Well, 12 years ago, almost to the exact day, I remember getting an email that I opened that set me on a path that set me for one of the most surreal and strange experience of my life. I was graduating college, I needed a summer internship at a church,

and so I was going to this little, what was a little country church in Middleville, Michigan. And I got an email saying, right when you get into town, you're gonna get right close to VBS week, and we need some more helpers, would you jump right in?

So I wanted to make a good first impression, of course. So I said, yes, I'll jump in. And they said, well, we have a couple different major needs. What are you willing to do? And so I made the mistake of saying, whatever, anything you need,

I hope you make that same mistake that I did for our VBS coming up because we have a lot of needs. No, it's a blessing from God, but they gave me the role that would be the last thing I'd ever choose for myself. And they said, great, you're gonna be on the drama team.

So I got an email from the drama director of VBS and she said, perfect, just a couple things. We're just finalizing the scripts, plural, okay? And she said, we're gonna be sending them to you. What we know is you're gonna be playing a character named David, and so you'll see his lines

that you can memorize on the scripts, great. So I pull up the email eventually, looking through the scripts, and I realize the title of the full week is the life of David and my character named David is David King David from the Bible and as I continue to read through these I see that as we near the end of the week they're gonna have us act out

dramatically on the day where we want to see the kids introduced to the full gospel of Jesus that he lived, died, rose again, that gospel that Pastor John just talked about, that heartbeat of what we proclaim, what we want every single child in our church, in our community to know and follow. To bring that point home, we are going to be dramatically acting out 2 Samuel 11, which is the story of David and Bathsheba. For kids. And I thought it had to be a mistake.

Turns out it wasn't. And I did what I will never do again. This is my guarantee to you as a church, but we acted out the story of David and Bathsheba. And if you are kind of new to the Bible, new to church, and you don't know why people are laughing, the reason why they're laughing

is because that is absolutely insane to do. Because I think there's probably young adults gathered here today that I introduced to you at a very young age, the concepts of adultery and drunkenness and the gross misuse of positions of authority,

and maybe just generally how babies are made.

So I am sorry, and I can tell you

as the executive pastor now of that same church, is my promise to you, if something like that came across my desk again, it would get my fastest back to the drawing board, to our kids team. That is my promise to you. I think it's the least I can do after all I've done.

I'm still working through it. And I remember that and I can joke about it, but in all honesty, that chapter, that passage in God's word has stuck with me. And in a lot of ways, it has been a life-saving place that I've had to return time and time again because it paints this hard to look at at time this

grim but clear view of the power of sin. So I want to go there together today to 2 Samuel chapter 11. Turn there in your Bibles. It's on page 333 in our provided Bibles. And as you turn there, just know, so we're coming into the life of David here.

The first 10 chapters of 2 Samuel, everything has been going great for him. Military triumphs, spiritual successes, but chapter 11 presents a turn where sin shows up on the scene. Gross, deep, dark sin.

And it affects David for the rest of his life. So 2 Samuel chapter 11, I'm gonna give you a heads up, this is a longer chapter, it's a story that I wanna read from God's word for you, but if you are able, you can stand now for the reading of God's word. 2 Samuel 11.

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all of Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and they besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. And it happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king's house that he saw from the roof a woman bathing. And she was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite? So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness. Then she returned to

her house, and the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, I am pregnant. So David sent word to Joab, send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab sent Uriah to David. And when Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people were doing, and how the war was going.

Then David said to Uriah, go down to your house and wash your feet. And Uriah went out of the king's house, and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of the Lord and did not go down to his house.

When they told David, Uriah did not go down to his house, David said to Uriah, have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house? And Uriah said to David, the ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, in tents. And my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing.' Then David

said to Uriah, Remain here today also, and he ate in his presence and drank, so that he made him drunk. And in the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his Lord, but he did not go down to his house." So in the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And in the letter he wrote, set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting and then draw back from him

that he may be struck down and die. And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men. And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab and some of the servants of David among the people fell.

Uriah the Hittite also died. Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting. And he instructed the messenger, when you have finished telling all the news about the fighting of King David,

then if the king's anger rises, and if he says to you, why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall? Who killed Abimelech, the son of Jerubbeth? Did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him

from the wall so that he died at Thebes? Why did you go so near the wall? Then you shall say, Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. The messenger said to David, The men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah

the Hittite is dead also.' And David said to the messenger, Thus shall you say to Joab, Do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now one and now another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it, encourage him. And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband, was dead, she lamented over her husband. And when the morning was over, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased

the Lord." Pray with me. Heavenly Father, thank you for your word. We thank you for the wisdom and the warnings that it provides us. And our prayer today is that we would learn from the life of David and be transformed by your spirit here and now to live differently as we leave this place.

