Broken and Beautiful

BROKEN AND BEAUTIFUL

OPENING TEXT:
“I am losing all hope; I am paralyzed with fear. I remember the days of old. I ponder all your great works. I think about what you have done. I reach out for you. I thirst for you as parched land thirsts for rain. Come quickly, LORD, and answer me, for my depression deepens. Don’t turn away from me, or I will die.” (Psalm 143:4-7, NLT).
• How many of you can relate to those words?
• These words were penned by King David, a man after God’s own heart!
• Job said, “And now my heart is broken. Depression haunts my days.” (Job 30:16).
• Do you feel like you’ve lost all hope, fearful, depressed, and thoughts of dying?
• Do you rarely laugh anymore, feel exhausted, and lack joy in your life?
• There is hope for those who find themselves in a pit of despair today.

PERSONAL TESTIMONY:
New Christian, call to ministry, Bible College, interning at local church. I was attending a Faith church where the pastor said we must always say: “I’m on top and rising.” You couldn’t talk about your doubts, fears, troubles or problems. Sin went underground. So I had no one to talk to. One night ended up in a club with some friends and got drunk. Guilt, shame, broken!

THE REALITY IN THE BIBLE:
I’m so thankful that the Lord doesn’t candy-coat the stories and characters of the Bible. They were real men and women with real problems, struggles and issues. They got depressed; they made wrong choices, and struggled with sin. One of my heroes is King David:

KING DAVID’S TRAGEDY:
“1 It happened in the spring of the year, at the time when kings go out to battle, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. 2 Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king’s house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful to behold. 3 So David sent and inquired about the woman. And someone said, "Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" 4 Then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her, for she was cleansed from her impurity; and she returned to her house. 5 And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, "I am with child.” (2 Samuel 11:1-5).
v.6-13 - tried to get Uriah to go home and sleep with his wife to cover up his sin
v.14-25 - that didn’t work, so he plotted to have Uriah killed on the battlefield
v.26-27 - Bathsheba mourned her husband’s death, then David took her home.
12:1-24 - God sent Nathan to David to confront him, David said, “I have sinned…”

How did this happen to a man after God’s own heart?
• He wasn’t fulfilling his destiny – he should have been out fighting battles!
• He was up late at night looking at something he shouldn’t have. (night time = dangerous)
• His friend Jonathan wasn’t in the picture anymore (good Christian friends can help us!)
• Regardless of how it happened – it did happen. But then what did David do?

KING DAVID’S PRAYER:

1. CONFESSING OUR SIN WASHES US CLEAN:
“1 Have mercy upon me, O God, According to Your lovingkindness; According to the multitude of Your tender mercies, Blot out my transgressions.” (Psalm 51:1).
• The first thing David does is call out for God’s mercy, remembering His lovingkindness