David: A Man After God's Heart

Singing number one. Doing it very soon. Stand and sing. Contributes to the Charleston Southern University for a student going into a seminary or going to do a religious type of education and a vocation. And this is something we’ve been doing here. The church started many, many years ago. And so good item to contribute toward.

We also, we’re going to start something new. And some of you may have seen it on Facebook this week. But our regular Wednesday night services that we’ve been having, we’re going to offer some food before. And I think we said 5:30. We’ll start this. We’ll have, this week we’ll have pizza, open for suggestions. We’re going to do different things, different Wednesday nights. And that way, so if you, anybody haven’t been able to attend our six o’clock mission study with Pastor Al because they have to get supper, this is no excuse now. Come on out. We’ll provide you with something to eat. And it’s been real good. Al actually started last Wednesday night with a new one. I worked late. I couldn’t make it. But I will be here this Wednesday night. And so come on out and enjoy with us. Share a little bit of pizza with us and fellowship. And hear the lesson that Al will bring to us.

Along with that, the women are invited to join us for crazy hat ladies tea party. Huh. That is the ladies. This is on March 18th at 2 p.m. That’s a Saturday, I think, correct? A Saturday afternoon at March the 18th at 2 p.m. Be provided. Oh, there is, the ladies organization has their official photographer. There will be pictures. Now whether she posts them, I think she edits them very well before she posts them.

So glad to see everybody here. Glad to see Michael back with us. Amen. One thing you see on top of your bulletin is that Ms. Ruth Christie will be turning 100 on March the 30th. And her nieces are going to have a surprise party for her. And a little dinner and all. And it’s open house on Saturday, April the 1st. I think it’s at the home place she’s saying that. So Doris McCoy has more information on that if I help Ms. Ruth celebrate her 100th birthday. Anything else we need to bring? Let’s go to the Lord in prayer.

Our most gracious Heavenly Father, we thank You, Father, for this day. Father, we thank You for the many blessings You’ve bestowed upon us. Father, we thank You for those that we’ve lifted up in prayer to You and that You’ve healed them and bringing them back on the road to recovery. And they will be soon with us. Father, we thank You for Ms. Ruth, who has 100 years that You’ve allowed her to be here on earth and doing work for You. Father, we ask that You guide and direct Sauldam Baptist Church, help lead our pastor search committee as we continue to search for a pastor for Sauldam. And lift up preacher Al Smith here. Father, he continues to bring a great good message to us and lift him up and his family up. Father, in Your name we pray. Amen.

All right. We’re going to continue to worship a song number 248. God, our Father, we adore Thee. So where’s our new screen? If you stand, we’ll sing.

Psalm. Card tricks. Various reasons. My wife goes, what are you going to do if you mess up? Because that could happen. But I got a special deck. It’s a Georgia Bulldog deck. And all the cards out there. Okay, let me ask you this. Shuffle them up and do all that kind of stuff. How many cards in a deck of cards? 52. Okay. So if I was going to cut them in half, how many would that be? See how many math we got in here. 31? No, no. Close, though. 21? Close. Kind of in between. 21 and 31. Exactly. 26. There we go. Okay. You know, it’s a good thing you guys don’t play cards much.

So we’re going to count. Okay, so count with me. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26. Okay. So I got two piles of 26 cards. Okay, I need a volunteer. Okay. Cody, you come up. I haven’t told you in a while. Here’s what I want you to do. Okay. I’m going to want you to just pick either one deck you want. Okay. Either pile you want. And I want you to take a group of cards like this off of it. Okay. Which one do you want? You Want that one? Okay. Whatever cards you want. Okay. Now I want you to take them. Take them. And take them over to the table over there. That one over there. Yeah. You can just put them right there.

Okay. Now I need another volunteer. I’ll just show them up here. Can you come on up here? I’m going to let you pick a card. Okay. Any card. Is that the one you want? You sure? You want to put it back and try another card? Okay. I want you to show everybody else. I’m going to turn around and show them the card. Okay. You got it? Okay. Now don’t let me see it.

