(2 Samuel 11:1 NIV)
*“In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war… David stayed behind in Jerusalem.” *
2 Samuel 11:2 (NIV)
“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…”
Because most of the time, sin doesn’t shout. It whispers. And then it waits.
2 Samuel 11:3–4 (NIV)
“And David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, ‘She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.’ 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.”
2 Samuel 11:6–8 (NIV)
So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David. When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. 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.
2 Samuel 11:9–11 (NIV)
But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house… Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. 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!”
2 Samuel 11:14–15 (NIV)
In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.”
2 Samuel 11:17 (NIV)
When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died.
Sin always escalates.
2 Samuel 12:1–4 (NIV)
“There were two men in a certain town, one rich and the other poor. The rich man had a very large number of sheep and cattle, but the poor man had nothing except one little ewe lamb… He raised it, and it grew up with him and his children. It shared his food, drank from his cup and even slept in his arms. It was like a daughter to him.”
2 Samuel 12:5–6 (NIV)
“As surely as the Lord lives, the man who did this must die! He must pay for that lamb four times over, because he did such a thing and had no pity.”
2 Samuel 12:7 (NIV)
Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man.”
2 Samuel 12:13 (NIV)
Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
True repentance isn’t about saying the right thing—it’s about finally seeing the truth.
Grace makes sense only when we remember who God is.
Psalm 51:1–4, 10–12 (NIV)
“Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions.
Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions,and my sin is always before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight…”
“Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.”
Because that’s what grace does. It doesn’t just forgive—it restores.
2 Samuel 12:24–25 (NIV)
“Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and he went to her and lay with her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The Lord loved him; and because the Lord loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah.”
God is not done with your story when you mess up. He’s often just getting started.
Sermon Based Questions
Sermon based questions will return after Labor Day!