We pray all this in your son's name, in the name of Jesus. Amen. Please be seated. So what do we take away, what do we learn from this sad and this strange story from the life of David? Well, as we just read it and as we now study this passage, again, the Bible is going to paint this clear, horrible picture about the real power of sin, which is what you and I are up against

every single day. So as we jump into this first section of the chapter, I want us to see from the scriptures that God is being clear that sin is attractive. So back to verse one, it's the spring, the season we're hoping for right now.

The weather is just lightening up just right for war. David's army's out fighting. He's back in his palace lounging around and scholars kind of debate on whether or not this is, David's doing something wrong already. If this was his first mistake, some say, you know, he's just staying back because at this point in his life, he's older. He's 50, which I don't think is old, just for the record. Old for professional sports, maybe for battle, but I actually think the Bible

is being very intentional and God is telling us already an important detail that starts off this sad chapter, that David is already shirking his duties. He should be out with his men fighting and he's already making bad decisions, staying home, lounging around, walking about the palace

on the hilltop in Jerusalem, looking out over his kingdom. And we read in verse 2 that it happened, happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch, he was walking on the roof of the king's house, in his high position on the palace, he saw something. He saw a woman bathing. And the Bible tells us that that woman was very beautiful. In fact, the Hebrew here really emphasizes Bathsheba's beauty in a way you don't see almost anywhere else in Scripture. And I think in our, through our modern lens, which has these progressive influences on us at all times, we can

read that going, well God, you're fully aware of what's coming next. Why is this detail even important? David's abusing his position of power. He's about to enter this grotesque cycle of sin. Do we really need to preface it by talking about how beautiful Bathsheba was? Is that even relevant to the story we're about to hear? This is someone's daughter. This is someone's wife. This is a king taking advantage of a woman. His position, not just in the palace, but his position as king of the kingdom. position, not just in the palace, but his position as king of the kingdom. Abusing that, he calls her in and he sleeps with her. Why make the point of talking about how beautiful Bathsheba is? Well, God's word doesn't hide the fact that sin is actually attractive.

And don't misunderstand or please don't misquote me here. In no way am I saying that Bathsheba was sinning by being attractive. No, beauty is a gift of creation. It's a gift from the hands of the Creator, from God. And in no way am I or is the Bible excusing David's behavior. No, what it's painting is a real picture of the attractiveness of sin. David was a man who saw a very, very beautiful woman. He wanted to be with her. So he gave in to his temptation and he gave in to his sin.

It was actually attractive to him. I just read for the first time this classic Christian work of fiction. And I've always felt a little guilty being a pastor and having not read it, but it's called Pilgrim's Progress. And it's a story of, it's this kind of story

that paints a picture of the Christian walk and the Christian life. And so the main character, whose name is Christian, which is a little on the nose, but I'll give it to him. But he's being given directions to the celestial city. And this is what he's told.

It says, that is the way you must go. It was built by the patriarchs, the prophets, was built by Christ and the apostles. And it is as straight as could be. Walk that path. And to be honest, I read that and the first thing

that started going off in my brain is going, you know what, they're not actually characterizing the Christian walk of obedience properly because that's too simple, that's too easy, that's too clear, even I could do that. I can put one foot in front of the other

and walk in a straight line. I just don't go this way, don't go that way, just go that way, I could do that. And the Christian walk of obedience is so much harder than that, right? But it hit me, just like King David in this instance,

most of us know God's law, we know right and wrong. That's typically not the problem. It's simple, it's clear. But if obeying Christ is that easy, just walk straight, how do so many of us mess up? Well, even though the way is clear,

there are so many tempting, attractive, sinful distractions that come at us from all sides,

aren't there?

And oftentimes, even though the path that God wants for us is clear and we know it. Sometimes the destination feels farther off and less gratifying than what's right here in front of us, off the path. Sin is actually attractive.