Okay. Now I want you to put it on top. Okay. Now what I’m going to do. Okay. I’m going to mix them up. Get it in there. Okay. See, I don’t do this often. You can put that one on there. Okay. Want to mix them up again? Are you good with that? Okay. I’m going to take them. Put them in here. And we can even. Okay. You got these? Okay. Now I’m going to mix them up even more. You can sit down, McKenzie. Okay. And I’m going to take the top and bottom card until we get done with this. Okay. Put them right here. Mix them up even more.

Let’s hold on just a second. I’m going to tell you to do that just a second. Okay. Down there. Okay. So we got this deck of cards. So somewhere y’all’s card is in there, right? We don’t know. I don’t know where. Now, have I touched that group of cards over there at all? My hands have never left my body. Okay. So if I touch those cards, I don’t know how many cards are over there, do I? I need somebody to go over there and count those cards. Huh? Will anyone count them? Okay. You don’t have to? Okay. Go count. How many are over there? I don’t know why you took off the pile. So I haven’t even touched those cards. 18.

Okay. So let’s count cards off the top here. So watch my hands out so I don’t do anything goofy. 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17. What would be the odds of many of those cards over there? And I took them off here. So that would be your card. What was your card? What was it of hearts? What number? Ace of hearts? Okay. Somebody want to pick off that top card?

Okay. Now here’s what’s neat about that trick. Okay. It’s a mathematical trick. Some math guy, believe it or not, what he did is he said, if you do this, this or this, this was what works. My brain doesn’t go that way because I’m not a math guy, but he did it with math. So it kind of always works together. Let me share with you a verse in the Bible. That’s kind of neat. Ladies and gentlemen, would you get my Bible real quick?

Now here’s what I do. When y’all come, if you want to come back after church, I’ll show you how to do the trick. How about that? That’d be okay? Okay. There’s a wonderful verse in the book of Romans. Listen to what it says. It’s in Romans chapter eight, how God works things. See, if you do this trick, if you do everything kind of right, and I don’t even know how it works and I do the trick. Okay. But if you do, listen to what it says. And we know that God causes what? All things to work together for good to those who love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.

I don’t understand how God works. I don’t understand. I just know that when we, when we’re obedient and we do things God wants us to do, things work out. Kind of like this little, little card trick. You do the things that tells you to do, it works out. But I’ll tell you what’s even better is when God does things in your life and when you’re obedient, didn’t say things will be easy. Didn’t say things that just come. But I know this, if you love Him and you’re close to Him, He’s going to work things out good for you. And you can always count on that a whole lot more than you count on a card trick.

Okay. Let’s pray. Father, thank You. You’re so much better than some little card trick because You do things with life. And You do things with Your world. And You do things with our lives and our families and our futures and our schools. And, and a lot, a lot of times I don’t understand it. I can’t explain it, but I know this, that You love us and You work things out. But we got to let You. We got to kind of do things Your way. And when we do that, all things work together. Thank You for being who You are now. And thank You for these children. Your Son’s name we pray. Amen.

Thanks, guys. Continue to sing. This is the offertory hymn, 134. “Jesus Paid It All.” So words are on your screen. Stan will sing. Savior, save, save. I’m going to have to shift around behind me here. This week we’ll sing “The Power of the Cross.” Ladies are going to sing that, the women of the Sauldam Choir. So I’m going to give them just a second to get set up. So this is kind of kicking off our Easter songs. You can tell this morning we sang a few, and they’re going to sing one that heavily talks about kind of Easter and the power of the cross, literally in the name of the song. So please enjoy. Let me shut up because they’re going to sing.

Just keep praying for them. God’s got a special person for this church, and I say that because this is a special church. Good folks. And Beth and I appreciate you more than you’ll ever know. And thank you for your prayers. My dad went on to be with the Lord on Monday. He was 94, but at the end it was at the end stages of Parkinson’s, and he’s throwing that some dementia, and being 94 and all that goes with that, and that’s not a good combination. But I got to spend some time with him. A little over a month ago I flew up to Portland, and won’t be flying up there for the funeral until probably the middle of March. He’s at a national cemetery, and when you’re at a national cemetery you’re kind of on their schedule, and so I’ll be flying up there for that. So thank you for just remembering in your prayers.

