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Summary: This is the first of our "Prison Break" sermon series centered on the person of King David. This series pushes us to "Break God Out of Prison."

2 Samuel 11:1-15 NIV

In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem. 2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "Isn’t this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (She had purified herself from her uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, "I am pregnant." 6 So David sent this word to Joab: "Send me Uriah the Hittite." And Joab sent him to David. 7 When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 8 Then David said to Uriah, "Go down to your house and wash your feet." So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. 9 But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house. 10 When David was told, "Uriah did not go home," he asked him, "Haven’t you just come from a distance? Why didn’t you go home?" 11 Uriah said to David, "The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my master Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open fields. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and lie with my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!" 12 Then David said to him, "Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. 13 At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home. 14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In it he wrote, "Put Uriah in the front line where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die."

“Cover Up”

It was time for the annual cake sale at a Presbyterian church not much different than our own. Ms. Billings always made the most beautiful cakes… she was expected to make another one this year. However, Ms. Billings was a very busy woman with the time she spent with her family and the time she gave to her community. She put off making the cake this year thinking she could put it all together at the last minute.

When the cake came out of the oven, Ms. Billings was horrified to see that the cake had fallen. She didn’t have the time or the ingredients to make another one… she panicked. Franticly, she devised an ingenious plan. She would find a way to “fix” the cake… then she would be the first one to the sale and buy her own cake back.

She looked around the room, trying to find something that she could use to “prop” the cake back up… and then she found it. A roll of toilet paper… was the perfect size. So she put it under the center of the cake and the cake looked perfect. She decorated it bright yellow… and took it to the bake sale. Then she stuck around until the bake sale started.

She was the first in line when the doors opened; she smiled to herself about how clever she was. But then… there was a terrifying horror crawling up from within her… she looked at every single table… no… yellow… cake! Someone had snuck in before the sale and purchased it. The helpers couldn’t remember who had purchased it either… there was so much going on.

She went home and felt absolutely horrible. That was it… they would find the toilet paper in the cake… trace it back to her… and ban her from ever cooking ever again… except for potlucks.

Well, she didn’t have a whole lot of time to dwell on it, like I said she was a very busy woman. She was going to a reception that the Mayor’s wife was holding… and she was already a little late.

When she got there, she almost died right where she stood… because there, at the center of a brilliantly decorated table… was a bright… yellow… cake. She debated all of her options… grab the cake and run… changing her name and moving to Tahiti… calling in a bomb threat… or telling the hostess. It was a dead tie between calling in a bomb threat and telling the hostess… when she decided to muster up the courage to tell the Mayor’s wife of the horrors that awaited inside the yellow cake.

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