In 2013, a 19 year old Austrian skier named Teresa Stadlober became the 1st Austrian skier to take the gold and silver medals in the Junior Skiathlon (in the Czech Republic).Ever since that time she’d been training for the Olympics, and in 2018 (at the age of 25) she was at the Olympic Winter games in South Korea.
As the race was being run… it was obvious Stadlober was a shoe-in for 2nd place and the silver medal. But (PAUSE) with less than a 1/3 of the race yet to complete, she mysteriously veered right on a downhill slope, while the rest of the skiers went left. By the time she realized her mistake and had corrected her course she had fallen from 2nd place to ultimately finish 9th in the race. Her hopes… for an Olympic medal… vanished in a moment.
Commenting on what had happened, she said: "I don't know. I really don't know. I took the wrong way, and I did this twice. The 2nd time I wasn't sure anymore. I had a blackout. I don't know why I took the wrong way." Her trainer said he believed that she’d simply taken her eyes off the track for a moment… and she lost her focus. (https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/id/22574076/cross-country-skier-teresa-stadlober-loses-chance-medal-wrong-turn Associated Press: Feb 25, 2018, 06:27 AM ET)
Now, there’s a couple things I want you to notice about that story. She made a bad decision, and it cost her something that was valuable to her. She took her eyes off the path for just a moment and she lost the race.
(PAUSE) In our story today, we’re looking at one of the important men in the Old Testament. A man named David. He became a hero when he was just a young man when he faced off against a giant named Goliath, and he took that giant down (snap fingers) just like that. And from that day on he was destined for greatness. Ultimately he became a powerful warrior; a great leader; a man of God; The King of Israel!
(PAUSE) But then… he took his eyes off the path and he looked where he shouldn’t have been looking. In II Samuel 11:1 we’re told that “In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle…” David didn’t. David stayed home. He’d seen Bathsheba taking a bath next door and fell into LUST over her. He invited her over for a little personal time, and before you know it she’s pregnant with David’s child. Worse yet she’s the wife of one of David’s closest friends - a man named Uriah the Hittite.
David tried all kinds of things to make it look like Uriah was the father of the child, but nothing worked. So finally, David realized that the best way to bury his sin… was to bury Uriah, and he arranged to have him killed on the battle field. Then he took Bathsheba for his bride… and he was home free with no one the wiser.
But God was wiser. God knew. And God sent the prophet Nathan to confront David about his sin. Nathan told David a parable about a rich man who stole a poor neighbor’s lamb to feed some important guests who’d come to his home. The more David heard of the injustice of the story the angrier he became. And “he said to Nathan,
‘As the LORD lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity.’
Nathan said to David, ‘YOU ARE THE MAN! Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if that had been too little, I would have given you much more! Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.’” II Samuel 12:5-10
And suddenly, David’s family fell apart - and it was NOT a G rated story. David’s firstborn son (Amnon) raped HIS half-sister Tamar (PAUSE) and David did nothing to punish Amnon. Then, 2 years later, Tamar’s full-blooded brother Absalom had Amnon assassinated. (PAUSE) And again… David basically did nothing. As time went by, Absalom so hated his father that he staged a revolt to try to take away the throne from David… and Absalom died in battle.
David’s family became a mess because David took his eyes off the path. And he lost the race. His sin so confused him that he made other bad choices with his family.
SO WHAT CAN WE LEARN FROM DAVID’S STORY?
1st – sins have consequences. Especially if you try to cover those sins up. I heard some TV commentators talking about a politician who got caught lying about a crime he’d committed. And they said: “It wasn’t the crime… it was the coverup that got him.” People MIGHT have forgiven that politician if he’d just admitted his fault and asked for forgiveness. But instead he tried to pretend it never happened, and he lied and tried to cover up his sins. Didn’t work! So he lost the respect of the voters … and his office.
You see, that’s what David did. He sinned and then he covered it up. It was bad enough that David committed adultery but he tried covering up that sin with murder. And the worst part was he thought he could get away with it. That made his punishment worse than it would have been, because the sin was bad enough… the coverup was worse.
David talked about that in Psalm 32:1-5 “Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the LORD counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you, and I did not cover my iniquity; I said, ‘"I will confess my transgressions to the LORD,’ and you forgave the iniquity of my sin.”
David thought he’d gotten away with his sin. He thought no one would know. He thought God didn’t care… but GOD DID CARE! God said: "Now, therefore, the sword will never depart from your house.... Out of your own household I am going to bring calamity upon you." II Samuel 12:10-11
David was foolish. He’d forgotten that we serve a merciful God… but we also serve a just God. And we’ve got to be careful not to take God’s mercy lightly.
