"Faithful Friendship"

Scripture: 2 Samuel 11:26-12:14
Preacher: Rev. Ross Purdy
Date: August 27, 2006

"And Abraham believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness, and he was called God's friend." (James 2:23)

Oh how I would like to be called God's friend!   Wouldn't you?   I consider myself a child of the Heavenly Father.   I consider myself a creation of my Creator.   I consider myself a citizen of the Kingdom where God is my monarch.   But what I would long to be called is this: A friend of God.

There is no greater title in this world or any world.   Not everyone is a friend of God.   It is a title reserved for the faithful.   It is a relationship given to those who walk in God's ways.   Jesus, at one moment, said to his disciples, "No longer do I call you disciples.   You are my friends."   The God of the universe calls us friends.   It is my desire to talk about friendship this morning.   I want you to consider if you are a friend of God.

King David was a friend of God.   But he sold out his friendship for his personal desires.   This is the story of David and Bathsheba as it is recorded in II Samuel 11 and 12.

"In the springtime, when kings go out to war, David stayed home." (II Samuel 11:1)   Why?   Because it's good to be the king and who could challenge you on this one?   So David sent his general Joab to go and fight the Ammonites and besiege Rabbah.   This begins the decline of David's monarchy.   David will ask others to do what David was supposed to do for himself.   A friend identifies himself with his responsibilities.  

David will descend from a shepherd of God's people, caring for their well-being, now to become a wealthy monarch, caring only for his own.   You might remember that when David sat out on the hillside in Israel carefully tending his sheep, his heart was being prepared to be the shepherd of Israel.   As a young boy when he saw a lion approaching to kill one of his lambs, David ran to the lion, grabbed it by its mane and slew it.   Then, later, a bear, came to take another lamb.   David ran and slew it with his knife.   No one touches a lamb whom David loves.    Keep this in mind.   Lambs were most precious to David.   How dare anyone touch one of the lambs!

But the decline of goodness began in David's life.   He had become a wealthy king who lived in comfort.   The protector, the shepherd of Israel will find himself the predator.   All that he despised he would now become.   How could such a decline happen?   It all begins within the heart.   That's what I want each of us to consider this morning.   God offers us a great equalizer in our fight against the evil within our hearts.   So powerful is this gift God wants to give you that if you dare to take it, you'll be free.

The greatest enemy of our souls is the decline that comes through comfort.   Comfort is good...but too much of it can dull the senses.   Is life becoming too easy?   It is easy to withstand evil when it faces us in a battle.   It is even easier to fight against wickedness when we find it in others.   But it is harder to fight against the darkness when we neglect to protect the borders of our own hearts.

David thought the battle was "out there" among the Ammonites.   What he didn't realize was that the real battle was on a rooftop, in the comfort of his own palace.   Its effects will be devastating for both David and his descendants.   When David loses the battle within, he will always be remembered for the damage it took upon his own soul and upon his integrity.   Oh, the grace of God that restored David to righteousness!   I think if he were here, this morning, David would be pleading with each one of us, "Keep your eyes open!   He who has ears to hear, Listen!   It is better to pluck out your eye and go into heaven with one eye, then to have two and go into hell...Hey, wait a minute, Jesus said that (Mark 9:47)

But when our evil hearts begin to let in a little darkness, then a little more, there the enemy begins to win.   It doesn't happen all at once.   Nothing ever does.   Beware of the gradual decline in life.   Ascend and keep ascending.

For David, it was easy to send people off into battle when he did't have to go.   In the Spring, the Bible said, "When the KINGS go out to war..."   Where was David?   He was in his own comfortable home.   He was not with his men.   The first step in his decline was distancing himself from his own responsibilities.   The shepherd who used to fight off lions and bears, even a giant, now let his lambs go to the slaughter without him...he was too comfortable.

As he sat on his rooftop overlooking his vast empire, he saw a beautiful woman taking a bath.   History has interpreted this woman, Bathsheba, in a terrible light.   Some have tried to make her enticing to the king, as though she was trying to "woo" David into doing evil.   I take a hard stand against David here.   David's passions took control of him.   "Who is this woman?   I have to know.   Bring her here to me." Now a woman, or any subject in a kingdom, could not refuse the king.   In fact, Bathsheba had to obey.  

When she arrived, David raped her.   He broke God's law, the seventh commandment about adultery, sleeping with his neighbor's wife, and he even went farther by taking

someone simply because of the desires of his own "self-centered" heart.     People have tried to rewrite history saying, "it takes two to tangle".   But Bathsheba didn't have a choice.   David forced himself on her.   The gradual decline of David's character continued.   Here was God's friend now doing evil in the sight of the Lord.

