, I didn't think I was going to get away with it.
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But I did." Well, that wasn't the end of the story.
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Because there is a little bit more to this passage.
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See the very last sentence?
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It says, "But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord." Oh yeah!
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Yeah, the Lord! Do you remember Him?
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Because he wasn't mentioned the whole time.
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Because he wasn't in focus at all.
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Sin, and temptation, and the lies, and cover-up, and murder, and adultery - that was the focus.
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But now all of a sudden, after no mention at all of the Lord in this chapter, we get to this last verse that literally says this, "But the thing that David had done was evil in the eyes of the Lord." And you see, that should punch you in the gut.
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Because at this point, David thought, "Ok, I'm in the clear." And Scripture reminds us that God saw every single thing that he'd done.
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And God said, "This is wrong.
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This is evil.
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Look what you're doing.
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This is evil what you're doing, David.
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And I want to tell you, if you think you're getting away with something right now, if you're involved in sexual sin, you're flirting with it, and you think you're getting away with it because you're hiding it from your spouse, you ain't getting away with anything.
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Because the Lord sees what you're doing.
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And you can't escape, first of all, the consequences, just the natural consequences.
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I mean, can we even make a list of all the lives that were affected and destroyed by David's sin?
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One lustful impulse resulted in death and cover up and how about sabotaging a military mission?
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What?
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All of the people that were affected because somebody couldn't control themselves.
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And it's the same for us, church.
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We can't escape the consequences.
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You can choose the decisions you make, but you can't choose the consequences.
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And you can't escape the Lord's discipline either.
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They're like, "Well, hang on a second, Pastor Jeff.
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Remember that thing you said about when Jesus went on the cross, he bore the judgment?" Yeah, if you're a child of God, you will never face the judgment of God.
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But I got some other news for you.
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If you're a child of God, you absolutely will face his discipline because he disciplines as children in a way that He will not discipline those who are not His children.
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And if you're a child of God, and you're barking up this tree, you better believe He's going to discipline you.
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He knows, and He loves you too much to let you go down this path unscathed.
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So God knows what you've done.
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So how did this all start again?
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Oh yeah, wrong place, lustful desire, no self-control.
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And it led to adultery, it led to murder, and it led to deception.
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I'd like our worship team to come up, and as they're coming up, I'd like the rest of of us to bow our heads.
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I want you to bow your heads.
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Please, close your eyes.
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I just want you to turn your hearts to God while looking inwardly at yourself.
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Because someone right now, either watching this or sitting here, someone right now is on this path.
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And I imagine there's quite a few people here right now that are on the beginning stages of the path.
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You're entertaining lustful thoughts.
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You're having inappropriate dialogue with someone who is not your spouse.
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And you have convinced yourself it's innocent.
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It kind of makes you a little giddy deep down when there's this flirty back and forth banter And you've got to turn it around today.
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You don't have to take it as far as David did.
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But when you choose to not confess your sin and get real with the Lord about it, and do what He's commanded you to do, to flee and to exercise the self-control it gives you, your story is going to be not much different than David's.
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Oh, you might not be a king and in charge of the military and all of that, but you're going to cause a lot of permanent damage.
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Keep your heads bowed, keep your eyes closed, I'm going to pray in a second.
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And I want to say this, if you're on this path right now, and by God's grace His Spirit is enlightening you to that, and showing you, I am begging you to contact me, so that I can help you.
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Because it's not too late.
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You can see all the places in David's story where he should have hit the ejector seat and got out of there.
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And he didn't.
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But it's not too late for you to contact me privately.
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Call me.
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Email me.
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And if you're a lady that's struggling in this area, I will connect you with a woman who can help you.
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Let's pray together, church.
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Father in heaven, We know there's nothing new under the sun.
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We know that we are self-deceived by nature.
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We know that making excuses for our own sin is something that each one of us specialize in.
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I pray, Father, for Your Spirit to shine the light in any area in our lives where we are committing sins of the body, whether it's images that we shouldn't be seeing or relationships that we shouldn't be in, even if we're just at the beginning stages of nurturing them or if we've gone all the way to making it a physical thing. Father, please, for the glory of your name, for the representation of who you are among your people, I pray, Father, that today would be the day that you would bring about confession and repentance and restoration.
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That Father, we as a church can rally together to restore someone who hasn't been using the self-control that Your Spirit provides.
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Father, we thank You for Your forgiveness, and at the same time, we thank You for the discipline that You give us as children of God.
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I pray, Father, if there's anyone here struggling in this area, that you would not give them a minute's rest until they seek to do the right thing.
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We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read 2 Samuel 11
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
What kinds of different opportunities do we have in our day to look at pornography or be involved in sexual immorality? In other words, in what ways can we “make provision for the flesh” (See Romans 13:13-14)?
Explain what Jesus meant when He taught us to pray “lead us not into temptation” (Matthew 6:13).
NO NAMES – but do you know someone who made a mess of their life (and others) by giving into temptation? What happened?
Breakout
Are there any areas in your life where you can recognize temptation has a “foot in the door”? What do you need to do about it today? Pray for one another.