Introduction:
When I Choose to Sin (2 Samuel 12:1-15):
- I choose to Dishonor the Lord. (2 Sam 12:7b-9)
- I choose Permanent damage. (2 Sam 12:10)
- I choose to Disciple my kids to sin. (2 Sam 12:11-12)
- I choose Tragedy . (2 Sam 12:13-15a)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:40-00:43
Open your Bibles with me please to 2 Samuel 12.
00:46-00:48
2 Samuel 12, are you there?
00:51-00:58
We're on four weeks of discussing sexual sin.
00:59-01:04
And no, we're not just talking about fighting sexual sin.
01:04-01:08
The Bible tells us to flee from sexual immorality.
01:08-01:14
and the tool that God has given us to do that is self-control.
01:14-01:17
We started last week talking about King David.
01:18-01:19
If you weren't here, a quick recap.
01:20-01:21
David was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
01:21-01:23
He was supposed to be at war.
01:23-01:24
He stayed home.
01:25-01:27
He saw a woman bathing.
01:30-01:34
Now our small group leader had asked a question.
01:35-01:45
He said, "The woman's name was Bathsheba, and David saw her doing what? Bathing.
01:46-01:55
Her name was Bathsheba." And he said, "Doesn't that seem a little ironic?" So I had to do a little study.
01:56-02:00
And actually, Bathsheba, that was her nickname.
02:01-02:04
Her full name in the Hebrew is Bubble Bathsheba.
02:06-02:20
But he saw this woman bathing, and he lusted after her, and he inquired about her, and he said for her, "Next thing you know, he committed adultery with her.
02:20-02:21
She's pregnant.
02:21-02:22
Now it's damage control.
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I've got to cover this up.
02:24-02:24
What am I going to do?
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I'm the king.
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I just got one of my soldier's wives pregnant.
02:29-02:37
What am I going to do?" And he tried to cover it up, and ultimately ended up murdering her husband.
02:40-02:43
And then you get to the very last verse in chapter 11.
02:43-03:06
It says, "But the thing that David had done was evil in the sight of the Lord." Now, when we read 2 Samuel 11 and 12, or any passage like this in the Bible, we go through it rather quickly in reading it, but understand, This would have taken place over a period of at least nine months, right?
03:06-03:09
To get from conception to birth.
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So what that means is there was nine months where David thought he got away with it.
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But there's always consequences.
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You might think that you got away with something.
03:31-03:37
And I'm sure there's someone sitting here, there's somebody watching this stream that knows exactly what I'm talking about.
03:37-03:47
I have been sexually immoral, and I've been able to keep it a secret, and it looks like I'm in the clear, and nobody's going to find out about it.
03:47-03:48
You might think that.
03:51-03:53
But God knows.
03:55-03:59
The consequences of sin will catch up with you.
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And when we get to chapter 12, we see how David found out that God knew.
04:08-04:13
God sent Nathan the prophet to tell David a story.
04:14-04:20
And I don't know if this was under the pretense of, "Hey, there's a situation here, David.
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I could use some advice.
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I could use some counsel in how to handle this.
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That seems to be how it was presented.
04:26-04:30
But look at 2 Samuel 12.
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It says, "And the Lord sent Nathan to David.
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He came to him and said to him, 'There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor.
04:42-04:49
The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little ewe lamb which he had bought.
04:50-04:53
and he brought it up and it grew up with him and with his children.
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It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie in his arms.
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And it was like a daughter to him.
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Now there came a traveler to the rich man.
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He was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guests who had come to him.
05:12-05:17
But he took the poor man's lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.
05:19-05:34
Okay, so again, Nathan comes to David, and he goes, "Hey, I'm gonna, I gotta tell you, I gotta tell you a situation here." He goes, "Okay, so there's like, this guy had all these sheep, he just had just sheep on top of sheep, just all these sheep.
05:35-05:47
But like, the guy next door, he had one little ewe lamb, just one little baby sheep, and oh, oh, she was just like a little pet to him.
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She had a little bowl with her name on it.