I want you to remember also the Harry Gray family. Harry, close friend of mine. Him and his wife Lorraine. Just precious people. Harry was 92. Went on to be with the Lord just day four yesterday. And I’ll be doing that funeral this week. Harry was a career an AB guy. He was a senior chief. And I had the honor of baptizing him when he was 76. He was so proud because he had like three or four generations of his family there for on that wonderful, wonderful day. So he’s now with the Lord. And the guy was an avid golfer. He had like four hole-in-ones. So I’ve been close, but I ain’t never had a hole-in-one. But just he loved the Lord and was always at the church every time it seemed like the doors were open. Once he got it was like once he got saved and turned on, and and he was just gonna be at church. And so that was just kind of neat.

And I’m sure you’ve got issues, and and and you got, you know, people in your life and things going on in your life that you came in with this morning that you need to give to the Lord. And so we’re gonna have some time with that. We’re gonna have some time to have conversation with Him. And remember, prayer is not just asking or talking or talking. Prayer is listening. And so maybe today God just wants you to listen. Maybe there’s some things that happened this week that you just need to kind of get right. You know, that’s when I went up to talk to Portland and talked to my dad. I said, “Dad, I just want you to get things right with Him. You know, I want to spend eternity, and you to spend eternity in the same place I am.” And we had those conversations.

So I want you to bow your heads. I want you to close your eyes and just talk with the Lord. It’s in the quietness of the moment. You and the Lord just have a conversation. Father, thank You for being You. Thank You for never getting tired of us coming to You, and whether it’s complaining or asking or confessing or whatever. You’re there. You never change. Oh, we change. We change a ton. But You never do. You’re the same yesterday. You’ll be the same today. And You’ll be the same again tomorrow. I thank You for that. For being who You are. And loving us that much. Lord, a lot of hurt or a lot of issues or things we’re dealing with. But if we’ll be obedient and hand them over to You, You’ll do with them a whole lot more than we ever could even think about. So Lord, we do that this morning. We thank You. We honor You. We glorify You. And Lord, today may Your words change us. Change our hearts. Change our minds. So that when we go out, we will be different. Because we want to. We want to be different. To a world that needs You so much. And so we ask this in the name that’s above every name, the awesome name of Jesus. Amen.

If you’ve got your Bibles, I’d like you to turn with me to a pretty familiar passage. We’re actually going to look at two Psalms today. We’ll kind of take parts out of both of them. As we look at, I’m doing a little study called Agents of Change. We talked about Abraham last week and how, you know, for him to, you know, leave a large city, leave family, leave everything, he had to have buy-in. Or as they say at Clemson, he had to be all in, okay? And so he had to have buy-in. And he had to, you know, wanted, had to get people around him to buy in and do what he wanted.

Today we’re going to talk about a guy that messed up. And I want you to understand something about, as we look at these two Psalms, I want you to understand this Psalm is written for those who are saved. It’s written for the church. It’s written for people who love the Lord but mess up. Because I want to tell you, you’re going to mess up. It’s not if, it’s when. And so David’s going to show us today how a Christian when, again, not if they fail, handles coming back to God. And we’re going to look at four things that they’ve got to do. And I don’t think it’s just even just us individually. I think it’s us sometimes as a church.

You know, if we want God to bless us, because the Bible doesn’t say we build a church. If we just do this, this, this, and this. If we’ll just do this program, this program. If we’ll just do whatever, go knock on these doors. Folks, you don’t build a church. Jesus looked at Peter and says, upon that profession of faith, that confession of faith, I will build my church. And so He’s the one who builds the church. But He’s got to have a church He wants to come in. And, you know, it’s like one day, you know, the skies are going to open and the bridegroom is going to come back for the bride. What kind of bride is He going to come back for? And so we need to always understand where the church and why it is so important that we’re always getting things right with Him.

So that’s where we’re going to be today. We’re going to look at how do you come back? How do you change? How do you sit there and say, well, I know I did this and, Lord, I’m guilty. How do I change? How do I make it right with You?

