How Did I Get Here?

“How Did I Get Here?”

2 Samuel 11: 1-5

April 14, 2013

Intro: There’s a very popular series on TV called “Breaking Bad.” The premise behind the show is absolutely crazy. It’s the story of a high school science teacher who’s probably in his late 40s or early 50s. He has a 15 year old son who has cerebral palsy and his wife unexpectedly gets pregnant. Then, to top everything off, he gets diagnosed w/lung cancer.

-The treatments for his cancer are outrageously expensive so he wants to do whatever he can in order to financially take care of his family before he dies. And this is where it all gets weird. Thru a series of events he uses his chemistry background to become a meth cook. I don’t want y’all to leave here thinking I’m advocating meth!

-But at the beginning, everything seems to fall into place. He makes a WAD of $ and is able to start putting money away for his family and at the same time pay for his treatments. But what happens as the show progresses, is the main character drifts farther and farther away from his basic values system and before long he’s mired deep into the criminal world. At some point he made a decision that altered the course of his life.

-Obviously this is only a TV show. But I think the basic idea of the show is a poignant picture of what happens to so many of us. We start out life w/all these great designs. We’re going to be successful in our work. We’re going to have a great family. We’re going to be honorable in how we live. And then long the way we make a couple of choices that change the course of our lives and we’re on a path we never dreamed we’d be on.

-And we look at our lives and think, “How in the world did I get here? At what point did my life take this turn to where I’ve ended up here?” Today we’re beginning a new series of messages called “Breaking Bad.” And we’re going to look at examples of people in Scripture who didn’t intend on ending up where they did w/the hope of learning from their mistakes so that we can be prepared to avoid falling into their pitfalls.

Sermon Idea: Today in our passage of Scripture we’re going to examine a critical turning point in the life of Israel’s greatest king, David. Now when you think of David, what’s one of the first stories you think of? You think of David and Goliath. It’s a story that we all LOVE b/c it’s the ultimate story of the underdog!

-When a smaller team is facing a powerful one we still call it a “David and Goliath contest.” And everyone’s rooting for David. We love it when David beats the giant, but today we’re going to see the story of when a GIANT beat David! And it’s a giant that has taken plenty of us to the woodshed as well.

-So how in the world did David, a giant killer, get beat by a giant? Well, let’s look at our text.

TEXT: 2 SAMUEL 11: 1-5

Bckgrd: Some scholars believe David was around 50 years old at the time of this story. This means he’d been king for close to 2 decades. David was an incredibly gifted man. He was a gifted musician. King Saul would have him come play his harp to help soothe him. He was a gifted warrior. We’re all familiar w/the story of him fighting and defeating the giant Goliath w/some stones and a sling.

-He was brave. He had a heart for God. He was a king who had everything anyone could ever want. But one day, he looked down from his house and saw a woman named Bathsheba bathing. And instead of turning away and running from this temptation, he dove head first into it and it destroyed him.

-So how did David, a man that had everything, end up where he did? Let’s look at 3 things from our text that show how David ended up being someone he never wanted to be.

-First, David ended up where he was b/c of:

1: COMPLACENCY (v. 1)

Exp: It’s spring time in our text. And in ancient days, spring time was a time for war. The reason why is rather simple. The weather’s better. Winter in Israel is usually the wet season. And it’s hard to move chariots and horses thru the mud when it’s wet. So armies would wait to fight when it was easier to transport troops and supplies. But a very important part of this story is found right after we’re told it’s spring time. We’re told that when the army would go off to fight, the king would lead his men into battle.