A Contrite Heart

SUMMARY

In this sermon, Karl Ihfe addresses sin as the most destructive force humanity has ever faced, using David's moral failure with Bathsheba as a powerful case study. Ihfe identifies four crucial crossroads in David's journey: the spiritual drift that led him to remain in Jerusalem "at the time when Kings go off to war" (2 Samuel 11:1), his decision to ignore spiritual warning lights when informed Bathsheba was married, his refusal to repent when consequences began appearing, and finally facing God's judgment through Nathan the prophet.

The sermon emphasizes how sin spreads like a disease when left unchecked, leading David from adultery to murder and deception. Yet when confronted with the powerful words "You are the man," David's heart softened and he confessed, "I have sinned against the Lord" (2 Samuel 12:13). Ihfe concludes by reminding the congregation that while sin has consequences, God's grace offers hope for transformation—embodying the church's motto that "everybody is welcome, nobody is perfect, but anything is possible" through Christ.

TRANSCRIPTION:

Well, good morning, church. My name is Carl. I'm one of the ministers here on staff. If you haven't seen me before, I hope to get a chance to meet you afterwards. If you hadn't seen me in a while.

I'm back. I had a chance to vacation a little bit. We have a preaching intern who's been with us, getting to fill in a couple of times to Nolan. We're so thankful for his work and his ministry to us as a church. If you haven't had a chance to listen to those messages, invite you to go back online and do that.

This morning we're going to talk about the most destructive force the human race has ever faced, and that is sin. I know when we hear that word we think, well, yeah, that's a real preacher thing to say. Yeah, it is. In fact, some of us are facing some deception right now. In fact, we've been allowing it to deceive us for so long that we're not even sure what truth looks like anymore.

Or maybe some of us got a hard heart towards God or toward others and we want it to be different. We're just not sure how it can be. Maybe some of us are feeling stuck and trapped in a sin. We don't know exactly what to do, where to go, how to move forward. Well, this morning I want us to have a serious conversation about sin and those of us who struggle with it.

You see, this side of heaven, every one of us is going to struggle with sin. And that's the testimony of scripture. You just heard an example of it just a moment ago. But until Jesus returns, we're all going to struggle with sin. In fact, I started this series on the life of King David with this reminder that David's life is really complicated.

You know, like when we see somebody sin, when that becomes publicly exposed, there's something that happens in us. Like we can see that, but we somehow try to reduce that person to that one sin. Right? Sinful people become these one dimensional characters that we can like Flat Stanley, kind of push to the side when we're done reading the story. But the truth is, even sinful people have hopes and dreams.

Even sinful people long to experience what meaningful life looks like. To have relationships that bring life see our tendency to want to minimize people, but we can't do that. David's not going to let us do that. His life is one that's vibrant and full of all kinds of highs and lows. And sometimes he makes some choices that are really devastating.

In fact, we're gonna look at one of those stories today. In fact, alongside David and Goliath, this is perhaps the most familiar, most popular, most well recognized story about the life of David. And so as we jump into it, as we think about it this morning, I want us to wrestle with it as someone who's trying to deal with sin in their own life. When we hear about somebody sinning who doesn't want anything to do with God, it doesn't really surprise us that much. We see examples of it all the time.

We can read examples of those folks in Scripture, but all we have to do is turn on the local news or find our favorite news outlet and there's stories all over the church. This is David. I mean, David loved God his whole life, right? Remember, David was so full of joy, so full of hope, so full of trust, that one day when he heard about this pagan Philistine defaming and dishonoring his God, he couldn't help but stand up to him, even if he had to stand up all alone. And he did.

This is the same David who would utter these prayers out to God. And many of them were written down. In fact, most of the psalm book is attributed to him when crying out on behalf of God. It's the prayer book for the church. This is David.

I mean, this is the guy who, when he had a chance to take out one of his enemies who was trying to kill him, instead allows him to live. And he says this to King Saul. He says, this day you've seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you. I will not lay my hand on my Lord because he's the Lord's anointed.

He thought so much about who God was and who God was calling him to be that he would not even go against an enemy. He thought someone was trying to take his life. How could David do something like this? I mean, isn't that the question we ask whenever we encounter a story like this? How?

How? I've had friends who served in ministry who wrecked their lives and their ministries and their marriage because of sin. And the question how? How could that happen? I mean, in this particular story of David's life, I count just by quick run through the first five verses, at least five commandments that he's broken.