Several decades ago, a gal by the name of Catherine Parr was a university student in Boston. Got involved with definitely the wrong crowd. It was a revolutionary political group. And what she did is this group planned to make plans to rob a bank. And they were going to use the money to buy weapons. And she was going to be the driver of the getaway car. But the robbery didn’t go as planned. A silent alarm notified the police. And in the aftermath, shots were fired and a policeman was killed. But because she was in the getaway car, she got away. The others didn’t, but she did. She escaped, moved to another state. And for the next 23 years, she was known not as Catherine Power, but as Alice Metzinger. She married, became a mom. She was a citizen in good standing. But at the age of 44, Catherine Power was desperately tired, tormented by guilt, chronically depressed. Finally, she did the only thing she felt could end the agony. And to the utter shock of her family, her friends, and neighbors, she turned herself into the authorities and revealed that she wasn’t Alice Metzinger after all. She was later interviewed and asked her motive for finally telling the truth. She said these words. And I want to read them. I was tired of living with shame and guilt.

So her story today reminds me of a story that we’re going to look at. How do you handle shame and guilt? An old seminary professor of mine, they’re forgetting, wrote a number of books. One was called Integrity Therapy. He said, you know why we feel guilty? Because we usually are.

David felt guilty. I think you know the story. His army is encamped. They’re gone. It was a season, the Bible says, for war. And when he should have been with them, he wasn’t. He was back at the ranch. He was in, you know, his palace. Maybe he was bored, whatever. But he went up on the balcony. I don’t know why he made the balcony that high where he could look over the city. Maybe he just wanted to marvel at the city of Jerusalem. But where he stood, he could see a lot of things. And one of the things he could see was another rooftop where a young lady by the name of Bathsheba taking a bath.

Should he have left right afterwards? Should have. But he didn’t. And he sat there and watched. And then he did something that he should never have done. He had her brought to him. And you can sit there and blame Bathsheba all you want. You can sit there. But who was she coming to? She was coming to the king. Husband wasn’t there. David knew exactly who her husband was. He was where he needed to be with the troops. The story is that she came in and he had the affair. Flipped with her. Then the thing happened that you don’t want to happen. She got pregnant.

So what does he do? He tries to cover it. He brings the husband home. He says, look, you’ve been working for me. You’re a great guy. Why don’t you just be with your wife? He goes, well, yeah, but my guys aren’t with their wives. I got to go back. So he does the right thing. He goes back. When he goes back, David says, well, if he’s not, it’s going to be uncovered. Something happened. Put him in. Put him into the toughest, most intense part of the battle. Because we know that if he goes there, he’ll die. And that’s exactly what happened.

So now we not only have adultery. Now we now have murder. And we have cover up. And yet the Bible says David is what? David is a man after God’s own heart. How can that be? And he tries to keep it a secret until in 2 Samuel chapter 14, I think it’s 14. But in 2 Samuel, a prophet comes to David. And he comes to him with a story. Remember the story? David, I need you to figure this out for me. I mean, what should we do? There’s this guy who owns, he’s got a great herd. And he owns a lot of stuff. And he’s got a big house and all those things. And then there’s this other little guy who’s only got one sheep. That he loves. I mean, he doesn’t give tables. He just eats. This animal eats with him and eats with the family. He’s like one of the family. He loves this little lamb. And that’s the only one he’s got.

And then a visitor comes to this rich guy’s house. And he doesn’t want to take one of his sheep, one of his herd. You know what he does? He goes and he takes the guy that has basically just one sheep. He takes his sheep and he serves it. What do you think I ought to do? Remember David’s response? You need to get the guy. Bring him here. We’ll take care of him. We’ll show him. Who was he to take that guy’s sheep? Remember Nathan’s response? You’re the man.

All of a sudden David realizes. David could have done a number of things. David could have blamed. He could have said, well, she shouldn’t have been on the roof. And if her husband had just had relations with her when he came back, nobody would have known. I mean, I mean, and you know us guys, we, you know, we got, we got needs. I’m going to tell you folks in a minute. I’ve heard it all. David doesn’t do that. It says it’s on me.

