Pastor and International Bible Teacher, Dr. Michael Youset. offering a glimpse of what's ahead for this episode of Leading the Way. When we don't want to hear the truth, We will criticize and pass the blind. When the heart is hardened, And when the neck is stiffened.
No sermon, no preacher. No friend, no church. Will be able to get through until you're ready to respond to the convicting of the Spirit of God, until you're ready to be bent by the Spirit of God, until you're ready to be broken by the Spirit of God. You've probably heard about what happened with David and Bathsheba. In summary, the king of Israel, that's David, sleeps with the wife, that's Bathsheba, of one of his senior military leaders.
Attempting to hide his indiscretion, David deploys that faithful soldier right to the front lines of battle. Where he's killed. Hello, welcome to Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Today, a closer look at what led David to dishonor God.
to kill a faithful friend. This story and the consequences you watch them experience may help you avoid sin traps in your own life. And it's part of Dr. Youssef's series called David: Portrait of a Champion.
So listen along with me as Dr. Michael Youssef begins this leading the way. The Roman Emperor Arcadus. and his wife. have experienced such hatred.
such bitterness Such anger. toward John Chrysostom. John was the Bishop of Constantinople at the time. He probably was one of the godliest men, if not the godliest men, of his time. And the anger was Continuously to bubble in the heart of the emperor until one day he brought together all of his advisors and he said, What can I do to destroy this man?
And the advisors all got together. And they all came up with different types of ways by which they can destroy John Chrysostom. One said, banish him and exile him. To the desert. Another said, Put him in prison.
A third one said, Confiscate all of his property. But then a crafty and a wicked courtier came up. and looked at all the advisers of the emperor. And he said, I want to tell you that you're making a great mistake. You will never punish him by such proposals.
He said, if you banish him, He will feel God's presence in the desert as he feels him in the city. Yeah. If you put him in prison and load him with chains, he will pray and praise God in the prison as he will in his office. If you confiscate his property, it will make no difference because he gives it all away anyway. If you condemn him to death, you only open the gates of heaven to John Chrysostom.
And this malicious, wicked, devilish man turned to the emperor and he said, Prince. Let me suggest to you How you destroy this man? If you really want to see Chrysostom suffer, Force him to commit sin. I know him well. This man fears nothing in the world but sin.
Sin in its essence is missing Of the mark. That is why we should fear sin.
Now this episode in David's life I think next to slaying of Goliath, It is the second best known event in his life. I think the fact that he has committed adultery with Bathsheba, then killed Uriah, is a story that is known not only among Christians, but even non-Christians alike. It is a well-known story. Don't let your familiarity with the story rob you from learning how David got himself into that mess. But also learn.
How did David genuinely and truly got himself out of that mess? I have six reasons. Six possible reasons. And I want you to listen to my words very carefully. They are carefully selected.
I did not say excuses. I said reasons. There is no excuse. David could not offer an excuse. He never came up with one.
He knows he did not have one. But as we learn from some of those reasons, let's guard against The tempter working in our lives. The first thing I notice here is. Boredom. He began to feel bored with his mission.
He began to feel bored with his calling. He began to feel bored in his house. He began to feel bored generally. Watch out. for getting bored.
It is the first sign of trouble. Secondly, David was experiencing the loneliness that comes with leadership. In Psalm 102, verse 7, he said, I have become like a lonely bird. at the house top. How can the king With all of his entourage, with all of his prestige, how can he be lonely?
Listen carefully. You can experience loneliness of vision. Even if you have thousands of people around you. You can experience a loneliness of idea. If you're in a room filled with people, You can experience a loneliness of commitment.
Okay. And no matter how many surrounding you. Loneliness can be positive. If you do two things, number one, stop feeling sorry for yourself. And two, Let God fill that void.
Then there's a third. reason for David's moral failure here as I can see it. David was getting tired of fighting. Thirty-four years of fighting, 34 years of running. And finally, He relaxed his grip.
He began to take it easy. Had David gone out with the men into the battlefield. He would not have ended in the place of failure. And I want to warn those older Christians, and I don't mean age older Christians, those who have been walking with the Lord for a long time. You can allow yourself after a while.
I've been there, I've done that, I read this, I don't need to grow anymore. That is dangerous. Be very careful. Spiritual warfare is a daily thing. It's minute by minute, and you cannot relax.
