2 SAMUEL 12 PURSUE GODS HEART TOWARD RECOVERY AFTER SIN2018 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: 2 Samuel 12 Pursue Gods Heart Toward Recovery After Sin

You are listening to FerventWord, an online Bible study ministry with teachings and tools to help you grow deeper in your relationship with God. The following message was taught by Jerry Simmons in 2018. You can turn with me in your Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 12.

2 Samuel chapter 12, and we're going to continue to look at the example of David this evening and look at David as the man who pursued God's heart. That was God's testimony about David. When he first told Saul that someone was going to replace him on the throne, he said, I've found someone better than you.

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looking at this major issue in David's life when he sinned with Bathsheba and tried to cover it up and committed murder and all of the things that went along there in chapter 11 and 12 here in 2 Samuel. And we're going to kind of wrap up these two chapters this evening and look at this one last time with some insights for us about how the Lord wants us to handle these kinds of situations in our life. And so

We'll begin by looking at verses 13 through 23 here in 2 Samuel chapter 12. So let's read through that and then we'll talk about what the Lord has for us this evening. Verse 13 here in 2 Samuel chapter 12 says this, So 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. However,

Verse 1.

So the elders of his house arose and went to him to raise him up from the ground. But he would not, nor did he eat food with them. Then the seventh day it came to pass that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, Indeed, while the child was alive, we spoke to him, and he would not heed our voice. How can we tell him that the child is dead? He may do some harm.

When David saw that his servants were whispering, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore David said to his servants, is the child dead? And they said, he is dead. Verse 20. So David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house. And when he requested, they set food before him and he ate. Verse 20.

Then his servant said to him, what is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food. And he said, while the child was alive, I fasted and wept. For I said, who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live? But now he is dead. Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.

Here in 2 Samuel chapter 12, we have a really powerful and interesting portion of scripture. Again, we're jumping right into the middle of David and this whole situation that came about as a result of his sin with Bathsheba. And I want to begin by just with a little bit of a recap and look at the past few weeks and the things that the Lord has been teaching us. And in chapter 11, as we studied through that, we talked about pursuing God's heart away from

That if you're going to be seeking after what pleases God, if you're going to desire to do God's will, to follow God, it's always going to be the direction away from sin. And so we looked at David's example there and how, well, this was an occasion where he didn't pursue God's heart.

And so although he is the man after God's heart, that is not a statement of, you know, without fail and blanket, you know, everything that he ever did was in that way. But he had those occasions where he failed to pursue God's heart. And he went towards sin instead of away from sin. And so it was a warning for us to keep up our guard in the battle against sin.

That if David can fall into sin, you know, we also need to be recognizing that we are capable and susceptible to sin and these kinds of things that David also experienced. We also recognize that we do sin. And when we do, we need to learn from David's example of what not to do. And don't try to cover up the sin. Don't try to, you know, pretend like it didn't happen, but to deal with the sin that has taken place.

In covering up his sin, David involved others like Joab in trying to participate in the cover-up and resolving of the sin and his tactics and approach to dealing with it. And then after Joab,

David and Joab both arranged for Uriah to be killed. They kind of comforted each other in regards to what had happened. And that's a warning for us as well. Don't be comforting others in their condition of sin. And then also, lastly, we saw that it's important to not forget how God feels about sin because it ends with David and Joab kind of comforting each other. But then the last line there of chapter 11 is, but the Lord was displeased.

And that is really important. We might be able to kind of, you know, make ourselves feel a little bit better because everybody around us is kind of okay with our sin and they're kind of okay. And oh yeah, okay, you know, we can comfort each other in our sin, but don't feel about or don't forget about how God feels about sin. And it is a serious thing that he will deal with. But David doesn't address his sin right away.

And we kind of guesstimate about a year passes and David has been not listening to the Lord, not receiving the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Finally, the Lord has to send the prophet Nathan to David. And so we went into chapter 12 looking at the example of Nathan and learned from his example how to pursue God's heart in confronting sin. That we will have those situations and those occasions in our life where we have to be a Nathan and go to someone who is involved in sin and participate in that work of calling them to repentance.

And so we saw from Nathan that we need to confront sin when God sends us. That's not just confront every sin you see ever, but let the Lord lead you. And when he prompts you, when he sends you, then there needs to be that confrontation in obedience to the Lord. We saw that we need to confront sin with a spirit of gentleness, not with harshness. And Nathan was very gentle with David, even though the sin that David had committed was severe.

At the same time, Nathan was clear and direct. He didn't like beat around the bush. It wasn't like, you know, not quite clear what exactly David had done and what exactly he was confronting him about. It was clear and direct. He dealt with the actual sin in a way of,

of gentleness. And so a great example there in Nathan. But then also we see in Nathan the communication of forgiveness. As there is repentance in David, then he's able to immediately say, the Lord forgives you and be part of and kind of begin that restoration process that David is now going to experience. But that restoration process, David is going to recover from this. It begins with what we saw last week, and that is repentance.

