Can I Be A Man After God’s Heart After Great Failure?

Temple Baptist Church - 4-29-2012

2 Samuel 12:24-24

Introduction:

A. We have seen in King David some of the characteristics that made him not only great in the sight of his people but a man after God’s heart.

1. David was a man of Character

2. David was a man of Integrity

3. David was a man of War

4. David was a man of Worship

B. Would it not have been wonderful if the story had stopped at this point? Not really! I do not preach much about Mary, the mother of our Lord, on Mother’s Day because many of our precious women cannot relate to her nor do I preach too often on Joseph, the supposed father of our Lord, on Father’s Day because most of us men cannot relate to his life of which nothing bad is said. 

C. Here is the reason, most of us—both men and women—have things in our past that are failures of one sort or another. The Bible does not stop with the preceding list of wonderful characteristics of David because you could not relate to him. The Bible is like no other religious book because of its stark reality. His does several things for us:

1. It shows us the veracity of our Bible because of its honesty.

2. It shows us both the pitfalls and penalties of sinfulness.

3. It gives to each of us hope. Though we are human, we see that God used another human just like us.

D. We find the concluding statement concerning the life of David in the New Testament where God said it all. 

Acts 13:22-23 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will. (23) Of this man's seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus.”

E. David failed God as greatly as any man in the Bible and yet God forgave and restored him: Certified Reusable! What do we need to do after great failure and forgiveness? I want to give you 5 simple things about David from our text that I pray will be a blessing to each of US!

1. Put the past in a right perspective and behind you. Verse 24. “And David comforted Bathsheba” As with Pilate, we often have to place a placard over our heads with this inscription: “What I have written, I have written!” I wish with all of my heart that I had done differently but I did not and now it is done and cannot be changed. We cannot go back neither can we make the wrong right but it is done! It is over and now, we have before us the rest of our lives. I often tell people that “today is the first day of the rest of your life and what you do with it is up to you.” Put the past in a right perspective: it was sin but, thank God, it is over.

2. Accept the complete forgiveness and restoration that God has provided for you. Verse 24. “And David comforted Bathsheba his wife” Verse 15 refers to Bathsheba as “Uriah’s wife” while verse 24 calls her “his wife!” There is a great truth to be found in this verse. While David’s taking of another man’s wife was sin, she has now been recognized BY GOD as David’s wife and the bed is undefiled! If I is failure within or with a marriage, who you are now married to is your husband or wife! God will and has forgiven your failures just as He did David’s. Sin is to be confessed and repented of and God faithfully restores the penitent. This verse does not justify sin but leads to the next point:

3. Pick your life back up and go on for the Lord. Verse 24. “And David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went in unto her, and lay with her: and she bare a son, and he called his name Solomon” God did not tell David to leave Bathsheba nor did he condemn him for having another child with her. Leave your sin in the past instead of lying in the “dust” of failure and causing that past failure to dictate your future. Life goes on, even after great failure such as David’s. “Solomon” means “peaceful” which comes from the root word “shalom” which we know to mean peace.

4. Know that God can and will bless your life afterward. Verse 24b-25. “and the LORD loved him. And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet; and he called his name Jedidiah” The Lord placed His “stamp of approval” on the conception and birth of Solomon, a beautiful type of Christ! Verse 24b says that the “LORD loved him.” This son was born out of a beautiful union between man and wife. In verse 25, God said to call Solomon “Jedidiah,” which means “beloved of JAH.” JAH is on Old Testament word for the LORD which means “The LORD, most vehement!” Simply stated, Jedidiah means “beloved of the LORD most vehemently,” with all of God’s heart!

5. Know that God can and is willing to use you for His glory. Verse 25. “And he sent by the hand of Nathan the prophet” When David sinned, God sent Nathan to let him know that the Lord was displeased. After confession and restoration, God once again sent the man of God to David as a sign of God’s approval. David was once again “a man after mine own heart” in the sight of God!