You’ve done that? Let’s look at, if you want to come back to God, like David now knows he needs to come back to God. Because up to that point in his life, everything was awesome. Now David didn’t have an, always have an easy life. You remember the time that he, he was with Saul and, and Saul would get ticked off at him. And then Saul tried to take his life for what? Almost 19 years. But finally he ascends the throne, and then, and now there’s peace in the land. He’s defeated his enemy. He’s got incredible wealth. He is putting together everything to build the great temple of the Lord. He’s putting it all together. He’s got everything he could want. Apparently it wasn’t enough. Now he knows he’s sinned. How does he go? How, Lord, how do I get it back? Let’s look at some things that we’ve got to do. Number one, we need to understand this. There’s always great pain in sin. Psalm 51 was more than likely written before Psalm 32. These are the two Psalms that come in right after David has this affair with Bathsheba, and everything is all of a sudden brought out into the open. And I want to share something with you. This isn’t something that just is among the palace. This is known. So you can imagine the embarrassment for the family. You can imagine, you know, the embarrassment for David. You can imagine the embarrassment for the Lord. And there’s great pain. Listen to Psalm 51. Be gracious to me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness, according to the greatness of Your compassion. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. By the way, which is a word for, in the Hebrew, of being twisted sin. Cleanse me from my sin. That word sin is, again, the word that is missed the mark. If God’s way, if you’re shooting an arrow and God’s way is over that way, you’re kind of aiming in this direction. You’re not even close. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Can you imagine living life with your sin just always before you? Against You, You only have I sinned and done evil in Your sight. Look what he says. Verse 5. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me. Doesn’t mean when they had sex that there was sin going on. What it means is when we are born, there is within us, within our DNA, because of what happened in the garden, there is within us that ability now to sin. And so we go, I don’t believe that. I think when they, just watch a baby after a while. Watch a baby after about six months, a year, year and a half, two years. Watch how those innocent little darlings, all of a sudden it’s no, or it’s mine, or it’s, you know, and just even in their innocence, you start to see the markings of sin. He says, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom. He said, purify me with hyssop, because I don’t feel purified, Lord, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I’ll be whiter than snow. But look at verse 16. Create in me what? A clean heart, O God. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your presence. Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Listen, and listen to the next words. Great pain. Restore to me the joy of my salvation. Now, realize this. He’s not saying restore my salvation, because I believe with all my heart, once saved, always saved. I believe that, you know, there are times where we walk away from God, but I want to tell you, God never moves. It’s like the great story of the prodigal son. Does dad ever move? Son goes out and does a ton of stuff, but he’s still a member of the family, and dad’s waiting for him to come back. But he says, restore to me what? The joy. There is no joy in his life. The Bible says, if you go back to 2 Samuel, that he sat there and just became more. They couldn’t talk to him. You know, he just went into mourning. He wouldn’t eat. He wouldn’t drink. He was just, ain’t no Lord. And here was his prayer. Lord, take my life. Take this child. Grieved. There was great sin. And see, I believe this psalm is kind of sharing some things about us. Number one, I think there’s two types of people in the world. Lost people, and there’s saved people. Pretty simple. There’s great, and he is in incredible pain. He’s living that guilt, and he’s living it. And so we understand there’s great pain in sin, but we also need to realize that it is against God that they have sinned, that we have sinned. Listen to what he says earlier in the chapter. Verse 4, against You, and You only have I sinned, and done what is evil in Your sight. He sinned against his family? Yeah. Did he sin against his nation because he was the king? Absolutely. But ladies and gentlemen, I want to tell you, it’s at a different level when you say this: It’s You that I’ve sinned.

Years ago, I got a chance to baptize a young man, and his name was Jeff, and Jeff was a neat guy. Jeff was just, he got on fire for the Lord, and he’s now with Him. He died as a relatively young man. But I’ll never forget, we were baptizing him, and his brother was in the back of the room. David was in the back of the room, and David saw Jeff get baptized and saw such a change in Jeff’s life that he goes, “Man, I don’t know what you got, but I want it.” Well, Jeff was a brand-new Christian. So Jeff goes, “I don’t know what to tell you. Let me just take you to Al’s house, you know.”

Now, his brother could have led him to the Lord. We had a little room. I was living there on James Island, and we had a little room above our garage. We started calling it the upper room. I mean, God, you know, we would take somebody up there. I want you to tell me where it was with David. David was so on fire. He wanted God so much. He just wanted to turn it over to Him. I could have read out of a phone book and led him to Christ that night.