Now, we could have a longer conversation about maybe a couple others could be sprinkled in there as well. But so far he's 5 for 10. I love how Ortberg asks in his message. He asked this question, he says, who of us are so sure that we're more spiritual than David that something like this could never happen to us? I mean, who would want to put ourselves in that category?

I don't think many of us would. Which leads us to the fact that we've got to talk about something today that none of us like to talk about. We don't like to face the reality that we struggle with sin. Sin is a reality. And so to feel better about it, sometimes we try to divide sins up into a couple of different categories.

There's the acceptable sin, which is my sin, and there's the unacceptable sin, which is your sin. Why? Because you did it on purpose and you know better and you shouldn't have done that. And you did that to hurt me. That's not really true.

Sinn s sin is sin. And sometimes, if we're honest, the reason we don't sin is not because we're so spiritually mature, it's that we don't think we could get away with it. Right? Am I the only one who goes E? Probably not.

Maybe that's why Paul to the Corinthian Church would give him this warning. He said, so if you think you're standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. Why? Because our tendency is to think that we can't fall. So we need to have a serious conversation about sin and the consequences.

But the good news is we can have that conversation confidently because of God's grace, right? Our amazing God who loves us, who is not willing to let us just perish without him. As Robert reminds us, he's still alive and he's still at work and he's still healing and redeeming and restoring us. In fact, our goal as a church is not just that we would let perfect people in our doors. Our hope is that God would open up opportunities for us to encounter the most messed up, mixed up, obnoxious sinners that we could find in Lubbock County.

And if you look around the room, I think we're doing a pretty good job.

See, this story is about just such a messed up, mixed up, obnoxious sinner. You see, David thought he could get away with it, and so he encounters. What Ortberg talks about are these four crossroads that David faces. There are these defining moments in his life that you and I are gonna face as well. And so if you're here today, one drink.

Can my life change? Is it possible to deal with the sin in my life? The answer is absolutely. Let's watch David. How he faces these crossroads.

And then we'll kind of reflect back. How might we do it differently? The first one we learned back in verse 1 of 2 Samuel 11 that Kim read for us just a moment ago. In the spring, at the time when Kings go off to war, David sent Joab. There's that word sent.

If you have your Bible that you can write and encircle that word, it's going to come up a few more times. We're going to look at it here in just a second. At the time when Kings go off the war, David sent Joab, but David remained in Jerusalem. Right. The first crossroads that David faces is this spiritual drift factor.

And the spring Kings would go off to war. Why? That was the time of the year. The weather was nicer. It was more possible to do that.

And yet David remained in Jerusalem. In fact, going off to war was one of the requirements of a king. You may remember back in 1 Samuel, chapter 8, when the Israelites are complaining to Samuel about not having a king. I just had this image this week in my mind. One of our young families, we were at our Wednesday night worship, and one of the kiddos wanted a Popsicle.

And he had already had an ice cream sandwich, and he wanted that Popsicle. And I was standing there with his dad, and his dad's like, no, son, we're not going to have the Popsicle. And just over. I won. I know.

I want. I. No, I want. No. Want.

No. And finally the kid goes, but I really want one. And his dad was so cool. Right in my little head. I mean, if that were my kid, I would have been like, right?

Nope. Sorry, son. Son walks off. I can't help but see the Israelites going, but we really want a king. What's the king going to do?

He's going to go before us in battle. Except in the time when he's supposed to be going to battle, David remains, and he wanted something right? At this point in time, scholars say he's probably around 50, which echoes in my head a little differently this year. Right? He's not quite the golden boy anymore.

The warrior bod has become the dad bod. You know, maybe he's a little bored, maybe he's a little restless. Maybe he had a track installed at the palace. He asked the chef to sprinkle in a little Fiber Horton Fiber chunks in the morning. Kingly cereal.

You know, we don't know why he didn't go. All we know is he didn't go. He's a little bored. He's a little Lonely. But we do know David didn't talk to God about this.

He didn't have an honest conversation open and revealing to him. Instead, he tries to solve it on his own. In chapter 12, kind of near the end of the story, when Nathan comes to confront David on his sin. One of the things that God tells David through Nathan the prophet, he says, I anointed you king over Israel and delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave your master's house to you and your master’s wives into your arms.

I gave you all Israel and Judah. And if all of this had been too little, I'd given you more.

But David didn't talk to God. You see, the real problem that David faced is the problem that we face is in these moments we have to trust. Does God really have my best interest at heart? I'm not sure he's paying attention. I don't know if he knows what I need better than I do.