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What do you think that lamb's name was?
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Come on, what do you think the lamb's name was?
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What's that?
06:00-06:00
Bubbles?
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No, it wasn't Bubbles.
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You guys have no imagination whatsoever.
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I'm gonna say, all right, all right, we'll go with mine then.
06:11-06:12
Wooly Betty, okay?
06:13-06:15
It was Wooly Betty, and the name was right on the bowl.
06:16-06:22
"Oh, no, he loved this little thing." They would share a spoon together, and they would drink from the same cup.
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And he just loved it.
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This lamb was like the family pet.
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And this lamb just meant everything to him.
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And his kids loved it.
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And they would all go out and play.
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And just loved this thing.
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Well, the rich guy, remember the guy with all the sheep everywhere, sheep on top of sheep.
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He had a buddy visiting from out of town.
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And he says, "Hey, how would you like some mutton?" That's sheep meat, right?
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I said, "Okay." I botched that once.
06:54-07:01
Anyways, "How would you like mutton or a hero?" Hey, that sounds good.
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So he went next door and he took Wooly Betty and killed this little girl.
07:12-07:19
This poor man's pet, to serve it as a meal for his out-of-town visitor.
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Even though he had like a thousand sheep in his backyard.
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He took dude's pet.
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Served it as a meal.
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What do you think about that, David?
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Look at verse 5.
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It says, "David's anger was greatly kindled against the man.
07:47-08:03
And he said to Nathan, 'As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the land fourfold, because he has done this thing, and because he had no pity.'" What's with the fourfold thing?
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Well, actually, that's the law.
08:04-08:11
Exodus 22.1 says, if you cost somebody a sheep, you have to pay them back for sheep.
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Right? That's the law.
08:13-08:17
So David not only wanted the law, but he wanted more than that.
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He said, "A guy that would do something like that doesn't deserve to live." And David's response is kind of humorous because you see David, he didn't say, "He should repay, and then he should be executed." They kind of had it the other way around.
08:33-08:38
"A guy that would do that should be executed and then pay him back." Maybe you should write that check before the execution.
08:39-08:40
Right?
08:41-08:42
But David was fired up.
08:42-08:55
He goes, "A guy that would be so heartless and cruel should not be allowed to live." And honestly, David's response is typical of all of us, isn't it?
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We excuse our sin.
08:58-09:00
But we're so harsh towards others.
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Look at v. 7.
09:05-09:18
"Nathan said to David, 'You are the man.'" And you know this had to have hit like a bucket of ice water in David's face.
09:21-09:29
Nathan's saying, "David, this is you." You know the heartless rich man in the story?
09:31-09:31
That's you.
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The one who showed no pity?
09:36-09:37
That's you, David.
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David, you're the rich man who had everything.
09:43-09:48
Uriah was the poor man that had just one thing that was so precious to him.
09:49-09:51
And it wasn't a sheep, it was his wife.
09:53-09:57
David's reaction condemned himself, didn't it?
09:58-09:58
He condemned himself.
09:59-10:04
Anyone who would do such a thing deserves no pity." Nathan's like him.
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Well, you know, Nathan didn't show up just to give an FYI.
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He didn't show up and say, "By the way, David, God knows what you did.
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Just thought you should be aware." He showed up to tell him, "David, not only does God know, but there are going to be consequences for your sin.
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I'm going to lay them out for you.
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And I need to tell you, church, if you choose to refrain from self-control, if you choose to pursue sexual sin, you are eventually going to face the same types of consequences that David faced here.
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And we're going to go through these.
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And as we do, I just want you to ask yourself, Is it worth it?
10:59-11:00
Because this is some serious business.
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This is life-altering stuff, and you need to ask yourself, is it worth it for just a few minutes of pleasure?
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So on your outline, "When I choose to sin." When I choose to sin.
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Now we say, if you choose to sin, you choose to suffer, right?
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and we're going to get really specific about that right here.
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When I choose to sin, number one, I choose to dishonor the Lord.
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Look at the rest of verse 7 and verse 8.
