Nathan then said to David, "You are the man! Thus says the LORD, God of Israel, 'It is I who anointed you king over Israel and it is I who delivered you from the hand of Saul. I also gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your care, and I gave you the house of Israel and Judah; and if that had been too little, I would have added to you many more things like these! Why have you despised the word of the LORD by doing evil in His sight?" ...Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." And Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has taken away your sin; you shall not die. However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child that is born to you shall surely die."
Have you ever felt like you've really messed up? Or, more than that, you know you've really messed things up? This story of David is the giant of mess-ups. The potential of determined sin is scary. It can take us down roads we never dreamed possible, killing integrity, breaking up families, destroying friendships, dividing communities, and all because we gave wrong the reigns. Sometimes the consequences, socially, may not be as big, but it has caused internal conflict that leaves us less than what we should be. What to do? There comes a point, in any determined sin, when we face a fork in the road; we either cover it up or confess it. If we cover the sin, it will forever dominate our lives, making us, as Scott Peck so aptly put it in the title of his book, People of the Lie. He writes, "they are "the people of the lie, deceiving others as they also build layer upon layer of self-deception," (p66). If we confess, I mean really confess, with deep contrition, amazingly, but true, God liberates us from the conviction of sin, which is eternal death, though not always the immediate consequences, which is its effect on us and on people around us. The consequences of sin is that it is never self-contained. It seeps out into the soil around us, always affecting others, some more so than others, but a seeping nevertheless. But let's get back to that fork in the road. God usually sends someone to awaken us to our sin. They are faithful servants who care more about our soul than they do about our favor. The "Nathan's" of the world are few and far between, but they are worth their weight in gold. Thank God for them. They bring us God's truth in different ways, but they keep us honest with the truth about our souls. Nathan was David's salvation, but only as David faced his sin and said "I have sinned against the LORD". If you've never faced your sin this way, take this path. It leads to liberty and life, restoring integrity, and it carries within it the potential of restoring families, friendships, and communities. In Psalm 32, David exclaims this great truth, saying, "How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit!" Glorious freedom! That's why it's called "the Gospel". That's why I keep preaching this good news.
Have you ever felt like you've really messed up? Or, more than that, you know you've really messed things up? This story of David is the giant of mess-ups. The potential of determined sin is scary. It can take us down roads we never dreamed possible, killing integrity, breaking up families, destroying friendships, dividing communities, and all because we gave wrong the reigns. Sometimes the consequences, socially, may not be as big, but it has caused internal conflict that leaves us less than what we should be. What to do? There comes a point, in any determined sin, when we face a fork in the road; we either cover it up or confess it. If we cover the sin, it will forever dominate our lives, making us, as Scott Peck so aptly put it in the title of his book, People of the Lie. He writes, "they are "the people of the lie, deceiving others as they also build layer upon layer of self-deception," (p66). If we confess, I mean really confess, with deep contrition, amazingly, but true, God liberates us from the conviction of sin, which is eternal death, though not always the immediate consequences, which is its effect on us and on people around us. The consequences of sin is that it is never self-contained. It seeps out into the soil around us, always affecting others, some more so than others, but a seeping nevertheless. But let's get back to that fork in the road. God usually sends someone to awaken us to our sin. They are faithful servants who care more about our soul than they do about our favor. The "Nathan's" of the world are few and far between, but they are worth their weight in gold. Thank God for them. They bring us God's truth in different ways, but they keep us honest with the truth about our souls. Nathan was David's salvation, but only as David faced his sin and said "I have sinned against the LORD". If you've never faced your sin this way, take this path. It leads to liberty and life, restoring integrity, and it carries within it the potential of restoring families, friendships, and communities. In Psalm 32, David exclaims this great truth, saying, "How blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How blessed is the man to whom the LORD does not impute iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit!" Glorious freedom! That's why it's called "the Gospel". That's why I keep preaching this good news.
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