And so we learned to pursue God's heart towards repentance. And we learned from David some key insights into what repentance looks like and how we can work our way towards that restored relationship with the Lord. It begins with asking God for mercy.

asking God to not give us the judgment that we deserve. It also goes on to acknowledge the sin and not pretend like it didn't happen, not to justify it or water it down or explain it away, but to just own it, to acknowledge the sin that we have done.

And then to ask God to heal and restore, to do a work in our lives, a new and fresh work in us while we offer to him our praise as well as our brokenness. We don't have really anything else to offer. We can't offer our promises and say we'll never do it again and those kinds of things, but we can offer our praise and we can offer our brokenness to the Lord. And then we can ask God to do good, even though we don't deserve it, even though we've failed in

we can ask God to do good for us and for his people. And so this has all been, you know, working together here in chapter 11 and 12 to help us have a fully developed understanding of how to deal with these issues of sin. And now we finish it off now in chapter 12 as we look at these verses tonight. We'll finish off the chapter, and I've titled the message tonight, Pursue God's Heart Toward Recovery.

After sin. And it kind of flows out of this idea of repentance that we looked at last week, but even moving beyond that to the recovery, to the restoration of things that God wants to do in our lives after sin. That it's not the end when we have failed. It's not the end when there has been some sin for us or for others around us. That there is a recovery that God has in store for us.

This word recovery, it speaks of a return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength. And I think this is important for us to kind of wrestle with a little bit this evening, that there is this opportunity of recovery, where sin has broken things, and the state of our mind, and our health, and our strength, and our relationship with the Lord, and all of these things have been broken as a result of sin.

But a really amazing aspect of God's work in our lives is that even when we've failed, and there has been that broken and severed relationship and fellowship and failure on our part, God is able to bring about recovery.

He is able to bring about a full restoration and recovery in our lives. I think as you look at these things tonight and consider these things, there's some interesting parallels. I'm not gonna delve into them to a great degree, but recovering from surgery or recovering from injury

has some interesting parallels to recovering from this type of issue in our lives as well. That there is some parallels as far as, you know, as you're coming out of surgery, you know, what's the first thing? The first thing is rest, you know, like you don't try to go get on the treadmill and, you know, get back to running again. You know, you don't, no, no. After an injury, after a surgery, that first period is just there's some rest. And then there's some basic steps.

some basic movements and things that you do to kind of just slowly kind of get started. And then you build up to that final spot where you can say, hey, it's a full recovery. And you go back to work or you go back to those activities that you once were doing. In a similar way, there's that kind of process that happens where

in recovering after sin in our lives. And so I would encourage you to consider this for you and for, you know, issues perhaps that you may have faced in the past, but are still kind of like you're stuck on them or maybe it's something you're experiencing right now. But also I would encourage you to consider this for people around you.

that this is a reminder for us in how to deal with those around us who have been caught up in sin and have been dealing with this issue. I like what Pastor Dave Guzik says about this. He says, this job of restoration is often neglected in the church.

we have a tendency to either pretend the sin never happened or we tend to react too harshly towards the one who has sinned. And we need to find the balance between those, not pretending like nothing ever went wrong or nothing ever happened, but also not being too severe about

and being able to be part of the recovery that God wants to do in people's lives. And so these are important truths for us to consider for ourselves, as well as for others around us as we talk about pursuing God's heart toward recovery after sin. There's three points that we'll look at as we work our way from verses 13 through the end of the chapter. Point number one is found in the verses we read, verses 13 through 23, and that is recovery starts with pleading for mercy.

Here is, if you want to recover, if someone wants to recover from sin, whatever the sin might be or however severe it might be, or maybe we might classify it as not so severe, there needs to be an understanding of the damage, the reality of sin, and a real pleading for mercy here.

as a result. This really does flow out of this idea of repentance that we talked about last week and that acknowledgement of sin as we saw David in Psalm chapter 51 own his sin and repent and turn from it in a similar way. You know, we are called to do that and to go forward pleading for mercy.

Again, in verse 13, David says to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. As Nathan confronted him, told him the story, told him you're the man, you have committed this sin, David acknowledges it. He says, I have sinned against the Lord. And then Nathan says, the Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die. However,

Because by this deed, you've given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme. The child also who is born to you shall surely die. And then Nathan departed to his house and the Lord struck the child that Uriah's wife bore to David and it became ill.

And here we are still looking at David and him experiencing the aftermath, the consequences, the damage that was brought as a result of his sin. This is just the beginning. In fact, pretty much the rest of David's life, and as we continue to follow his life in 2 Samuel, we're going to be watching this.

all of the damages as they keep coming in in waves that are the result and tie back to this event here in 2 Samuel 11-12. We talked about a few Sundays back that sin can be forgiven

but not undone. And that's really important for us to understand that there is a restoration. There is a recovery that God wants to do in our lives as a result of sin and from that damage of sin. But at the same time, we need to understand that there are oftentimes consequences and sometimes long lasting consequences, life changing consequences as a result of our sin.