11:42-12:01
So Nathan says to David, "You are the man." "Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, 'I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul, and I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms, and I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah.
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And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more." Stop there.
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See, like God says, "David, I gave you everything.
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I gave you the throne of the greatest nation on earth.
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I gave you victory over your enemies.
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And he says, you know, I would have given you so much more on top of that.
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What were you lacking?
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And truthfully, that's the story of everyone that I've known or witnessed that was unable to control themselves.
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That's everybody's story.
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You have a beautiful wife.
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You have children.
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You are entrusted with a ministry.
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You weren't operating from a position of lacking or wanting or needing anything.
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It comes purely from a place of selfishness.
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And, as Nathan pointed out to David, When it comes to the Lord, when you sin like this, it comes from a place of ingratitude.
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God has given you everything.
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You're like, "Eh, that's not enough.
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I want something that God didn't give me!" Even though He's given me everything and is willing to give me so much more.
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Selfishness and ingratitude.
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That's the first thing that Nathan points out.
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He says, "Listen, you've dishonored the Lord." And I need to tell you, if you're a Christian, that is the thing that should concern you more than anything.
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I mean, if you're not a Christian and you're hearing this, you're like, "So I dishonored the Lord, so what?" Just add it to the list. You don't care.
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But I'm telling you what, if you are a born-again believer in Jesus Christ, this is the thing that should bother you more than anything, is, "I have dishonored my God.
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I knew what God called me to do, and I've dishonored Him.
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And that takes us to verse 9.
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Look at how Nathan words it.
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He says, "Why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what is evil in His sight?
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You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites." Those are some strong words.
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He says, "You know God's Word, David.
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And you're acting like you hate it.
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You killed a man for his wife, and you used the enemy to do it.
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It's disgusting." I need to ask you, right now if you're flirting around, Maybe nobody knows except the Lord and the person you're flirting with.
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You've been able to kind of keep it a secret from those around you.
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You're dishonoring your Lord.
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You're calling yourself a Christian.
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You're calling yourself a follower of Jesus Christ.
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And you're willing to stab a guy in the back for his wife.
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that you know what the Bible says.
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You could get up and preach the sermon about what the Bible says regarding sexual immorality, but you somehow shelled that in your mind, and instead you're acting like a dog in heat.
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You have no control over your impulses.
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You should be ashamed, because you've dishonored your God.
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You know better. You know what the Bible says, and you just don't care.
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Worse, God views it as, "You hate My Word." Is that it?
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"You hate My Word." Because you're sure acting like you don't want it to have any place in your life.
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So when I choose to sin, I choose to dishonor the Lord.
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Anybody want to give testimony to that this morning?
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Do you want to get people to line up here and stand up here?
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Do you want that to be your testimony?
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To say, "Good morning church, I want you to know that I choose to dishonor God with my life." Absolutely not.
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That's what you do when you choose to sin this way.
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Secondly, number two, write this down.
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I choose permanent damage.
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Look at verse 10.
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and continues, he says, "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." I choose permanent damage.
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The Lord says, "Things are going to be different for you from now on." He says, "The sword is never going to depart from your house." What does that mean?
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He means your house is going to be characterized by violence.
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That's what your family can expect.
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You're going to become just entrenched in this violence.
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But there's one word I want you to really focus on here that really jumped out at me as I was studying it this week.
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And it's the word "never." The Lord says it will never depart.
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Please hear me.
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Some eggs can't be unscrambled.
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Actually, my wife says, "Actually, there are no eggs that can be unscrambled." And that's true.
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The point is this.
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Some consequences are permanent.
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There's no going back.
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Some consequences will plague you for the rest of your life if you get on this road.
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For David, one of them was violence in the home.
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Can you think of some other lifelong, permanent consequences?
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divorce. How about losing the trust of your children? Your children that look to you to teach them and show them what's right. For the rest of your life they're they're going to look at you knowing dad couldn't be faithful to mom.
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Permanent. What about the aforementioned testimony or we would say your Your reputation, your testament, it will be permanently damaged if you bark up this tree.