That's what always happens with sin in our lives. And some of us are there. Today we're at this crossroads, right? We're a little bored, we're a little restless. We've lost some motivation matter.

Our desire to follow God is getting lower and lower as we go. And we're not sure why. But there's this drift factor. So let me just ask you question 1. Will you get honest with God and address the drift factor in your life?

We tell him the truth. What's really going on inside, how you feel, what you're thinking. You see, David didn't do it. He just blew right past this first crossroads. He blew right through it.

And it's going to lead to more trouble because we're told in verse two that he gets up one evening from his bed and he walks around the roof of the palace. And what do you know? There's a beautiful woman bathing on the roof. And so David sends out to find out about her and then sends to get her. And then they sleep together.

And then he sends her back home and she sends word he's pregnant. Now, again, if you have your Bible, just want you to circle all the times that scent is brought up, like five times in these four verses. If you look throughout the rest of the story, in chapter 11 and into 12, 26 times the word sent is being used and it's mostly about David. David’s sending for others, sending for information, sending for people that will meet his needs. David's playing God.

He's sending people here and there. And in this story, Bathsheba is an object. She is this Two dimensional character, this flat Stainley character. No one tells us. How does she feel right now?

What is she thinking? What's her response to this? In fact, some people have read this story. In fact, some scholars read it and say, well, actually her fault and she shouldn't have been. And we try to lay all the blame off on her.

And that's just not true. The text doesn't bear it out.

See, I think David's thinking, maybe she'll solve my loneliness problem. Maybe she'll solve my boredom problem. Maybe she'll help me suck the gut back in and get the warrior bod back. Maybe. Maybe she's the answer that I've been looking for.

David uses her. That's what happens when sin gets in our lives. We just start using people as objects. David sends someone to inquire about the woman. It was reported this is Bathsheba, daughter of Elam, the wife of Uriah, the Hittite, which leads us to that second crossroads.

Now David's facing. It's this spiritual warning light. David had a specific temptation and he's given a warning. Will he follow it? You know, it's interesting, if you look at the Old Testament genealogies, what you'll find is that they never mention a person's spouse.

It's very rare for it to happen. And yet here, she's not just Bathsheba. It's interesting. David's servant gives him a warning, and it's a pretty gutsy thing to do. He probably has some idea of what's going on inside of David's mind right now.

Why is he asking these questions? He tries to break in. David is somebody's daughter, man. This is somebody's wife. You don't want to do this.

Think about what's going on right now. This is where that little inner voice in our lives, our conscience, begins to say a word. Kind of like a traffic signal. You'll see the signal up here. A traffic signal has three different lights.

The first one is S. Red. And it's to what, Jo? This explains the driving in Lubbock, Texas. Red means stop, green means go, yellow means speed up. I heard it.

That's exactly. That's exactly what most of us think. Yellow is a warning, right? Things are about to change. This situation, this intersection that you're approaching, could get real dangerous real quick.

So you need to slow down. David blows right through the stoplight. Some of us are facing a spiritual warning light today. There's a specific sin that came to your mind when you heard me say, we're going to talk about. Sit.

Great. Right. And maybe you haven't crossed the line yet, but you're tempted to. You're ready to cross. Would you stop and think about the consequences of what might happen if you blow through this stoplight?

Would you stop and think about it? David doesn't. David won't stop and think about it. And it leads to disaster. David thinks he's in control.

He thinks he's got control of the situation, only something happened that he hadn't planned on. Right? Bathsheba sends, there's that word again, a message back to David, I'm pregnant. And now all of a sudden, there are forces happening in David's life that are out of his control, which, again, that's what happens when we allow sin to take root in our lives. Things get out of control.

How do you respond when you recognize that your sin is now causing things to happen that are out of your control? What do you do? See, here's a pivotal moment, a third crossroads that David interacts with. It's this opportunity to repent. David could have stopped right then and there and said, I'm wrong.

He could have apologized and begged for forgiveness from God, from Uriah, from Bathsheba. The whole situation could have changed in a moment if he had just allowed this crossroads to say, it's time to change, man. You're now messing with people's lives. Things after this are not going to go well. And David won't listen.

In fact, that chapter 11 unfolds, David engages in this staggeringly dark and twisted cover up. You think Game of Thrones was bad? This is where Game of Thrones got this idea. David sends for Uriah because he thinks, well, maybe if I can get him to sleep with her, then that will cover it up. And Uriah won't do it.

So the next night he says, well, I know what I can do. I'll get him drunk. And so he gets him drunk and then sends them home thinking, well, that’ll happen except for this odd reality that Uriah is more noble drunk than David is sober. Now think about that for a minute. It's just stunning.