After this episode, David then declined further.   He bought into the wisdom of the world.   "I'm the king!   God put me here.   I have so much responsibility that what's a little thing like this?   I'm basically good."   Ah, the justification of the world.   Has anyone ever told you that they're basically good?   We only sin a little.   We only tell "white lies".   We're basically good people at heart...but it all depends on the standard we're using to determine goodness.

David must have watched the ad campaigns because he learned that "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.   If you do it quick...over a weekend...in another town, it'll remain there."   What???   Does anyone really believe the campaigns?   I suppose there will be a lot of surprised people when they can't shake off their consequences.

Sweeping it all under the carpet worked for David...until about a month later when a knock came on his palace's door.   Bathsheba said, "David, you've got a problem.   I'm pregnant and I'm already married, remember?   Uriah?   The man who is out there fighting on the battlefield where you're supposed to be?   The man risking everything he has for you?"   And so David had to find a way out?   Why?   Because he couldn't come clean.   He had already swept it under the carpet and the lump on the floor wasn't that bad anymore...well, not until this time when David tripped over it.

David sent for Uriah.   He schemed in his mind to get Uriah to come home for a leave.   "Surely, Uriah, or any man will want to come home."   I wonder if David didn't then think, "In fact, Uriah will probably thank me for the respite from battle...who wouldn't?"   Perhaps David couldn't shake the idea that anyone would look at him and lose respect.   "Yes, Uriah will thank me for this!"   Deception - the great lengths we go to in order to avoid responsibility.   The decline quickened.

But Uriah came back from battle with a question: "My king, why have you called me back?"   "Oh, I was just wondering how we're doing in the battle," David said.   Then David sent Uriah away to go home, hoping that he would sleep with his own wife Bathsheba.   That way, when Bathsheba was found pregnant, who would suspect David?   Deception.   The decline continued.

Uriah refused to sleep with his own wife because he was supposed to be out in the battle and how can he rest and enjoy comfort when his friends were dying?   Uriah slept on the hard ground at the entrance to the palace until he could go back to fulfill his purpose. Uriah was proving his faithfulness to the cause while denying his sense of entitlement to comforts.   What a contrast!   When David discovered that Uriah will not bend to his evil plan he became annoyed.

So David's morality declined further.   He devised an evil plot.   He became arrogant and thought he could manipulate circumstances.   (Do you know people who think they can manipulate circumstances?   They think they're clever.   In reality, truth has a way of stinging). David had the plan written down, then gave it to Uriah to carry.   He sent Uriah back to the front lines of the battle and commanded that when Uriah was in the heat of fighting, at a signal, all of David's army will retreat without Uriah.   This will be the final solution.  

What I am saddened about in this story is that David didn't have any true friends.   No one called David to task.   Everyone was a "yes-man".   David's general, Joab, could have said, "David, this is dirty.   This is rotten.   Not even our enemies would think up something like this!"   But Joab was a thug (in fact, when you read the story again in the eleventh chapter, see how Joab uses Uriah as a pawn also).   I wonder if Joab didn't have a glimmer in his eyes at David's plot.   I wonder if Joab didn't think "what genius!   Deliver the death sentence by the innocent lamb!   At least I'm not guilty in this!"   But then again Joab and all of David's counselors could only say, "I was simply following orders...and who can be responsible for simply following orders, no matter how scandalous it might be against all humanity...right Herr Göring, Herr Hess?

David's friends represented the lowest common denominator.   We will only be as good as our friends.   Jesus knew that in order for the Gospel to be spread, he had to have friends who would ascend to better places.   He sought out the disciples, not for their godliness, but for their potential.   They didn't have to be great friends, but they did have to be faithful...and they had to learn to love the truth.   Who are the people you call friends?  

Whatever happened to the shepherd boy who conquered Israel because his friend, God, wanted goodness in the land?   Whatever happened to the hero?   I guess we are known by the company we keep.

Uriah delivered the message.   Did he open it?   No.   Did he peak inside?   No.   He was doing what he was supposed to do.   He was a friend of David...and now, thanks to David's moral decline, Uriah, his true friend, would die.   Have you ever been deceived by a friend?   Have you ever been hurt by a friend?   Have you ever been slaughtered...by a friend...for convenience sake?  

And so Uriah found himself in the heat of the battle and the army retreated.   Uriah was slaughtered.   Task done.   Whew!   All is well that ends well.   David is free and clear. David's sin remains in Vegas...until the door would knock once again.