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Yes, you can be forgiven by God, absolutely.
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But, you will never be forgotten by man.
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The Lord will forgive you, and Christ, we're going to get to that in a second.
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A man will never forget.
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Would you like me to prove that to you?
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President Bill Clinton.
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Tell me one thing he's famous for.
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Don't say it out loud.
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I want you to think of one thing he's famous for.
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Would you like another example?
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How about another Bill?
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Comedian Bill Cosby.
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What's he famous for?
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Here, you've got Bill Clinton, leader of the free world.
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And I'll be honest with you, I was really thinking, I was trying not to Google.
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I was trying to think of some accomplishments of his while he was in office.
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And there was only one thing I associated with him.
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I couldn't think of anything else.
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Except I guess he played saxophone on Arsenio Hall show or something.
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Right?
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But that wasn't the first thing And Bill Cosby. I mean, growing up with the Cosby show, remember the Huxtables?
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The Jello Pudding Pops. But more so for me was Fat Albert. How many of you remember Fat Albert? Oh, I love Fat Albert. And some of you are like, what's Fat Albert?
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Just this awesome cartoon of these kids that like hung out in a junkyard and I guess it doesn't sound so awesome when I say it out loud, but it was really cool.
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But I'll be honest with you, when I hear Bill Cosby now, that's not the first thing I think of anymore.
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You see my point?
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Permanent damage.
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And you, you can think of people that you know, don't shout out names, but think of people that you know, whether it's in your family, or circle of friends, or people at work, think of people that you know that committed adultery, or had an affair, whatever you want to call it, committed sexual immorality of any kind, I want you to think about that person.
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You're always going to associate them with that sin.
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You always are.
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There's the guy that cheated on his wife.
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There's the girl that kept flirting around until her marriage ended.
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You're always going to associate them with that.
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When you choose to sin, you're choosing lifelong misery on yourself.
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because you couldn't control yourself.
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Who would be foolish enough to say, "You know what I'd like?
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I would like permanent damage in my life, in exchange for a few minutes of pleasure.
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When I choose to sin, I choose permanent damage.
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Oh, and not just misery on yourself, by the way.
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Number three, "When I choose to sin, I choose to disciple my kids to sin." "I choose to disciple my kids to sin." Look at verse 11.
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It says, "Thus says the Lord, 'Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of 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 the Son.
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For you did it secretly.
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But I will do this thing before all Israel and before the Son." You see, David chose adultery and violence.
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And the Lord says, "So were your kids." That's what you chose.
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I'm here to tell you that's what your kids are going to choose.
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No one sins in a vacuum.
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You could say, "Well, you know what, I get to sing on a blog.
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I'm only hurting myself, right? I'm only hurting myself." That is a lie from hell. "Only hurting myself." You're discipling your children, whether you intend to or not.
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And you're discipling your children to who you are, not to who you say you are.
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And if you have kids, you're scarring them for life, and your actions are going to bring about bad decisions from them.
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But you notice I tried to emphasize this as I was reading it here.
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Three times in those couple of verses, do you notice the Lord says, "I will." Did you notice that? "I will." I will. I will bring this about.
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God is saying, "I will make sure that this happens." Do you know I thought a lot about that this week, and I did a lot of reading and a lot of studying.
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I will. What?
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Like through a direct act?
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I mean, is God going to like, somehow make this happen directly?
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I don't believe that God forces people to do things they don't want to do against their own will.
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But God is very clear.
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He says, "I will make this happen." So again, I did some reading.
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People a lot smarter than me.
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One famous preacher said this, "God is saying, 'I will do this in the course of His providence.'" Does it simply mean God is saying, "I'm going to permit this to happen"?
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What do you think?
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Well, sin brings both natural consequences, and it brings the discipline of the Lord, right?
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And sometimes, honestly church, sometimes it's hard to tell which is which.
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True or false?
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Sometimes it's hard to tell the difference.
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Sometimes we don't really have any way of discerning the source.
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Is this a natural consequence from my sin?
