Sermon Central
-
The Greenhouse Of Sin
Contributed by Jon Mackinney on Aug 11, 2004 (message contributor)
Summary: We need to learn, like David did, the awful price of sin. But even greater than it’s power is the power of Jesus Christ to forgive.
Passage: 2 Samuel 11
Intro: The TV shows we watch laugh at sin
1. sin is the biggest joke in the American culture.
2. we are a strangely hypocritical society, on one hand decrying the promiscuity and drug addiction of our youth, while at the same time promoting these very things in the media.
3. so we make sin into something funny, and in doing so present it as a fangless snake, a frolic in the park instead of the terrible, life-destroying monster that it is.
4. the description of David’s sin in this chapter is instructive, and the later fallout from his sin should cause several responses in us.
5. we’ll learn how to avoid the traps that David fell in to, and how to take advantage of the tools God gives us., see where forgiveness is found.
6. but underneath it all lies motivation
7. if I see sin as a joke, then why should I bother avoiding it?
8. let’s get inside of David’s heart, feel what he felt and understand the mistakes he made so we can listen to God instead of Satan.
I. Sin’s Greenhouse
1. sin starts not with Satan, but with us
2. “own desires”=the desires of my flesh.
3. language OT writer uses implies criticism of David in v1
4. war had gotten old for him, his successes had perhaps become commonplace.
5. so he sent others and stayed home to lollygag around the palace.
6. v2, “one evening arose from bed”
7. the description clearly shows a lazy, bored lifestyle David had fallen into.
Il) someone has said that idle hands are the devils toolbox, and he was right.
8. have you noticed that? When you are active, involved, mind occupied with good things, temptation is quieter?
9. David was not doing what God had called him to do. Sin is always ready to occupy empty space.
II. Nurturing Temptation.
1. everyone gets tempted. Temptation is not sin.
2. it is our response to it that is important.
3. “Saw a woman bathing”..could even have been purposeful.
4. but watch the progression here, because this is where David steps on the wrong path.
5. “saw was very beautiful”
6. the staring quickly produces lust, and the lust produces inquiry into availability.
Il) power of immodesty=the illusion or reality of sexual welcome. Sorry, but that’s the way it is.
7. inquiry finds she is married, but temptation had grown in the meantime to conceive a plan.
8. at any point here David could have done what he had done while crouched at the head of Saul with a spear.
9. he had wives and concubines of his own!
10. and yet he closed his eyes to the truth and refused to consider the result of his action.
11. hear this! Temptation will never include the slightest thought about consequences!!
12. temptation focuses on the moment, the now, ignoring the lessons of the past or the consequences in the future.
13. be warned! When it gets very quiet in your mind, and all you can think about is the sin of the moment, you are on very thin ice.
14. this is the point where you turn, or you fall.
III. The Weed Sprouts.
1. v4, he sent for her, took her, sent her away.
2. the Biblical account is short, because the whole event was short.
3. David probably had forgotten about it by morning.
4. he was the king! He could do whatever he wanted!
5. funny thing about sin. It grows like a weed, and flesh attempts to bury it make it worse.
6. David remembered this brief fling when Bathsheba announced she was pregnant in v5
7. now watch the wheels spin! Instead of confession and repentance, the flesh devises a plan that ultimately cost Uriah his wife and his life.
8. Uriah a far better man than David here, even drunk!!
9. but David in the grips of sin, and the attempt now to avoid the consequences of it.
10. always available was the opportunity to confess, sacrifice, repent.
11. but sin’s path goes down, not up, and there is no indication that David gave the godly response a moment’s consideration.
12. not just getting on David. This is what we do, and these are the kinds of weeds that can grow in our lives.
13. that desire of James 1:14 that may have seemed innocent…look how it grew!
14. and the rest of David’s life is stained with the results of this sin.
IV. Pre-Emergent Herbicide.
Il) we put this on the church land to stop weeds from germinating.
1. God understands temptation, given us tools to use to prevent it’s destructive growth into sin.
2. the Bible is a huge tool. Passages like this one!