God was angry.   His friend, David, had become unrecognizable.   He had taken for granted the friendship of God.   God's friends don't do such things.   God's friends are people of faith; people who live in integrity.   David's other friends were wearing off on him and he needed to get close to God.   We become like our friends.   David avoided God.   But God so loved David that He went to get his friend back.  

Do you need God to come after you this morning?   God will come.   In fact, I hope this morning is an encounter for you of your friend coming after you.   Don't run anymore.

See how God gets his friends back.

David needed a word picture.   David had declined so far into darkness that confrontation wouldn't do any good.   He would resist truth.   He would resist righteousness.   He would even resist common sense.   So God set out a plan to speak to the heart of David.

God sent Nathan, the prophet.   He came knocking on the door to bring the stuff back from Vegas.  

"David, I know you love lambs, so here is a problem we're having in your kingdom that needs to be corrected.   There was a rich man who had a large number of sheep and cattle.   But he had friends coming over and he wanted them to be comfortable.   He didn't want to lose any of his goods, so he went to his neighbor's yard and stole his lamb for the meal.  

Now the neighbor was poor.   He only had one little lamb.   It was like a child to him.   He raised it from birth. It shared his food, drank from his cup and slept in his arms...do you remember your lambs you raised?   Remember how you'd give your life for one of them?   Remember the lion, the bear?   They tried to take your child, your lambs, but you stopped them.   Well, this rich man took the only thing this poor man had.   It was the very thing closest and dearest to his heart.   It was his child...David, you have to do something about this."

David's heart was pierced.   He knew the pain of losing a lamb.   It was the most precious thing to a shepherd.   God was bringing David back to a time that he would remember goodness and the love of purity.   David grew angry.   "This man," he said, "must die.   How dare he have no pity on this poor man and his lamb, his child!   I'll have him killed!"

"David," Nathan paused.   "You are that man."

"God, your friend, anointed you king over Israel.   He gave you everything.   You have wives.   He gave you the house of Israel and Judah"...then Nathan said this, "and David, God said if this wasn't enough, he loved you so much that he would have given you more.   But you took Uriah's wife, his only wife.   Then you killed him by the sword of the Ammonites.   How could you have done this?"

Imagine David's heart.   "Oh, God, what have I become?"  

"Oh, God, what have I become?" Do you ever feel like that?   Perhaps this morning you know that you had a relationship with God at one time but now it seems like it's gone.  

What happened?   Did the darkness deceive you?   Did you let in a little, then a little more?   Did God's voice which was so audible at one time seem to fade?  

Maybe you never knew that God was your friend.   My friend, and I do hope you allow me to call you that, don't you know that God's passion for you is to be your friend?   What is it that is keeping you back from knowing God?   Is it because you don't feel loveable?   Welcome to the club!   None of us do.   The amazing thing is that God knows all about you; your thoughts, your actions, your desires, your dreams, your failures...and God loves you more than you can ever begin to imagine.

Maybe you've always wanted God's closeness, but just didn't know how to make it happen.   There is a beautiful way in which it can happen.   God sent His Son to take all the darkness from you.   Jesus, perfect in holiness and purity, has come to take your darkness, if you'll drop it, and take it upon Himself in order to crucify it to the cross.   He died so that in the eyes of God you can live.   God is tired of you walking in darkness and hates it...don't let anyone tell you He hates you.   He hates what is constantly coming between you and Him.

This morning I want to offer you a chance to become a friend of God.   God is here.   God so loves you that He is coming after you.   God so loves you that He will require that you repent and ask for forgiveness.   Jesus died to take your sins away.   But He can't take them away if you don't let them go.   God so loves you that He will set you free to become His friend again.

That's what happened to David.   He was set free.   He asked for forgiveness.   He was cut to the heart and decided to live right.   God forgave him.   But then, to be fair to the text, God loved David so much that he allowed him to face the consequences of his action.   Oh that I could promise you that if you come to Christ all problems would vanish. They won't.   That would be sweeping it under the carpet and God doesn't do that.   If you have broken relationships, this morning, God can restore it.   It just doesn't magically happen.   You may need to go to the person you've harmed or the one who has harmed you and ask for, or give, forgiveness.   If you've done something wrong and your life is altered, God can steer you back on course, but the damage done takes time to heal.

But I can promise you that you never have to face the world alone again.   You have a friend...a friend who is concerned about your decline and who will always make you ascend...higher and higher...

We are coming to the Lord's table in a few minutes.   Please take a moment and do a little reflecting.   Can you say that you have a friendship with God?   If you haven't received God's gift of Jesus, you can't be a friend of God.   The peace that God offers only comes through Jesus Christ.   It is a different kind of peace than the one the world proclaims.   It is the peace that makes your relationship with God one.