The wages of sin is death. That's what we earn. That's what we deserve. It's what it brings. And that's why God says, don't do it because sin brings great damage into our lives. And so David now begins to experience sin.

those consequences with this child that was the product of his adulterous relationship with Bathsheba. And notice what he does in verse 16. David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. Not surprising that a parent would cry out to the Lord this way when a child is ill. But here's David, who has just barely repented.

just barely turned back to the Lord, just barely after probably about a year, we estimate, of, you know, resistance and rebellion and not being connected to the Lord. And now as he has been confronted with his sin and as he hears this pronouncement of this judgment and this consequence of his sin, he now goes before the Lord and pleads for the child.

You can see the hurt in David. You can see the heart of David, but also the boldness of David. Did David deserve to have God do a work in his child's life?

Absolutely not. I mean, he deserved everything that was coming to him. In fact, God was so gracious and merciful as Nathan tells him, you shall not die because that was the actual penalty prescribed by the law for his sin of adultery and then murder. God could have rightfully said, put him to death right now. But in his mercy, God spared David. And David now trusts in the mercy of God enough that

to plead with God. He approaches God, even though he's broken, he's severed the fellowship, even though he has sinned in a way we might describe as horrendous or severe. And yet, although he doesn't deserve for God to hear him, although he doesn't deserve for God to work, David fasts, he pleads, he prays, he's on his face before the Lord. He's humbled himself before the Lord in prayer.

Now, the people around him in his household, and we're not going to dig into all of the details in these verses, but they're concerned now for David because of how he's reacting, how he's responding. He hasn't eaten all night. And so they try to kind of cheer him up a little bit and try to get him to get up and have some food. And David doesn't receive it. He says no. And he continues to fast and to pray for seven days, pleading with God to have mercy on him.

And as he is praying for these seven days on the seventh day, he notices his servants are kind of whispering to each other. And the servants are freaked out. They're thinking, man, if he is reacting this way, when he finds out that the child has died, what's he going to do then? I mean, he's going to be so tore up. We can't tell him. I can't tell him. You tell him. I don't want to tell him. You tell him, you know. And the servants are just kind of like trying to figure out what's the best way to handle this. And

In their going back and forth and their whispering to one another, David recognized what has taken place. And it's interesting because what happens next really surprises the servants. It tells us in verse 20, David arose from the ground. He washed, he anointed himself, he changed his clothes, he went to the house of the Lord and worshiped. Then he went to his own house and when he requested, they set food before him and

And he ate. And the servants were really confused. They didn't expect this kind of reaction from the news. But that is what David did. And so his servants asked him in verse 21, why did you do that? How come you're behaving this way? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but now you've arisen and you've eaten. And why are you behaving that way? And David explains in verse 22 something very important. He says, while the child was alive,

I fasted and wept for I said, who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me that the child may live? There's still the chance, David says. You can see in David this understanding in the heart of God that God is willing many times to work in our lives in ways that we do not deserve.

David is recognizing, I don't earn God's blessings. I don't earn God's favor. I don't earn God's working in my life miraculously. David here is looking to God and saying, maybe God, you're going to be gracious. I deserve the full judgment. I deserve much worse than even this situation. But even still, maybe Lord, you'll be merciful and gracious to

And so that's why we find David in verse 16 pleading with God. Not bargaining with God, not saying, God, if you spare my child's life, then I'm going to do, you know, not bargaining, pleading, asking God for mercy. Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious?

To me, that idea of gracious. In the Old Testament, kind of grace and mercy are the same word and just kind of translated differently in different places. But it's that idea of having favor or that withholding of judgment. For God to have pity or to show kindness. That is what David is looking for. He's asking God to do. His sin is forgiven. All the consequences aren't reversed.

But there is a chance. There is a possibility. God, you might still be merciful. Even though you've announced that this is the consequences for that. There's still that chance. There's still that opportunity. Sin can be forgiven, but not undone. But don't let that convince you to not ask God for mercy. That doesn't mean that you just, you know, accept and, you know, heap on all of the difficulty that comes with

as a result of your sin. You accept it. You own it because that's the result of sin. But at the same time, there is opportunity for you, for I, to bow before the Lord and plead for mercy. And you might say, but I don't deserve it. And David didn't deserve it. But if we deserved it, it wouldn't be mercy. It's so hard for us many times to accept God's goodness in our lives and

we can accept it much easier when, you know, at least we haven't failed so bad, you know, or we've been doing some things that kind of like, yeah, we've been going in a good direction. And so then I'm much more open to accepting God's goodness in my life because I've mostly been good, you know, towards God. And there is that kind of works-based response that we often have in our lives. But

But this is where it comes down to really whether or not we believe God at his word that he is gracious and merciful and slow to anger and abundant in mercies. And it comes to this point where we're clear. Like there is no deserving it. There is no way we, you know, God owes us anything. We have failed, but we plead for mercy. We ask God to be kind, to show mercy,

Goodness towards us, even though we don't deserve it. Can I tell you, that is not something that's offensive to God. You and I, we might think of it in that way. We might think, you know, God doesn't want me. You know, I've failed so bad. He doesn't want me to come to him with requests. He doesn't want me to come and ask for mercy. No, God loves when you and I believe him enough, when we have the faith to come to him and say, I don't deserve it.