I mean, God had, because who really gets us ready? Who really leads us to Christ? Who, I mean, who does, it’s the Lord that does it. He uses us. We’re His instrument. But the Lord’s the one that saves us, not us. I mean, we get to be, and every once in a while, when you get to be the guy that reels them in for Him, that’s awesome.

And like I said, David was so excited. I mean, when we baptized David, David was amazing. I mean, he went under water. When he came up out of the water, I mean, he just went, “Yes!” Which everybody in the congregation went, “Wow!” He was so on fire.

But let me tell you what David had. David had an alcohol problem. Tell you that alcohol problem. He was trying to quit. He was doing everything he could do. He was going AA. He was doing all those things. But David had a problem where if he picked one up, whatever was in front of him is what he drank. So if there was just one beer in front of him, he’d just drink one beer. If there was two, he drank two. If he had a six-pack, you know he did. He’d drink a six-pack. He was trying so hard.

David was a young married guy. And I’m one of those teetotaler guys. I’m thinking if you never get involved in that, you ain’t got to worry about it. That’s Al Smith. But I’ll never forget, David called me on the phone. And he goes, “Al, I’m drunk again last night. And my wife is going to be with her mom and dad. And I’m here by myself. And I know. I know I let me down. And I know I let my wife down. And I know I’ve let my family down. This is what hurts so much. Al, I let God down.”

When I heard that, I knew that now we could work with David. Now, see, when you come to a place in your life, it’s not just about you letting you down. When you don’t want to live like that anymore because you don’t want to let God down, things change in your life. And we need to understand when we’re dealing with sin, whether it’s something like that or it’s adult, whatever it is, like David’s situation. When you come to a place where you don’t want to let God down, you can do some neat things in your life. That’s where he was. They had sinned against God. He had sinned against God. David had sinned against God.

And here’s the thing. You’re going to wear scars. I once had a young couple come into my study. And they wanted to get married. They’d been living together for about eight years. And they finally, you know, I’d had a bunch of talks with them. Hadn’t seen them in a long time. And now they want to get married. So I was pretty excited about that. But I’ll never forget. Because they weren’t living life with the Lord. They weren’t ever in church. I never, the Lord just wasn’t a part. And I just think He was wanting to get married because she wanted to finally get married. And so I said, well, where do you want to get married? And she said, well, I want to get married in the church. And I said, well, why? Well, my grandmama went here. And it’s a pretty place. And I like to do that. And I said, so where’s the Lord in on this? And I’ll never forget. She goes, well, we want Him to be part of the service. And I said, okay. I said, do you want the Lord to bless your marriage? They said, well, yeah. I said, well, then you need to be obedient. Let me give you a suggestion. Why don’t we just go ahead and get married? I can do it. You can go down to the county courthouse, and the courthouse can get you married. And let’s get things right with God. Let’s do it legally. Let’s make it right. Let’s get things right with Him. And then you’ll be married. And then we’ll come back. We’ll have prayer together, and we’ll find out where you are with the Lord. And then we’ll have a big celebration. Celebrate your day at the church, and let the church be involved in it. So that way you’ll get right with Him, because you want Him to bless your marriage.

You’ll see this kind of stunned look on their face. Now, I’ve done that, and I actually had it work. But they just came in. I never saw him again. See, what had happened is they weren’t ever thinking about what they were doing was wrong with God. See, it wasn’t anybody else’s business what they were doing. You know, in Scripture, it says there’s a wonderful, in the commandments, it says, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me.” See, their relationship had become their God. Not what God wanted. Their relationship had become their God. Each other had become their God. What they wanted in their own life had become their God. It wasn’t about what God wanted. It wasn’t about what was right. According to Scripture, and when we come to a place in our lives where it’s like, God, it’s what You want. It’s not what I want. It’s what You want. It’s what You do. We realize that it is against God that we have sinned.