And so David is not awoken at that moment to have repentance. So instead he sends Uriah back carrying a letter to Joab, his military leader. Uriah has no idea what he's carrying. All he knows is it's a message from the king. It says, death warrant.

And so David tells Joab, send Uriah up to the front lines and then pull back. Now, any of you have ever served in military service, at any level, you understand? They never just send one dude, hey, you. I don't you to run out there. That's not how it operates.

It has to take a group. Sometimes it's a section, maybe it's a squad. But he sends multiple people out and then pulls back from multiple people. So for David's plan to come to fruition, it's not just Uriah's life. It's now a whole group of men.

So Joab does it, he's successful, and he sends a messenger back to David. Again, we keep seeing these sent, sent. David sent it. Joab sends back. And the messenger says, hey, we did what you asked us to do.

Oh, and Uriah is dead.

And then the stunning statement comes out of David's mouth, the same mouth that he used to pray and to praise God and to tell Goliath, how dare you defy the name of the living God? This is now what he says, don't let this thing be evil in your sight. This is the new King James translation, because they capture it. Don't let this thing be evil in your sight. What's absolutely evil, don't let it dissuade you.

The sword, it devours one as well as another. Life happens, man. It's war. It's the cost of doing business. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it.

It tells the servant, encourage him. Encourage you see, the consequences of sin in our life always lead in one of two directions. One, they can lead us to repentance and to restoration, or they can lead us to cover up in continuation. And we have a choice to make. How will we decide?

That's why one of the primary images of sin in Scripture is disease. It's contagion. Why? Because it's like cancer. It just spreads and it spreads and it spreads until it finally chokes the life out of you.

See, David thinks he's got it all figured out, and so he sins one last time. In chapter 11, he sins for Bathsheba. And she comes to him after the morning time, and they get married, and then she has her child. See, there's this moment in David's life where he thinks, the worst thing that could happen to me right now is if anybody found out what happened. So I've got to cover it up.

But the truth is, the worst thing that could happen in David's life is if no one found out and he got to cover it up. So let me ask this morning, church, will you take this opportunity to repent? Some of us are standing at this crossroads, we've made a step and we have sinned. And it's starting to have consequences. And we're standing there going, is it worth it?

Is it worth getting honest about this? Is it worth telling the truth? Is it worth standing in the light for? David, he no, no, no way, no way, no way, no way, no way. So David covered it up, which leads to this fourth crossroads.

God sends his judgment.

2 Samuel chapter 12 begins this way. The Lord sent Nathan to David. Here's what you and I know is true. When the Lord starts sending and t nobody else sending anymore, right? When he came to him, he said to David, there were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor.

The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ywe lamb that he bought. He raised it and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, it drank from his cup, even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him, right? Our little puppy dog got sick last weekend.

And there were times where kid and I was just hold her. I said, precious to us. That's our little baby girl. We don't have babies anymore. They are all grown up, but Finy is our baby girl.

This little you is like a daughter to this guy. Now, a traveler came to the rich man. But the rich man refrained from taking one of his sheep cattle. Instead, he took the yew lamb that belonged to the poor man and he prepared it for the one who’d come. David burned with anger against the man, and he said to Nathan, as surely as the Lord lives, this man must die.

He must pay for that lamb four times over. Because he did such a thing and had no pity. David's been playing God for a while now. It's at least been a year since all this has taken place. You see, sin always involves the temptation that Adam and Eve faced at the very beginning in Genesis 3, right?

You'll be like him. You can be like God. That's why he wants to rob you of this experience. That's why he doesn't want you to know what it's like to just do whatever you want because he knows you would like it. You'd be like him.

Until the day when God is like God. And God starts sending. And this time he sends Nathan. And Nathan, with this incredible courage and creativity, he tells the story that is able to slip right past David's defenses and his hard heart. He tells him the story that a man named David Wolie wrote this book about David.

But he said in doing this, Nathan gives David space to be good, to morally reorient himself. I don't know if that's exactly what Nathan's thinking it, man. I sure like to think so. That God sends someone in David's life that could help morally reorient him back to normal. And some of us need that.

We needed Nathan to help morally reorient us into the life that we're living, the choice that we're making. And then David gets fired up at the story, right? And we can understand that, can't we? David gets righteously indignant with him, and we like to do that too. Why?

Because it makes us feel righteous. Right? I'll tell are you, who are you to talk to me that way? Who are you? Right?