I cannot earn it. I have failed completely, but Lord, I'm asking if you would be good towards me. Would you pour out your kindness and withhold the consequences, the judgment, the difficulty that is deserved? Think about what the psalmist said in Psalm 147, 11. The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his mercy, those who are hoping in his mercy.

I'm hoping that God works. I'm anticipating that God will work. I'm asking God to work, but not on the basis of my works or my goodness or my promises to be good in the future, but just with the flat out acknowledgement, I don't deserve it. But Lord, would you be good? Would you do good? Would you be kind? Would you withhold something?

and consequences and difficulties and afflictions. And it's up to God and God has the opportunity and he knows what's best for us and he meters out exactly what is needed for us and what's best for us in our lives. But don't jump to the conclusion, God doesn't want to give me that and so I'm just not even going to ask. God doesn't want to hear from me. I failed too hard. God doesn't want to, no, no, don't jump to there. Hope, hope in the mercy of God.

to recover from a failure in sin. We need to hope in God's mercy. We need to plead and say, God, I don't deserve it, but Lord, would you be merciful in my life?

In another Psalm, Psalm 33, the Psalmist says, God responds. God wants to hear us call out for mercy.

The time when we are, you know, can easily convince ourselves we have no business approaching God. And so sometimes we don't approach God because we have no business approaching God. And yet at the same time, when we have no business approaching God, that's exactly when God wants us to approach him. Hoping in his mercy, trusting in his goodness.

Not with a cavalier attitude, not with a, you know, like, yeah, who cares? I sinned, but that's why there's grace. So God, give me what I want. No, no, like, you know, that obviously is a heart issue. And that is not the way that we're to approach it. Instead, we should follow the exhortation of James.

In James chapter 4, he says, draw near to God and he will draw near to you. That's a great promise we often look to. But the context is interesting. He says, cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. There does need to be a penitent heart. There does need to be a mourning and a sense of

of the sin that we have done. And so the cleansing and the purifying, you know, comes with that mourning. And again, it goes back to that heart of repentance as we saw last week. But we don't allow that place of mourning to be a place distant from God. Let that place of mourning be a place of drawing near to God. It goes on in the next verse there in James chapter four, humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord and he will lift you up.

That's what we do. We humble ourselves like David. We bow down before and we plead for the mercy of God. Sometimes we can be tempted to rush this step of recovery because it is painful to plead for the mercy of God, to be face to face with our failure and the consequences of it. And we want to get out of the pain as soon as possible.

But this is a necessary part of recovery. That mourning, that pleading, that calling out for God to do good towards us that we don't deserve. This is where recovery starts, with pleading for mercy. We've often pointed out that whenever God announces judgment, it's an opportunity to repent. And you can look at Jonah with the city of Nineveh. God says, in 40 days, the city's gonna be overthrown.

It was an announcement of judgment. It wasn't a direct, you know, with his words, he didn't invite them to repent. But the people repented at the announcement of judgment and God showed mercy. In the same way, consequences are also invitations to ask God for mercy. When you fail, when you fall, and you can begin to see those consequences and, oh my goodness, this is going to cost me. That is an opportunity for you today.

to plead for mercy. Even though you can see the events, and you could see, oh my goodness, I see the hammer about to drop, and I totally deserve it. And maybe you do. And maybe God's going to let the hammer drop. But plead for mercy. Ask God to withhold. Ask God to hold back, to reduce. Ask God to show kindness and goodness that you don't deserve. God loves. He takes pleasure in

Us approaching him with that heart, he responds. Now, this is a place that God likes for us to be, and it's important for us to be there, that place of mourning and pleading for mercy. But we need balance in this. Sometimes we'd prefer to rush this phase and just skip the mourning, get past the pleading. It's difficult, it's painful to our pride and to our hearts to be in that condition. Sometimes we're on the other end of the spectrum, though.

And we just live in that place of, boy, I blew it, I failed, and I just deserve all this judgment. And we can live in that place, having this cloud over our head wherever we go. And so there needs to be that pleading for mercy. But I would emphasize the idea that that's where it starts, but that's not where God wants you to live. And that brings us now to point number two, as we look at verses 20 through 25, where

Recovery continues with simple steps forward. Recovery continues with simple steps forward. There needs to be the mourning, like James said, where we mourn and weep over our sin, but that's not for the rest of our life. That is to be the condition, you know, that we're just to live in this misery because we deserve it because we failed so horribly.