Not only do we know that there’s great pain that it’s against God, we need to understand it, except that even though forgiven, there are still consequences. Do you know the consequences of David’s sin? We know the baby dies. He’s in mourning. David’s sitting there saying, Lord, take my life. This baby’s done nothing wrong. This baby, it’s not this baby’s fault. But he dies anyway. I want to tell you something about this. David didn’t just lose one son. He lost four sons and a daughter. Because of the sin in his life, because of the father that he really wasn’t able to be now, his son Amnon would rape his half-sister Tamar. Absalom, another son, would be so ticked off, he will kill Amnon. Absalom would then try to usurp the throne. In the process, Joab as general will kill Absalom. That’s three down. And then Adonijah, who will come after David’s death and try and usurp the throne from Solomon, will die. So David doesn’t lose just one son in this. He loses four. And because of the blood that’s going on in his family, God says, David, because of all this, you would have the ability to build a temple, but now I’m going to take that away from you.

You talk about incredible consequences of our sin. How many times do we step back and go, what will happen if I do this? How will my family be affected? Do we ever think, no, here’s what we think. Let me have what I want right now, and I’ll deal with the consequences later. And that’s exactly what David did. And I think that’s what we do all the time. You do it, I do it. We all do it. See, the biggest consequence is the guilt and depression. And here’s the thing. You can’t offer guidance without seeing it hypocritical. Do you think David could go to his sons and go, this is how you need to live? And I can sit there and go, well, you didn’t live that way. You didn’t act that way, Dad. And you’re going to tell me how to live and how to act? The consequences. See, sin is almost like a nuclear bomb. You know, when they drop that nuke and it hits, let me tell you, it just doesn’t kill the people that it lands on, folks. Up comes from that comes this incredible mushroom cloud. You know what’s in that mushroom cloud? Radioactive elements that all of a sudden are spread everywhere. The wind just takes it and goes with it. The consequences are not just here, but everywhere around it. That’s what sin does. That’s what sin’s about.

My favorite poems in the world is written by a guy named Edgar Guest. He was called the people’s poet. Raised in Detroit, came over from Europe, but he just wrote volumes. One of us, my favorite poem by him is called “I’d Rather See a Sermon.” I’m just going to give you two verses of it.

I’d rather see a sermon than hear one any day. I’d rather one should walk with me than just merely point the way. You see, the eyes are better people than ever was the ear. Good advice is often confusion, but example is always clear. And the best of all the preachers are the men who live their creeds, for to see good put in action is what everybody needs. I soon can learn to do it if you’ll let me see it done. I can watch your hands in action, but your tongue too fast may run, and the lecture you deliver may be very wise and true, but I’d rather get my lessons by observing what you do. For I might misunderstand you and the high advice you give, but there’s no misunderstanding in how you act.

Good quote. Can you give a family? Don’t be like me. Don’t make the mistakes. You made them. Why can’t we do that? But here’s the wonderful thing. Be prepared that after repentance and after forgiveness, it’ll be time to move on with God’s will for our lives and your life.

That’s where Psalm 32 comes in. It was written after that. In Psalm 32, David has been forgiven. Listen to what he reads, what he says. How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. How blessed is a man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity and in whose spirit there is no deceit. When I kept silent about my sin, my body just wasted away. And through my groaning all day long, for day and night your hand was heavy upon me. My vitality was drained away as with the fever heat of summer. But then I acknowledged my sin to you. And my iniquity I did not hide. I said I will confess my transgression to the Lord. And you forgave the guilt of my sin. Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. Purely in the flood and in great waters they will not reach him. You are my hiding place. You preserve me from trouble. You surround me with the songs of deliverance. And he says, so much so I will go out and I will tell him.

Ladies and gentlemen, when you go to God with a repentant heart, God receives you. What He does. I don’t care what your sin is. David, I don’t know if he’d get any bigger in adultery and murder. And then they throw the cover up all over that. And then try and act like it’s nothing happened. As horrible as they are. God says, David, I’ll forgive you. Now there are consequences that will last far beyond anything that you’re able to understand or comprehend. You’ll see some of that. David, we’ll get on with life. We’ll make it as best as we can make it. And I’ll come alongside you.

See, the reason David is called a man after God’s own heart is not because he had the heart of God all the time. Because when he messed up, he saw it after God’s heart. This morning, I want to just ask you this. Where are you? The great preacher F. B. Myers said this, no one suddenly becomes basis. You know, I think we’re at a place where, you know, usually we get into the sin we get into. Something big is because we’ve been working at it for a little bit, been working at it for a while.