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Or is this a direct act of discipline from God?
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So in answering that question, I guess I just have to ask you this.
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Does it matter?
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Does it really matter?
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Because both of these, whether it's consequences or discipline, Both of those things find their origin in the Lord, right?
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So in the face of such rebellion, does it really matter?
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However, God makes this happen.
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You and so many others are going to face the unpleasant results of your choices.
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His kids were characterized by violence and sexual immorality.
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We would say that the apple didn't fall too far from the tree.
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But oh, it's worse than that.
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Because sin somehow seems to escalate with the next generation.
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This is a whole other sermon.
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Let's just mark this down.
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Parents, what you tolerate, your children will overindulge in.
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You're like, why is that? I don't know.
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But that is a truth.
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What you are willing to take a nibble on, your children will gorge themselves on.
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always escalates when sin is tolerated, your kids will do it, and they'll do it worse.
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So you choose to dishonor the Lord in sexual sin, then basically what you're saying is, "I choose to disciple my kids to do the same." "That's how I want to disciple my kids." That's what you're saying.
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And finally for today, I choose tragedy.
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I choose tragedy because what's the title of the message?
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It only ends in tragedy.
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Look at verse 13.
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David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the Lord." David has this moment of clarity.
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He gives what is a sincere, honest confession.
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No excuses.
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That's how you know it's sincere.
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No excuses.
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David didn't say, "She shouldn't have been bathing where I could see her.
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She should have covered up.
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She should have put a door up." And I sent to inquire about her.
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Somebody should have told me not to mess with her." He didn't do that.
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And you have to get to the place when you sin where you just say, "Look, I've sinned against the Lord." That's where David got.
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And he received grace.
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Look at the rest of verse 13.
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It says, "And Nathan said to David, "The Lord also has put away your sin.
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You shall not die." That's good news.
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Nathan says you receive grace.
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"The Lord put away your sin. You will not die." But what about all these consequences, right?
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What about all this stuff that we just read?
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What about all that?
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If you didn't hear a word I said today, you've got to hear this.
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Receiving grace does not mean avoiding consequences Avoiding the discipline of the Lord.
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Receiving grace does not mean avoiding consequences or avoiding God's discipline.
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Like, "Well, I'm saved in Jesus Christ. I'm forgiven, right Pastor Jeff?
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I'm forgiven!" Forgiveness does not give you immunity from reaping what you've sown.
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Verse 14, when Nathan gives the good news, he says, "The Lord also has put away your sin, you shall not die." Verse 14, "Nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die." And Nathan went to his house.
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I don't know how else to describe this.
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Losing a child is hard enough.
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But losing a child because of a sinful choice that I made?
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That's tragedy.
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You see, your sinful decisions bring tragedy not only on yourself, not only on your family as we've seen, but even innocent people have to face the consequences of your sin.
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Right?
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Like Uriah.
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Where was his fault in all this?
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Innocent people suffer like Uriah and like this baby.
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So David was promised never-ending violence.
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He was promised that there would be sexual immorality in his family.
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And everything was fulfilled exactly as God said.
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I don't have time to walk you through all of this, but you have a Bible in your lap.
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You can read this.
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But when you read the following chapters, David's son Amnon raped his half-sister.
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That's chapter 13.
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David's son Absalom plots Amnon's death.
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Also chapter 13.
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Absalom, David's son, led a revolt against David.
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Chapters 15-17.
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Absalom slept with David's concubines on top of the palace.
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in chapter 16, in full presence of everyone, fulfilling this.
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Absalom was murdered by Joab.
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That's chapter 18.
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All of these consequences that God promised, you see them fulfilled in the following chapters.
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And the baby died.
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Which is in the very next passage, after the one we're looking at right now.
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Can I just say this honestly?
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With no intended irreverence whatsoever in this, this just really bothers me.
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I mean, I get I messed up, I should suffer. I get that.
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I totally get that.
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The baby?
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Why?
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Why did that have to happen?
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I'm just being honest with you, it bothers me.
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Yes, we know for sure the baby went to heaven.