There's an appropriate time of mourning and pleading for mercy. And then there is the next step, which is to start moving forward, to start going forward into, well, the next things that God has for us. And we're going to look at some of these same verses again, jumping back into verse 20. Here's what it says. So David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped.

Then he went to his own house, and when he requested, they set food before him, and he ate. David here provides a very good example for us. Here's how to pursue God's heart after you have failed and been found out, and now you're experiencing the consequences. You start by pleading for mercy, but at some point that season, well, it comes to an end.

Not that we stop needing God's mercy, but there's that appropriate time for mourning. And then it comes to a point where no longer is that what God wants from you, where you just are there on your face before him all day long, you know, crying out and asking for him not to, you know, bring the judgment that you deserve. There comes a point where that's not pleasing to God any longer in the sense that, well, now he wants you to do something different, right?

And again, as we talk about pursuing God's heart, this is what needs to be the focus. Sometimes we just are looking for a good excuse to continue to throw ourselves a pity party. And so we just keep the woe is me. I'm so undeserving and I'm so unworthy. And we kind of keep that mode when God's saying that was right for the season. That was right for that appropriate time.

But now there's something new that needs to happen. And are you going to pursue my heart or are you going to pursue your heart? What is going to be what's important to you? Will you be willing to get up, take a shower, have a meal, go to church? We do need to learn to mourn over our sin. But God doesn't want you to stay there in that place of mourning for the rest of your life. There comes a time where that must end.

And you got to start to move forward. Let go of the things that have happened in the past and let go of the damage that has been caused. Let go of the, you know, havoc that you've wrecked as a result of your sin. And you're going to have to at some point get up. David arose from the ground. Notice these simple steps. He didn't, you know, have an elaborate thing that he had to do. What's first thing? Just get off the ground.

And when you've, you know, been devastated as a result of failure and sin in your life, that it's important to know you don't have to have like, you know, this full path and thing in mind. Here's how I'm going to fix, you know, this and make up for this. And, you know, just let's just start with just get off the ground. Just lift yourself up and go take a shower. I don't know if you've experienced, you know, that kind of devastation in your life. But there comes that time where it

in order to pursue God's heart, you need to start to take steps forward, looking ahead. As Paul talked about, forgetting the things which are behind and reaching forward to the things that God has in store for you. There's no set time for these different phases of the recovery. And so perhaps the time of mourning for David, it was seven days that this was taking place.

Perhaps it's longer. Perhaps it's shorter. It's up to the Lord and it's up to what's pleasing to him. And we need to be coming to the Lord and asking, Lord, what do you want from me? You want me to stay in this place of mourning? Then I need to stay in this place of mourning. I don't like it. It's not comfortable, but I'll stay there. Or I like this place of mourning and I've kind of grown comfortable with all the tears and, you know, enjoying the pity party a little bit. And so I'm going to keep on and God's saying, no, no, I need you to

to start to move forward now. It's time to stop holding on and just dwelling on, you know, how great of a failure that was. And you need to like get up and take a shower, have a good meal, and start to look at what God has in store for you next. I think it's interesting here in verse 20 also, it says that he went to the house of the Lord and worshiped.

This really is, it's not just like, you know, tactics or, you know, psychology for how to get over a failure, but this is David seeking God, reaching out to God. He went first things first, even before he ate. Now, after seven days of fasting, I think I would probably go eat first so that I could go enjoy the worship. But David, he went to worship. He went to meet with the Lord first.

to cry out to the Lord, to worship the Lord, to give the Lord honor and glory that's due to his name, he began to go forward and to honor the Lord with his life. Simple steps, not huge elaborate things, you know, not grand schemes, but just simple steps. He began the road to recovery.

He began to get back to where God wanted him to be. And boy, it confused the servants. And they were like, man, what have you done? It's so backwards. We would have expected something completely different. Why did you do this? And David explains there in verse 23, that season is over. That season was appropriate for that season. And I was asking God to be merciful. I was pleading for God to be gracious. But now that the child has died, why should I fast?

That season has concluded. It's time for something new. David here in verse 23 says, I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me. And not to jump into the doctrine there, but just a little glimpse of the promise and the hope that we have that children who die are in the presence of the Lord. And David here is saying, I'm going to go to be with him. I'll be with him again one day.

But for right now, for this moment, I can't stay there forever. I can't stay in that place of mourning forever. I can't go back and undo the past. For right now, what's best for right now, what God wants for me is to start taking steps in the direction that he wants me to go. This is really important about the heart of God. But we can...

be so focused on the sin sometimes that we keep ourselves from going forward or we discourage others from going forward. And we need to be careful not to get caught up in legalism. I like what Warren Wiersbe said about legalism. He said, nothing reveals the wickedness of legalism better than the way legalists treat those who have sinned. Where there's that burden, there's that, you know, hey, you can't

How dare you get up and take a shower? What kind of jerk are you? You killed that kid, and you killed his dad, and you killed, you know what I mean? Like, I guess it wasn't really his dad. But anyways, you killed your right, you know what I mean? Like, you did all these, how dare you get up and take a shower? And there can be that guilt trip, and that legalism, and that things that we lay upon ourselves, or we lay upon others. And that is not pleasing to God. That's not God's heart, right?