You cannot let your grip Go. And I'm not talking about relaxing the body, I'm talking about relaxing of your spirit and your mind in spiritual warfare. No wonder the Apostle Paul tells Timothy, he said, endure hardness as a good soldier for Jesus Christ. Hardness and soldiering go hand in hand. Hardness End.
Victory go hand in hand. Then fourthly David allowed Michael's rejection. That's his first wife, you remember, Saul's daughter. I think he allowed her rejection to get to him.
Now I don't have a clear indication from the Word of God on this one. When I'm not sure, I'll tell you. But just listen very carefully of what I'm going to say. Do you remember when David danced before the ark of the Lord and he took his royal gown off, he took his royal robe off and he danced before God? What happened when he came home?
She was waiting for him. She was right behind the door. And she gave him a tongue-lashing. She Sucked it to him. And she Put him down.
Saul's daughter. was cold. She was critical, cantankerous, and crabby. And David took it personally. He said, well, he had other wives.
Well, yes, you see. But Michael is the one he loved.
So instead of exercising spiritual leadership in his house, instead of exercising godly leadership in his house, what did David do? He allowed that bitterness. to seep into his heart. The fifth reason for David's failure It's his laziness. In 2 Samuel chapter 11, verse 2, it said.
that he woke up in the afternoon.
Now, if you do that, forgive me, but I'm gonna say a thing or two about this. That is self-indulgence. You can tell that David was not redeeming the time. Laziness. Hear me right, please.
Laziness gives the tempter the upper hand in your spiritual walk. Amen? Proverbs 12:24 said, The hand of the diligent will rule, while the slothful will be put under tribute. Then I believe there's a sixth reason. combined together, led into David's mortal failure and sin.
And that is his refusing to hear the truth.
Well, I can take a few weeks on that one. When David sent the messenger to find out who Bathsheba was. The messenger came back to him and he said, This is Bathsheba, who is the wife of Uriah. In other words, the messenger was saying to him, David, This was another man's wife. But David didn't want to hear that truth.
And when we don't want to hear the truth, We will rationalize and make excuses. And you know what? That really doesn't honor God. When we don't want to hear the truth, We will criticize and pass the blame. When the heart is hardened, And when the neck is stiffened, No sermon, no preacher.
No friend, no church. Will be able to get through until you're ready to respond to the convicting of the Spirit of God, until you're ready to be bent by the Spirit of God, until you're ready to be broken by the Spirit of God. David thought that he got away with his shenanigan. He didn't understand that God is patient and that God's justice may take long, but it will always take place.
Now the law of God was clear. The punishment for adultery in the Old Testament is stoning. Stoning to death both the adulterer and the adulteress.
So, what does David do in order to escape? the punishment of the law. He arranged for Uriah to be killed, her husband. And once she became a widow, he felt He rationalized All is gonna be well. And he literally thought that he could get away with murder.
But hear me right, please. There is an eye that sees what nobody else can see. There is an eye that penetrates what no camera lens can detect. Months have passed since this horrific deed. Everyone forgot about it.
Except for the justice of God. which is as true as his mercy. The justice of God, which is as true as His love. David may have thought that he can get away from this, but he could not escape from the cry of justice. Do you know that the scripture said that blood of the innocent cry to God?
And I want to tell you: when we murder babies in this nation, those blood of the innocents is crying to God every single day. David may have rationalized it to Joab, his chief of the army, but he knew that he could not rationalize it to the chief inspector of his soul. God deals with us in different ways, but He knows how to get our attention. You can give Him your attention the easy way, or you can. Do it the hard way.
And here God sends Nathan the prophet to David. with a parable. A parable that eventually brought David under conviction. and led him to true and genuine repentance. As I looked at this passage and I thought Imagine having the assignment.
of going to the king and telling him of his sin. Speaking the truth. It's not always easy, but it's the only way. And Nathan comes to King David and he says to him this parable. And I want to summarize this parable.
The position of Uriah and his wife. is represented in the figure of a poor man. who has only one, one and only you lamb. And the Lamb was so dear to this man that literally was sleeping in his bosom. The one who wronged this poor man was portrayed as a rich man with a large number of flocks and herds.
at his disposal. What Nathan is doing here, he is drawing a word picture for David so he can see, begin to comprehend the enormity of his sin, so that he can heighten the guilt that is described by seizing of that the ewe lamb and slaying of that ewe lamb. What is he doing that for? Look at this very carefully, please. He was doing it to accommodate to the traveler.
He's doing it. to entertain a traveller.