And then the most courageous statement.

Nathan says, you're the man.

Nathan's standing before the king. It's not his friend. This is not a drinking buddy. This is not somebody they go out and hang out with on the weekend. No, no, no.

This is the king who now we have seen is a liar. He's a murderer, he's an adulterer, he's a coveter, and he’d do anything to protect his throne. And Nathan says, david, you're the man. You're the man. This is on you.

And at this moment, I mean, surely David could have thought all right, how do I get rid of this dude? I mean, like we do, right? Mean, we're facing algh. I got rid of Uriah, I could get rid of this dude too. There is s this voice in his head that's saying, yeah, man, do not let anyone find out.

Don't admit to anything.

Get rid of them. I wonder how long David stood there Till there's this other voice that reminded him, remember back in the day when you were just a kid, just a young shepherd watching your father's flock? Do you remember that time that bear showed up? Do you remember that time that lion, the paw of the bear, the paw of the lion. It's nothing.

Or maybe remember that time when you’re taking your brother's lunch because your dad had sent you out there and you heard this bully just defaming and dishonoring God? And do you remember thinking like, I don't care if no one else stands up. I'm standing up and facing this guy, right? They got delivered you. Do you remember that moment?

I wonder how long David stood there.

I wonder if it was as quiet as you could hear a pein drop as Nathan stands there and they're looking at each other and Davids now got a choice. And then this miracle happens. That sometimes happens. This heart of stone that was cold and frozen suddenly melts.

And the soul that was trapped in darkness takes its first feeble step back into the light.

And then David says, I sinned against the Lord.

I'm the man.

Church maybe some of us are here at this moment today. You've heard lots of classes and lots of sermons, have been to lots of church services. But maybe for some reason, the Lord's prompting you to think about your sin. And instead of thinking about how terrible other people are who sin, maybe Lord is going, you're the man. This is you.

You're the woman, this is you. Perhaps it's your day to not try to find a way to wiggle out, but just to come clean, to say, God, I'm the man. I'm the woman. I know this is a really scary thing. It must have been terrifying for David and Nathan, the only two in the room, to stand in front of each other.

Where will this go? Well, some of us are in this moment right here today. God has brought you to this moment to say, here's a crossroads when you make a change. In just a minute, the team is going to come up and we are going to sing. Salvation belongs to our God who sits upon the throne.

Salvation belongs to God and he gives it freely. We talked about Jesus gave his life freely for us. There. There is no sin that can separate us from God. Grace is there.

Will we have the courage to stand and say, God, would you help me assess what's my drift factor these days? Well, God, is there some sin that I'm tempted to want to cross through this intersection? God, would you send me a warning light? Would you send me someone to warn me or maybe God, I've sinned and I'm starting to see its consequences. My temptation is to want to cover it up just like David did.

God, would you help me to just be honest, to step into light and make a change?

You know, one of the phrases I'm trying to get us to own more and more each day is this:

Everybody is welcome at Broadway. Everybody is welcome and nobody is perfect. But anything is possible. Anything. That doesn't mean David doesn't have some consequences that are going to be laid out in his life.

In fact, next Sunday, we're going to look at another story that's like the outcome of some of the sin and brokenness. It's going to unleash some Things in David's life that are going to be really hard and really difficult.

But David makes the choice. God, would you walk with me through it? I mean, I know my sin is going to cost something. It certainly costs Jesus. God, what might your grace do to change me, to change my story, to change my life, to change my family, to change my workplace, to change my school, to change my situation?

Well, everybody is welcome at the cross. Nobody is perfect, but anything is possible. God, we pray this morning for those who are feeling convicted of their sin. God, for each one of us. Would you give us the courage to face it?

Would you call us out of darkness and into the light just the way you called David? Would you give us a chance to see once again your grace at work in and through us?

O God, this is a risky deal. It's a risky deal. And so some of us may not feel comfortable stepping forward this morning. So, God, would you send us a Nathan who may be in a private way, a private setting with a trusted friend that we could just get real honest with each other and tell the truth to remember that we don't have to just keep blowing through intersections. Yeah, those warning lights can remind us there is hope.

There is s hope. We celebrate every Sunday just like Rob reminded every week we remind ourselves. Oh, God, you're alive and you're still doing miracles. God, would you do a miracle in us today? Would you melt a heart of stone?

Would you replace it with a heart of flesh? God, would give us courage to step back into the life. Would you give us a contrite heart just like David and help us to walk in a new direction? God, we pray this in Jesus name.