And that's why legalism is wickedness because it would keep people from drawing near to God and moving forward in what God has for them. It would hold people back from the plan of God and the work of God. And that's not what God wants. God wants us to plead for his mercy. And there is that appropriate time for mourning, but then there's a season where that's over. And now you need to start, again, trusting in the mercy of God and the grace of God and to take steps forward.

forward. Paul the Apostle addressed this a little bit also in 1 and 2 Corinthians. You might remember in 1 Corinthians, there was that situation where there was the man who was in flat-out open sin, sexual immorality with his, I think it was his mother-in-law, and it was this, you know, open thing, and the church kind of celebrated, and look how tolerant we are, and

In 1 Corinthians, Paul rebuked them severely and said, look, this is sin. You need to get rid of that. You need to put that guy outside of the church. You need to deal with that issue of sin. But then in 2 Corinthians, which happens later on in the story, later on in the account, then Paul gives them some different instruction. They did respond to Paul. They put the guy out of the church. And from what Paul is declaring here in 2 Corinthians 2, we find that this guy has repented.

And so that church discipline was effective and he's responded and he's turned back to the Lord. But although he's turned back to the Lord, the church is still like against him and keeping him at bay and keeping him away. And no, you can't, you know, we're disciplining you by, you know, there's this contrariness in their attitude and their heart towards the man. And Paul tells him in 2 Corinthians 2,

In verse 6, he says, Think about that for just a moment. There is such a thing as too much sorrow. Don't let it get twisted in your mind and don't let the enemy play mind games with you and say, you know, you can't be sorry enough.

There is such a thing as too much sorrow. And Paul says, protect yourselves from that. Protect him from that. Don't add on to what the enemy wants to do in his life. No, you need to now comfort him. In the following verse, in verse eight of 2 Corinthians 2, he says, reaffirm your love to him. That there is that, let's start this recovery.

Start to bring him back in. And that doesn't mean that, you know, then he's accepted in and it's as if nothing ever happened. It doesn't mean that, you know, we pretend like nothing ever happened. It doesn't mean that we, you know, trust in the same way. It doesn't, that's not, you know, that's not exactly what's happening here. But,

But there is that, the beginning steps of reestablishing relationships and moving forward and going on into the things that God has for us. And as these new steps start for this guy in Corinthians, for David in his life, as he begins to get up and to start to live life kind of like a normal life, even though he doesn't deserve it and he's unworthy and all of that, but now God's calling him to move forward and now he's

New life begins to grow. In verse 24, David comforted Bathsheba, his wife, and went into her and lay with her. So she bore a son and he called his name Solomon. Now the Lord loved him and he sent word by the hand of Nathan the prophet. So he called his name Jedidiah or Jedidiah. No, yeah, Jedidiah because of the Lord. Here, new life begins to grow. David

As he's just kind of putting the pieces of his life back together, he goes to Bathsheba and he comforts her. Her life is probably a wreck also. She was involved in this sin also. There's a whole, you know, whole other account that we don't get to read about of God's work in her life as well. But now as they're recovering from this, as they're kind of taking the next steps, they're

The Lord brings forth new life and they have the son Solomon who becomes the king after David. So this is a significant, you know, child that is born to them. But what's so interesting here is it's very clear. It's explicit. The Lord loved Solomon. Now you and I, if we were writing this story, you know, we might write it differently and say, you know,

Every child that ever comes from that relationship is accursed. You know, like we could have that kind of attitude. And sometimes we, again, treat people around us with that kind of attitude that, you know, hey, you've done this horrendous thing. Everything that comes forth from that, you know, it's just, it's never going to be blessed. It's always going to be horrible. But the Lord loved Solomon. And he sent word by Nathan the prophet. I think it's interesting.

Who was the one who confronted David about his sin? Nathan the prophet. That same one who confronted David over his sin and brought forth, you know, the announcement of the judgment and the consequences and all of that, that same one God sends back and says, good job with Solomon. I love Solomon. Call him Jedidiah, beloved of the Lord, beloved of the Lord. God is able to

to do new things, to pronounce blessings, to express love on the road to recovery. After the aftermath, it's not over. Recovery continues through these simple steps and God begins to work again. As we start to move forward in what God has for us, God begins to work again and pronounce his love and do good things and pour out his blessings. Now, it's totally true. Your life will not be the same forever.

as if you had not been involved in that sin, even with what we might call a full recovery, you know, your life is still impacted by that issue, by that sin, but don't go overboard and too far and let that idea convince you that there's never gonna be blessings. There's never gonna be goodness. There's never gonna be good times. There's never gonna be good works. There's never gonna be God's working or miracles or, you know, that's not true. Taking simple steps,

to begin to walk with the Lord again, to just get up and take a shower and worship and begin down that path, begin down that walk with the Lord once again. And God will begin to pour out his love, his blessings, his spirit. Recovery continues, not with elaborate schemes, not with promises to repay, but with simple steps forward, seeking to please God, even if that just means today I'm going to take a shower. What's going to please God today?

