Every Christian Can Face into Uncertainty Because of
Certainty
2 Samuel 12:15-23
DATE:
6 Feb, 2000 AM
PLACE: BBC Blarney
I.
Introduction (Rom 8:37; 2Tim 1:12)
A. Most people break - the pressures, and uncertainty of life overwhelm them. There really is only one difference between a saved and the unsaved: both have problems and both often have great uncertainties in life. But only one of them has certainty, an anchor, a foundation to rest upon.
B. When we face into an unknown, what the devil wants is for us to fear - not just fear, but get overwhelmed by fear. What does a person do in situations where they do not know what to do?
C. Paul says that his confidence is not in knowing about tomorrow, or why things are happening to him by way of suffering or troubles, but rather that what he DOES know is sufficient to conquer what he does not know.
D. David so powerfully demonstrates that during one of the darkest times of his life - when he did not know what to do at all, yet he conquered!
E. The Lord wants us to know what David knew would be sufficient for us, even in the 21st century!
II.
Message - Conquering
the Unknown, By the Understood (2
Samuel 12:15-23)
A. David has Sinned (2 Sam 11:1-4)
1. Laziness and boredom opens the door to lust, pornography and adultery (11:1)
2. King David, who was already married to seven wives, wasn't satisfied.
3. He sees Bathsheba (goes out looking for her) - another man's wife! THIS IS THE SIN OF TODAY - lusting after men and women in OTHER relationships - they have NO business being on TV and showing what goes on inside bedrooms!!!
4. He sins with Bathsheba - a one-night fling - passion of the moment. Nothing would ever come of the affair. No one would know!
5. But BE SURE your sin will always find you out! And find out David it did - Bathsheba writes a note to king David informing him she is pregnant
6. And David realizes he is in trouble!
B. David has tried to cover His Sins
1. David tries several things to cover-up his sin, but ultimately he instructs General Joab to strategically place Bathsheba's husband in a "hot spot" so that he would "accidentally" get killed
2. David wants Bathsheba's godly husband Uriah to die!
3. And die Uriah did! He was abandoned by his General and fellowsoldiers to die horribly by a myriad of enemy archers.
4. David had not covered his sin - He had ended up only adding to them
C. David then Reaps What He Has Sown
1. David learns that
a. You always reap WHAT you sow (Gal 6:7) "Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."
1) Corn produces a harvest of corn
2) Wheat produces a harvest of wheat
3) Sin produces a harvest of trouble, and judgment
b. You reap MORE than you sow - every farmer knows this. Count on it
1) A farmer plants a few thousand kernels of corn, and reaps thousands of ears of corn, each with hundreds and thousands of kernels on each ear!
2) Our small sins (bitterness, lying, rebellion, disobedience, hatred, lust) produce lots of harvest
c.
You reap LATER than you sow
1) It takes a while for things to grow and mature in a field
2) The same is true with sin. We think just because we have not been stuck down by lightening, that everything must be going to be ok! But just wait - that sin seed will grow!
3) With David it was 9 months later that two things happened
a) A beautiful baby is born
b) Nathan the prophet openly rebukes David - Thou art the man
c) Then the child quickly becomes very sick
D. Into the Depths of the Unknown He Plunges (2Sam 12:15-19)
1. David is now going through the valley of the shadow of death - his own doing, remember? This is not the first time he has been here either!
2. But David wants so desperately to make what is wrong back right - that was his outstanding trait - not that he did not sin, but that when he did, he always went the distance to make it back right - this is lacking in us here - we only want the circumstances to get right, but not ourselves!!!
3. So David dives in (David did not run! AMEN - Thank God for people of courage who face into the storm):
a. First By Faith - Christian desperation - fervent prayer - you cannot face into it any other way. Going to have to do it with Jesus!
1) As Physicians tended to the child - to no avail - David by faith was getting right with God
2) David doesn't bargain, demand, or manipulate - he just surrendered totally, and unequivocally to the righteousness of God!
3) Why? Because someone else's life is at stake! So often we neglect our walk with God until someone is at risk!
4) The victory begins by faith - faith is our victory, "and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith." 1Jn 5:4)
5) David knew enough to turn to, and get right with God when in trouble!!! 2 Chron 7:14
b.
By Determination
1) He was not giving up until he had an answer from God. When he started to pray, it was not in passing, or in embarrassment
2) Fasted and prayed seven days - no other business was more important than him getting right with God!
3) I guarantee you there were no repetitious prayers being said (not if you have read your Bible and seen what David prayed in Ps 51)
4) David here was putting his faith to work in battle for the life of that child - He was determined to get as close to God as possible, so that God would know that He was free to intervene and provide an answer!
5) He knew enough to stay at prayer until an answer came - whatever God's answer!
c.
By Rest -
without this last ingredient, you never make it!
1) I'm telling you there is no greater place of rest than in confident prayer with the Almighty God who loves you because of Jesus! Jesus taught us we can rest when we are near Him, and submitted to Him, and following Him!
2) David did not know whether the child would live. David didn't know anything about tomorrow. But what David did not know was so greatly outweighed BY WHAT HE DID KNOW
a) David knows the Lord was still his Shepherd
b) David knew that God always worked all things out for good for those who love Him
c) David knew that God was still in control - had the final say
(i) David could not command the situation
(ii) David could not buy or fight his way through this enemy
(iii) David also rested in the fact that God knew David's limit
4. And then, the child dies (12:18-19)
a. It should have been a moment of utter defeat for David
b. It should have signaled the last lap, and made him want to give up
c. It should have ended his attempt to even live anymore for God
d. This is just what David's servants feared when news came that the child had died.
e. But David had none of those thoughts!
E. At the End, David Rises Confidently (12:20-23)
1. He had not known what would happen, yet he now starts back at life
2. He didn't get what he wanted - oh he forfeited that back 9 months earlier
3. But God still had something for David to do
a. The sweet Psalmist of Israel still had some Psalms to write
b. The king of Israel had some battles to lead
c. He had a nation to lead and encourage and strengthen
d. He had a son named Solomon to train
4. So David, bathes, gets dressed, goes to church, and worships the Lord, and then eats
5. Everyone asks HOW can you do this?
a. Because God knows best
b. Because God does best
c. Because I'm saved - going to heaven
d. Because that child and I will be together again one day - I see him
e. Because I got right with God through it all
6. And the only reason he is able to say all this is because:
a. He has conquered what he did not understand by what he did know
b. He has over-ruled the fears of his life by the confidences of salvation
c. He has looked beyond the grave and saw a living Saviour - just as Job did concerning HIS own children!
III.
Conclusion and Application -
A.
Everybody in
this room experiences the unknown. Faces into troubles, and defeats, and are
tempted to want to give up. Only because they do not see like God can see - just
beyond, at the finish line
B.
We are called
MORE than conquerors - how can that be?
1.
Because we
have already won - we are already home (Eph 2:6)
2.
Because we
know the last chapter
3.
Because we
know the Alpha and the Omega
4.
Because we
know that God works all things out for good
5.
Because we
trust the only answer - the way, Jesus Christ
6.
Because we
know that we can rest since HE has already done everything we can't do! I just
need to give all of me, and Christ makes up for the lack