Now that brings us to the next issue – if we don’t face our past sins properly our sins can rob us of our ability to protect our children. In the illustration of the Austrian skier, did you notice she said she made two mistakes? “I took the wrong way, and I did this twice. The second time I wasn't sure anymore.”
David made the mistake of committing adultery and murder. Then THOSE SINS clouded his judgment and, from that day on, he 2nd guessed all of his decisions. When Amnon raped his half-sister DAVID DID NOTHING! When Absalom put out a contract on Amnon DAVID DID NOTHING!
And why did David DO NOTHING? Why didn’t he punish his boys? Well, I think he figured: “I know they’ve sinned but I’ve done worse. So how can I justify punishing them.” He felt he lost his moral authority… and so he didn’t feel he had the right to discipline his boys like he should have.
ILLUS: I’ve never watched an Adam Sandler movie… and I probably never will, and I definitely wouldn’t buy any of his comedy CDs because he’s not really a very nice guy. But about 20 years ago he made a very astute observation. He’d just come out with a very vulgar comedy CD and he said: “I think… I curse more on this record than ever before. Yeah, the album’s not too tame. In real life, though, I’m a little tamer at home. (My wife) yells at me for that ‘cause we’re gonna have a kid and I guess I can’t curse. I’m (going to be) in trouble when my kid grows up and one of his friends goes ‘Hey, listen to your DAD’S album.’ I’m dead. There’s no way I could win a fight with that kid. ‘You did this! And you did that!’ And I’d be like, ‘eh… eh… you win.’” (MTV.com 7/12/04 via PluggedIn Magazine 10/04)
He tried to make a joke out of it, but what he was saying was: He’d lost any moral standing to confront and correct his child. He realized that his immoral behavior had undermined his authority as a parent.
And that’s why a lot of even godly Christian parents punish their kids when they should. They don’t confront the sin in their children’s lives because they look back on their own past and say “I have no room to talk! I don’t have the right to discipline them.”
But God says: NO, NO, NO! It’s not about your rights, it’s about your RESPONSIBILITY. Proverbs 19:18 tells us “Discipline your son, for in that there is hope; do not be a willing party to his death.” A parent who doesn’t discipline their child… is setting them up for destruction. God Says: Do not be a willing party to their death!
The problem for people who (because they’ve sinned) don’t discipline their kids is that they really don’t understand Scripture. Romans 3:23 says “We’ve all sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Not one of us has the moral authority - the SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS to do or say anything. We are NOT righteous … But Jesus is.
Paul said exactly the same thing in I Timothy: 1:15-16 “Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his unlimited patience as an example for those who would believe on him and receive eternal life.”
Paul wrote nearly ½ of our New Testament, and yet, he said: I’ve been the worst of all sinners. I don’t the moral high ground because I am not righteous. Only Jesus is righteous… so I’m going to tell you what Jesus says. That’s why I repeatedly drive home the fact that YOU have sinned and fall short, and I have sinned and fall short. We only look to Jesus for His righteousness and His wisdom for ourselves and our families.
My last point is this: God forgave David. David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." And Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has put away your sin; you shall not die. 2 Samuel 12:13
Now if David had repented earlier (before he’d killed Uriah) he could have spared himself a lot of grief - but at least he repented. And he didn’t do his repentance JUST in front of Nathan. David PUBLICLY repented in a Psalm in the Bible. Psalm 51 starts out with these words: “A Psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him, after he had gone in to Bathsheba. Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Psalm 51:1-4
You see, David realized something that the modern world too often rejects: in order to please God… we’ve got to be willing to repent of our sins. We’ve got to be willing to confess we’ve done wrong stuff.
John the Baptist told people: "REPENT, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matthew 3:2
Jesus preached, "REPENT, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matthew 4:17
The Apostles preached: “REPENT therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out, that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you…” Acts 3:19-20
And (of course) Acts 2:38 is very clear that repentance was necessary to become a Christian: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of sin and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
CLOSE: The old Juvenile Detention Center here in Logansport has just been repurposed – it’s been remodeled to be the new Police department. But before it was a Detention Center, the building had been a school, and just above the doorway the school had a motto: “These doors are open to all who wish to learn.” I was always amused that the Detention Center kept those words above the door, because the youth who were incarcerated had been placed there to teach them to change their lives – to repent. “These doors are open to all who wish to learn.”
In the same way: we need to learn that we have sinned and that we need to repent. WE are not righteous… but God is. And we have come to our God with the desire TO LEARN what righteousness and mercy mean to Him. God’s doors are open to all who wish to learn from Him. Our God is a just God, but He is also a MERCIFUL God and His doors are always open to those wish to learn… and be forgiven.
Someone once said: “You can’t repent too soon, for you don’t know how soon it may be too late.”
INVITATION