It's about putting his heart first and what he desires first more than our hearts and more than what we desire. Well, moving on to verses 26 through 31, we get the third point, and that is recovery concludes with a fresh calling. This is the amazing thing about God. God is able to do something new. Even in the worst of situations and conditions, even at the life that's wrecked by sin, God

Even under the most severe circumstances and conditions, God is able to bring about a recovery and it comes with a fresh calling. We're going to pick it up in verse 26. It says, Now Joab fought against Rabbah of the people of Ammon and took the royal city. And Joab sent messengers to David and said, I have fought against Rabbah and I have taken the city's water supply. Now therefore gather the rest of the people together and encamp against the city and take it.

lest I take the city and it be called after my name. Now these verses may not stand out as like super significant at first. Joab's off fighting a battle. Okay, how does that fit into recovery? Well, if you think back to 2 Samuel chapter 11 verse 1, we're back to the place where the problem began. Remember in 2 Samuel chapter 11 verse 1, in the time that kings go to war, David sent Joab to

But David remained at Jerusalem and that his being there in Jerusalem is the beginning steps of him having this affair and all of these things. I mean, there was more going on in David's heart. It wasn't just, you know, that one thing, but it was part of that whole scenario. And now we're back and Joab's off fighting the battle against Rabbah, same city, same place,

same battle, same people that are being fought against, but now it's at least a year later. They're in the midst of that same battle. And this time David is going to have an opportunity to get involved and they're finally going to have victory. In verse 27, Joab sent messengers to David and said, I fought against Rabbah and I've taken the city's water supply. David, we've been fighting them for a long time, but now victory is imminent. We're just about there.

You better come and be part of this. Otherwise, they're going to name the city after me. It's going to be, the victory is going to be in my name. And so what does David do? It says in verse 29, David gathered all the people together and went to Rabbah and fought against it and took it. Then he took their king's crown from his head. Its weight was a talent of gold with precious stones. And it was set on David's head. Also, he brought out the spoil of the city in great abundance.

And he brought out the people who were in it and put them to work with saws and iron picks and iron axes and made them cross over to the brick works. So he did to all the cities of the people of Ammon. Then David and the people, all the people returned to Jerusalem. They finally have victory over this city as Joab calls to David and says...

Your place is here, David. You better get back in the battle. You need to get back to where God wants you to be. You need to get back to where you should have been back in chapter 11, but you weren't, and there was all this. But now there's a new opportunity. There's a fresh calling, a fresh opportunity for you to be where God wants you to be. And it's kind of like, you know, if you kind of visualize it a little bit, here was David, you know, going along, and then he comes to this point where

And instead of going into the battle like he should, he kind of goes on this detour. And now he's gone on this detour. He's come all the way back around. He's back at the point where he first departed. And now he's able to continue on. I remember in my life a very clear detour that I took. A very clear detour where I walked away. I was involved in serving the Lord. I was teaching regularly and consistently. And I walked away from the Lord constantly.

It was several years of just, you know, wandering and then starting to come back and that rebuilding and kind of reacquainting myself with the Lord and getting back involved is a long process. And I remember after, you know, time being back and being developed, I had an opportunity to teach once again after a long time of not teaching. And so I sought the Lord and I prayed and I put together a message and I taught that message and I didn't realize it, but it was a couple days later.

I just happened to stumble across my notes from the last message that I taught before I walked away from the Lord. And it was almost identical. It was the same concepts, the same message that I had just taught a couple of days ago to the one that I had taught years ago. It wasn't intentional. I didn't like pull up my old, I was just, I was shocked. I was shocked.

But I realized what the Lord was saying. Like, you were back there and you took this detour. Now you're back to where you were then. And now you need to keep moving forward. And it was a fresh calling, a fresh call of God to go forward in obedience to what he has for you. The commentator F.B. Meyer says, "'Don't be content with just forgiveness. "'Seek restoration to the old place "'and then strive for a better one.'"

Boy, that is boldness to ask God to do that kind of work, even though we don't deserve it and we've failed completely, even though we've messed up, even though we've made a wreck of ourselves and messed up lives of people around us and done damage. And yet God is able to bring about a recovery that comes with a fresh calling. It's not over. Think about the example of Peter. Remember, Jesus told Peter, you're going to deny me.