It's okay for us to acknowledge that. We need to acknowledge that. Because if we don't, we become ignorant to its power, we become arrogant to our strength to say no to it if we're doing it on our own will, and where we become ignorant or arrogant, we become vulnerable to sin. Because it is attractive. And part of the reason it is attractive is because in the short term, in ways, sin is enjoyable. David saw what he wanted and he went after it to provide short-term

satisfaction and he gave up so much more. Sin is attractive, but that's not the only reason it's powerful. It's also powerful because sin is relentless. And we see that in the next section. As we keep reading, David learns, as we do, that Bathsheba is pregnant. And that's a big, big problem for David

because her husband, Uriah the Hittite, is off with David's armies fighting David's battles. And we know, they actually know, the Bible includes that, what might have struck you as a strange little sentence in the parentheses in your Bible about Bathsheba and her purifying herself from

the ritual from her uncleanness. What that is clarifying is what David knew and what they knew at that time. Because of that there's no way it could have been her husband who made her pregnant. We know definitively that this baby is And so David's sin, his one night of sin, is going to be exposed by this pregnancy. Unless, if he just sins just a little bit more, maybe tells a lie or just dives a little bit deeper into it, all this can get covered over, it can get put behind us.

You know and in fact if he sends just a little bit more right and in some ways it could be seen as a Blessing to some because there are things that happen that can't be taken back now That are gonna hurt people to know about that. It's just not gonna be good for the kingdom It's not gonna be good for anybody here, right? So if we just send a little bit more we can get through this It's behind us and we can close this dark chapter and start fresh, right? It's not how it works, is it?

We see that in the life of David.

I won't read through every verse between 6 and 25 again, but to summarize, David calls Uriah back from war, saying that he just wants an update from him, which is a lie, another sin. He tries several times to get Uriah to go to be with his wife so that maybe David could get off the hook for this terrible thing he did. He even goes so far as to try to get him drunk so he's not thinking

in his right mind. Another sin, but it doesn't work. So David then dives deeper and this dark web of sin that he is weaving and David writes and signs and seals by his own hand Uriah's death warrant and places it into Uriah's hands to deliver himself unto death. More sin. Sin after sin after sin after sin. And we see it as a passing sentence, but you might have noted it wasn't even just Uriah that David murdered, but many of his other servants and soldiers died as David was trying to get rid of the sin and prevent the exposure of it.

And for David, and when we read it, it's one short sentence, it's just some collateral damage for him, but for Israel, they lost fathers and husbands and sons. Sin is relentless. It's like the pounding waves of the ocean. When we get caught in that sin cycle, sin leads to sin leads to sin.

And so we have to read here that a hero of our faith, King David, a man who we read as after God's own heart as he looks across the wreckage that he's caused. How does he respond? Verse 25, David said to the messenger, thus you shall say to Joab, do not let this matter displease you for the sword devours now one and now another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it and encourage him, encourage the troops. He says, do not let this matter displease you.

Remember that line. You'll hear something like it again. So God's word doesn't sugarcoat it. Sin is powerful because it's relentless. And this last point we see about sin, I think it's gonna be hard for some of us

to even see these words up on the screen in our church, but sin is attractive, sin is relentless, and sometimes sin actually wins the day. Often in our failed, fallen world, sin is victorious. Look at the final verses of the chapter with me. Verse 26, when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah, her husband, was dead, she lamented over her husband. And when the mourning was over David sent and brought her to his house and she became his wife and

Bore him a son and stopped there with me This is just a couple of short verses But they contain a lot of time passing within them Bathsheba mourns the loss of her husband for a season and then there's a wonderful royal royal wedding. And finally, months later, months would have had to go by, right? And a son is born. And for a time, it seemed like David's lies and his deceit and his murder,

it's all behind him, right? It seemed to be the end of the story. Sin is victorious. And for some of you today, you might feel like you're sitting in one of those seasons, maybe even in your own life. You were attracted to the sin, it's been relentless in your life and you're stuck in a cycle that you just feel like you can't get out of and it feels like sin is victorious in your life, day after day.

Some of you might not be there, but you might be being harmed, being affected by someone else in your life who is there, and their sin is causing you day after day to feel like sin is victorious. But we gotta finish the verse and finish the chapter because there's one more tiny little sentence here at the end of this chapter.

It says, but the thing David had done displeased the Lord." Do you notice where God had been mentioned earlier in this chapter? Because he wasn't. But was God absent? No. David was ignoring him. He was ignoring his will and his ways. He was ignoring the law and what I'm sure was a lot of conviction that a man after God's own heart would be feeling throughout all these actions, relentless sin after sin after sin. God was ignored, but he was not absent

because God is always present. He is always knowing, he is always seeing. And in fact, the most literal, like you'd say the wooden translation of this verse from the Hebrew, this last sentence, sentence is that, but the thing David had done was seen as evil in the eyes of the

Lord. The most laughable pursuit that we ever go after, and that unfortunately many of us go after often, as we deal with attractive, relentless, what feels like victorious sin, is that we hope, we think, we kid ourselves that we can hide it. If I just tell one little lie about this, it'll be behind me.