Billy Graham’s crusade in England many years ago, a London psychiatrist told the evangelist that in his opinion, 70% of those in mental institutions could be released immediately if they could find forgiveness released from their tormenting guilt. Let me tell you what God’s offering. No matter what you’ve done, no matter where you’ve been, no matter what you thought, no matter what you’ve said, no matter whatever, God says, I will forgive you.

Remember, He’s writing to the church. Because kingdom, the kingdom of God is not when you die, just when you die, The kingdom of God is now. God wants to give that to you. Now, ladies and gentlemen. And so we’re going to have a time of prayer. Anybody would like to, you know, come forward? And I think I ended it a little bit too quick last week, but if you’d like to come forward and just say, God, I just want to confess, I’m going to get this off of me. I’m tired of feeling this way. God, I said something this week I shouldn’t have said. Lord, I said something years ago I shouldn’t have said. I did something I should never have done. Will you forgive me? I’m telling you, He does. That’s what He does. You got to come with that kind of heart.

So I want you to bow your heads. I want you to close your eyes. You know, the wonderful thing about these two Psalms is that when we go to Him and said, wash me, cleanse me, bring back the joy, He does that. But that’s who He is. And maybe this morning we just need to do that. Maybe one reason God’s not working, you’re not seeing Him work like He want to, is because you just need to deal with that. So I’m going to open up the altar. I’m going to open up. You want to pray where you’re at, whatever you want to talk to me, I’ll be up front. Donnie, if you’ll come and just lead us. And if you’ll sing and the ladies will play, let’s just come to a place this morning, folks, where we just get right with Him. Let’s just do what David, David wasn’t perfect, wouldn’t continue to be perfect. But I’ll tell you this, he knew where to go when he wasn’t. Donnie, if you’ll come.

We know Jim and Sue, they’ve been kind of visiting here for a while now. A couple of weeks, I’ve been talking with them and they love you. And they want to invest their lives into this family called Sauldam Baptist Church. See? Look at that. Getting applause. I had to do a character to get applause. Okay. But they do. And so they’re coming to move their letter from a sister church and invest their lives with you. That’s what they want to do. They want to become family. And I know that you’ll want to be family to them.

See, that now puts a burden on me, even as the interim. And you guys, as they’re now their church family, to love up on them and hug them and encourage them and help grow with them and do all those kinds of things because they’re now part of you. And you’ll want to, after the end of the service, well, first of all, if you’re all in favor of this happening, would you just give me a hearty amen? See? Look at that. Pretty awesome, isn’t it? Isn’t that good to hear? So you want to come up after the service and just, I’m going to have them stand up here and you’ll just want to come up here and hug up on them and shake their hands so it about falls off and all those kind of neat things. And just say, man, welcome to the family. Thank you for being here. Because I know that’s the kind of church you are. And so that’s kind of neat pressure, isn’t it? Isn’t that how it ought to be? And when we mess up, we just kind of, you know, grab each other and encourage and lift each other up. That’s what churches do. And I know that’s what you’ll do. So you come up after that.

So again, thank you for being here. Let’s stand as we’re about to be dismissed. And again, may this week be an incredible week for you. May you have an opportunity to share with someone, not only again what God can do for them, but what He, man, what He’s already done for you. Again, Aletha, you may be what? The only God or the only Jesus someone ever sees. And so just remember that going into the world. And remember, even when you mess up, always go to the Lord. So don’t forget that either. Let’s go, Lord, in prayers. We’re dismissed.

Father, thank you. Thank you for just reminding us this morning. It’s never too late. We’ll just want to get things right with our heart. Oh, we make some stupid decisions and stupid moves sometimes. And yes, there may be consequences, but you still walk with us. You still redeem us. It’s not about losing heaven. What it is, is it’s about just getting on with life with you. And then you’re able to use it. You can’t use us in our sin, but You can use us when we get right with You. And so that would be my prayer this week, that we would always do that. So guide us, Lord, direct us, protect us until we come back to this place again. And we ask this in the name that’s above every name, the awesome name of Jesus. And all God’s people said, amen. Thank you, folks. I’m so proud of you.