Peter was convinced he wouldn't, but we all know he did. And you can see this kind of same pattern in Peter. After he denied the Lord, he went out weeping. There was this time period of mourning for Peter, like James says, right? Weep and lament, mourn for his failure on behalf of the Lord. On into the rest of the crucifixion and the resurrection, and then Jesus reaches out to Peter specifically, and he begins to take some simple steps on the road to recovery. And

Begins to move forward a little bit until that breakfast with Jesus in John chapter 21, where the Lord challenges him. Do you love me? Feed my sheep. Tend my flock. Shepherd my people, Peter. And there's this

Fresh calling, this commissioning of Peter that happens by the Lord. In warning him in advance, the Lord told him in Luke 22, Simon, Simon, indeed, Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith should not fail. And when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren. Sometimes we would limit ourselves or limit others and say, you know, you've failed. You just sit there. You never do anything wrong.

ever again, you know, or at least for decades or, you know, whatever. We would maybe suppress where the Lord says, when you come back, strengthen. Strengthen your brethren. Get to work. It may not be the same. And there are some occasions, it doesn't mean that, you know, every failure that the restoration process, you know, means that you come back to the exact same thing that you were doing and the exact same thing that you could have done. You know, that is not always an option. But

regardless of whether it was, you know, kind of the dream that you had or the ideal that you wanted or what, or something different, that there is a fresh calling that God has for you as a part of your recovery, as a part of you coming back and walking with the Lord. Recovery concludes. It comes with a fresh calling and concludes is just, you know, concluding that detour that you've taken. But

But now there's a whole new path ahead of you. You've gone through the repentance. You've gone through that necessary process of the Lord cleansing and purging. You've gone through now this recovery, pleading for mercy and starting out with those simple things and then now having this fresh call from God, this commission from God. And now it's time to go forward in what God has for you. You've learned a lot of lessons today.

Hold on to those lessons. Don't lose sight of those. But we don't let that be the final thing, the end of the story. It's not the end. If we're going to be pursuing God's heart, we're going to do the best that we can and still fail. And the amazing and beautiful thing about God is that even though we fail, even though sometimes instead of pursuing God's heart, we run exactly in the opposite direction, He's able to

to call out to us, to reach us, to turn us around, and to set us on the path toward recovery. And he's convinced. He's declaring, you know, Satan does not get the final word. The enemy, he doesn't get the final word and just you're going to live with a destroyed, worthless life from now on. No, God says, I can do something new.

Again, I would point out, it's not that your life will be the same as if you had not engaged in that and not been involved in that, but don't go too far and let the enemy just keep you in this place of mourning and off to the side and on the shelf and not being used by God, not being involved in the work of God, not being engaged in a relationship with God because you failed so horribly. Those are all tactics of the enemy to keep you from pursuing God's heart.

And what God would love is for you to trust in his mercy and to ask him, even though you don't deserve it, if you deserved it, it wouldn't be mercy, but to ask God to do something new, to do something good, to withhold judgment and consequences that you deserve and pour out his blessings upon you. Recovery starts with pleading for mercy and then trust God enough to just start to take some simple steps forward. And maybe that's just

opening up your Bible again and starting to read. Maybe it's opening up your mouth and starting to share a little bit and talk with people around you. Maybe it is just, you know, getting in the shower and, you know, people have taken a petition. You're quite stinky and it's time to clean up a little bit, put things back in order. It's not, you know, we could think of it as like

have like a distorted perspective and it's because I am, you know, so aware of the holiness of God that I just, you know, keep myself in this wretched corner and I don't ever take a shower. And we can have that. It's distorted. It's tactics of the enemy. Don't let him rip you off. No. Trust in the mercy of God and start to take steps forward. Start to walk with God. Start to trust God. Start to take steps of faith and respond as he prompts your heart.

And it's a long process. You know, it's three points here, but that middle point can be years sometimes, depending on what it is that the Lord wants to do. But as you come around, as God does that full recovery, that full restoration, he's able to do a fresh work. As he pours out his Holy Spirit upon you and moves you forward in a way that is pleasing to him. That's what it looks like to pursue God's heart as we recover.

from sin in our lives. I'm going to invite the worship team to come up, and I just want to encourage you as they lead us in this closing song that you would pursue God's heart. And again, maybe, you know, there's something in here for you. There is a sin issue, and there's a, you know, some recovery steps that God wants you to take, and so you can do that now, and just spending some time with the Lord. Maybe

It's more towards others. And there's maybe some ministry that happens, that needs to happen between us, one another, and God wants to use you to be part of, you know, someone else's recovery and work that he wants to do in someone else's life. And so, as usual, we want to give you opportunity during this worship song. Feel free to minister to one another if you need to pray for one another or share exhortation or scripture with one another. You know, something's going on, you're prompted by the Spirit, as the Lord leads, but...

Let's spend this time seeking God's heart. What does He want? And allow Him to do the recovery work that needs to be done in all of our lives. Let's worship the Lord together. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of His Word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.