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And I am not in the place of God to judge, okay?
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I'm not critiquing what the Lord said or what the Lord did at all.
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But can I just say it's unsettling.
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I guess we don't get to choose the consequences of our sin, do we?
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They have to fit.
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Sow horrible sin.
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Reap horrible consequences.
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So David, lustful thoughts, fast forward, led to a lifetime of regret.
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That's David's story.
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And if you choose not to use the self-control that God's Holy Spirit has given you, This can be your story too.
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Is it worth it?
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And if there is someone sitting here watching this, still trying to weigh that out, is it worth it?
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But I want what I want. Is it worth it?
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Is it worth what?
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You still weighing that out?
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I want you to look at me.
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I want you to mark this.
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It only ends in tragedy.
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Every time.
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As our worship team comes up, I'm going to ask our elders to come.
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We're going to gather around the Lord's table in just a moment.
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You see, we today spoke of the earthly The consequences of sin.
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But you know the Bible teaches there are eternal consequences for sin.
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If you're guilty of being a sinner, which we all are, the consequences is eternal death.
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It's hell.
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Eternally being separated, shut out from the presence of God.
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You see, the good news is that consequence can absolutely be avoided.
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Because the Bible tells us that when Jesus was on the cross, He was bearing God's wrath for my sin, and for your sin.
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And if you haven't received Jesus Christ, today can be the day where you say, "I realize that I'm a sinner, and I can't do anything to make myself right with God.
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But Jesus Christ, He did the work.
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He died taking God's penalty for my sin on Himself.
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Like David, yeah, we're still going to bear the consequences of earthly sin, but also like David, as we come to the table, we have reason to praise God for His grace in putting away our sin.
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I'd like you to stand, and I'm going to lead us in a prayer.
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when you are ready to receive the Lord's Supper, we're going to ask that you come down the center aisles.
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I ask you to take the elements back to your seats.
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You can return to your seat in the outside aisles.
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And I'd ask you to just hold onto it as a sign of unity as a church, we're going to receive this together.
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And I do want to remind you, you don't have to be a member of this church to receive the Lord's Supper.
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If you are a born again believer in Jesus Christ, He invites you to come to the table.
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So I'm going to pray.
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Whenever you're ready, please come, take the elements back to your seat, and we'll receive together in just a few moments.
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Father in Heaven, we thank You for the warning that You've given us in Your Word.
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One of the greatest human beings in history made some horrible choices and had to face some horrible consequences.
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And Father, we somehow are deceived into thinking that we can escape that.
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But I pray, Father, by the power of Your Spirit and Your Word working together, that You would get our attention.
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For some, it's not too late to do a U-turn, to repent, to confess.
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I pray again, Father, that if somebody in this congregation, whether it's in person or watching the stream, if somebody is messing around with an improper sexual relationship, Father, whether it's an emotional one or just chatting online in a way that they shouldn't, or physically getting together, Father, I pray that You would and allow that person to have a moment's rest until they turn from that sin.
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Father, just now we're going to be coming to Your table and we worship You, because really Father, any sin deserves eternal consequences because we've rebelled against the Holy God.
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and Your grace, You have chosen to provide a means by which our sin can be put away.
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Taken away from us.
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All of the guilt and shame and the penalty and all of that can be taken away.
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Thanks to the finished work of Jesus Christ.
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So Father, as we gather around Your table today, let it be sober-minded.
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Let it be with hearts of thanksgiving.
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Pray in Jesus' name, Amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read 2 Samuel 12:1-15
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
How do you know what is God's direct hands-on discipline and what are “natural consequences” for our sin? Can we know? Does it matter?
Why is David's sin described as “despising the Word of the Lord” (2 Sam 12:9)? In what way does our sin amount to “hating God's Word”?
List some “permanent damages” sexual sin can bring on a person and their families (2 Sam 12:10).
Why did the innocent baby have to die for David's sin (v14)? What is God's purpose in afflicting the baby (see all of 2 Sam 12:15)?
Breakout
Pray for one another.