Or if I just quick delete my history, then nobody will know. Or even just as simple as, hey, come here, come here. I gotta, okay, you gotta close the door. You gotta hear this. God sees, God knows, there is no hidden sin.

You know, I, at the last church I worked at, I unfortunately, I was approached by a person who brought some hidden sin from another one of our pastors sin that he thought was hidden and only this one person knew who was Essentially helping him and they said, you know The reason I haven't brought this forward is because this pastor when we talked about it He said hey if this gets exposed you're gonna ruin my ministry

And you're gonna ruin my family and you're gonna ruin my life. If anyone knows about this, then I'm ruined. If anyone knows about this, someone knows.

God knows.

God always knows. And that's scary, but it's good, because it's freeing to know that this endless pursuit of hiding our sin from our family, from our friends, from co-workers, even we try to justify our sin to in a way hide it from ourselves. We can maybe convince ourselves that this isn't a problem or that it'll never happen again. But our sin is never hidden from God. And in

David's case, God actually exposes David's sin. If you have time this week you can read the next chapter chapter 12 God brings the prophet Nathan to Give a parable to David that will expose the sin David as thought was covered up and in the rearview mirror and Then if you want to keep reading you can read Psalm 51 because by God's grace David who was a man after God's own heart. Even after everything we read today,

even after everything we know, he asked for forgiveness. And he pled with God for mercy for what he called his blood guiltiness. You can read about that in Psalm 51. Even though David and the saints of old,

they didn't know about the bloodied cross and they didn't know about the empty grave, but they did know to look forward to a future sacrifice to a Messiah, someone who would cover their sins, not because of their good works or faithfulness, but because the grace of God.

And when King David failed and gave in to sin, do you know what he couldn't know but what we know now? That the true King, the King of Kings, King Jesus, he never gave in to the attractiveness of sin. He never got caught up in the relentless cycle that happens when we do. And Jesus shows us once and for all

that sin is not ultimately victorious because Jesus was victorious over sin. So much so, he didn't just not sin himself, but what he earned was the opportunity to take our place, to trade us all of our sin for his righteousness, to take our punishment if we believe in him, and if we repent of our sin and give it to Jesus. Stop trying to hide it and give it to Jesus. Sin is attractive.

It really is. And it's relentless. We know after even receiving freedom from the penalty of sin, when we have faith in Jesus, we still wage war with it in our daily thoughts and our words and our actions.

But because of Jesus and because of the Spirit he sent to dwell in us, sin will not be victorious. Not eternally, of course, but not, doesn't even need to be each day of our lives because we have the calling and we have the power to say no to sin. And when we don't, we can be forgiven, just like David was. But as we launch into the season of Easter expectation. We're launching into a series starting this next week

where we're looking at the life of Jesus and the gospel of John as we follow Jesus to the cross and eventually to the empty grave and celebrate that on Easter. What we can continue to remember is that we can both receive forgiveness for sin

and continue to battle sin. Because sin is attractive, but Jesus is more attractive. So when temptation is at your door, focus your eyes on Jesus and dig into his word every single day.

And remember that he offers more true and more deep satisfaction than any temptation to sin could ever dream. Jesus is more. And when sin is relentless, we need to remember that Jesus is more relentless. We might feel like sin has surrounded you on all sides, and how can I get out of this mess, or how can I ever say no to it? But while sin surrounds you, Jesus sent His Spirit to dwell within you.

So you pray every day for the strength to know that I can walk this path of obedience. And even when we do forget, we ignore and neglect God, he is relentlessly pursuing you. Jesus is more. And here and now, it can feel truly like sin is victorious

in our own lives, in this broken world, but we know, we followers of Jesus know that Jesus is more victorious. The sacrifice doesn't just cover our sins, but walking with Jesus every day, we have the power to say no to sin,

walking in the victory of Christ. And so I ask you every time you think of the sad story of David and Bathsheba, you remember that sin is actually attractive and its pull, its path, just feels relentless at times, but ultimately remember that sin is never victorious when Jesus shows up on the scene, amen?

So if you walk away with nothing else today, remember this, that Jesus is better than sin. Would you stand and pray with me? Remember this, that Jesus is better than sin. Remember this, that Jesus is better than sin.

Would you stand and pray with me?