So he took this poor man's one and only. You, Lamb. to offer it to the traveler. I could take a long time just going through that parable, but I won't do that. I want you to focus with me, please, just on one aspect of that parable, one aspect.
It is a traveller. Focus on the traveler for a minute. Because the traveler here represents the restless desire. The traveler here represents the progression of lust. The traveler here represents the wandering thoughts.
The traveler here represents the roving eye of David in relationship to Bathsheba. No wonder the Apostle Paul exalts us in 2 Corinthians 10:5, he said, to take every thought captive to obey Christ. True, we can't prevent wandering thoughts from entering into our minds, but by the power of God's Holy Spirit and by the power of the Word of God that is given to us, we can stop these thoughts from nesting in our minds. Any excuse that you can't help it is just because it's in my background, it's in my genes, and it's in this, and it's that, forget it. You make a mockery of the power of God that is offered to us in Jesus Christ.
You make a mockery of the power of the cross that says will give us victory over sin. What happened here David Welcome the traveler. David entertained the traveler. David housed the traveler. What David did, he gave the traveler the run of the house.
Are you still listening to me? You haven't switched off? God bless you. Hear me right. The best way to pave the road to sin and moral failure.
is to continuously entertain Ungodly thoughts. in any area of life. You want to repeat that? The best way to pave the road to sin and moral failure is to continuously entertain ungodly thoughts. Whether it's for somebody or against somebody.
Good. Look at David's reaction. His first reaction was a very emotional reaction, not biblical reaction. And you know what? That's what happened.
Whenever you react with your emotions and not by the word of God, things are going to get worse. They really will. What does the law of the Old Testament require if a man steals something or robs somebody? it requires that he will pay back fourfold. Fourfold.
But that's not how David reacted. In the case of this hypothetical man, David could have said, and he said that in verse 6, he said, you know, pay fourfold. But the first reaction was, he should be killed. That's not what the law said. The law said the man should not be killed.
But David reacted. You know why? Why he's reacted this way? Because he was harboring sin in his life. And harboring sin in your life.
makes you very critical of others. Make your less forgiving. Then you ought. You can always be certain That the one who has an uneasy conscience always lashes out against the sins of others. You can always be certain that the one who is most merciless.
with another believer when the that believer fall. is the one who needs the mercy the most. And the moment David finished pronouncing this sentence upon his hypothetical character of Nathan. And it's parable. Nathan turns to him and he says, you are the man.
You are that man. You're that man. I want to ask you this. Has the Spirit of God been saying to you, You are the man? You're the woman.
You have this issue that needs to be confronted, but you never dealt with. You have that sin that you have never dealt with. You have that resentment that is eating you alive. You have this sexual impurity that you are covering up. You have this money that belongs to God, but you're keeping it.
You have this unwholesome relationship that you are quietly pursuing when you know that you are the man, you are the woman. It is a prayer of my heart. That you look at David's reaction and how David dealt with his sin. And that I beg everyone who's listening to me to have that same reaction. Of course he sinned against Uriah, he sinned against Bathsheba.
He sin against A lot of people But his first reaction was, I sinned before God. Psalm 51 gives us an indication of the depth of David's sorrow over his sin. It gives us an indication of the depth of David's grieving over his sin. It gives us a depth of David's feeling over that enormity of his sin. Every verse of Psalm 51 shows us the depth of his anguish and the reality of his repentance.
David repentance is the only true and biblical type of repentance. David repentance is the only type of repentance that God really loves and honors. David repentance was a genuine repentance. Why? Because it was accompanied by a desire to forsake the sin.
Forsake the sin. It's like Daniel, he purposed in his heart. That is the true repentance. And that's a repentance that honors God. May our repentance B.
Davids. The Spirit of God has began to move in your life and began to point. Two areas. That you have taken for granted, that you have laxed, that you have just followed the crowd and Ignored the purity and the holiness of God who loves you. I believe the Lord would call you.
and I show it to you from cover to cover in the Scripture. to have a genuine repentance. A forsaking type of repentance. not repentance in words only, but repentance of action. That is the truth of God's Word.
Jesus is not going to come back. To a harlot. He's going to come back to a bride that is pure and holy. He's going to come back to a bride that is awaiting his return. Not so anxious to stay behind, like Lot's wife.
You want to experience the blessing of God and the joy of the Lord in your life. Repent. You want enough contentment. Repent. Say to the Lord with David, Restore unto me.
The joy. of my salvation. Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef for leading the way. And if you missed any portion of today's message, or if you want to listen or watch other content from Dr.
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