Sermon Tone Analysis

ATTENTION

Mike Huckabee tells about his son, John Mark, who was 4-years old.

He was playing in the yard when he got a splinter in his foot.

He started to cry and ran to Mike crying, “I got a splinter in my foot.”

Mike made him sit down on the couch so he could look at it.

When John Mark held up his foot, Mike reached down to pull out the splinter, and John Mark said what every kid says at that point.

What do they say?

That’s right!

“Don’t touch it!”

"What do you want me to do?

Take a picture of it and mount it on the wall?

I've got to touch it, Son.

I don't levitate splinters out of your foot.

There is no choice."

"It will hurt," he moaned.

I said, "It might, but it won't hurt as long.

It will sure feel a lot better when I get the splinter out."

But somehow that wasn't adequate.

So Mike says his wife Janet held down the top of him while he tried to hold down the bottom of him and pull that splinter out.

He was kicking and screaming and jerking in all different directions, and here Mike was with the tweezers, trying to pull out the splinter.

He said, “I was afraid that I would jab those tweezers way up into his foot.”

Mike said he wanted to say to him, "Son, don't you trust me?

What do you think I'm going to do, cut your foot off?

I'm not here to hurt you.

I'm here to help you, and if you don't let me help you, it's going to get worse not better.

Trust me; I'm your father.

I love you.

I care about you.

I do this only to help you.

Be still.

Relax."

I think sometimes God in heaven must look down upon us.

We’re writing in the pain of the sin we’ve committed or the bad attitude we’ve nursed, and we must be like a little child who says, "God, I'm hurt.

God help me."

God reaches in to help us, and the first thing we do is say, "God, don't touch me!

Don't do that God!" God is saying, "But I've got to reach in there and deal with the hurt.

It may hurt a little, or even a lot but I've got to do it."

We say, "No, God.

Please, nothing like that!"

So here we are fighting with God.

It is the equivalent of being in surgery when the surgeon has both of his arms up to his elbows in your abdomen, and suddenly you decide that you don't want to be operated on and try to get off the table.

How many times in our lives do we find ourselves on the surgery table of the Almighty, where God is trying to work in our lives that miracle of making us like Christ, and when we realize what God's doing, we wake up and say, "God, I don't want you to do this.

Let me out of here!"

NEED

That’s the way so many are.

They resist the change that God wants to bring to their lives.

They fear it and think its destructive.

You’re afraid that being thoroughly right with God would mean the loss of life as you know it.

You’re like the kid who can’t stand the splinter in his foot, and he really is afraid of not getting it out, but he’s even more afraid of the pain that may come his way if he lets his dad dig it out.

I want you to listen this morning because I want you to know that God’s restoration process is nothing to be afraid of.

It’s the only way to really be healed, spiritually speaking.

Others of us genuinely want God’s restoration in our lives.

We look over all the bad decisions we’ve made in our lives and think, “There’s no way to ever be right again.

What I’ve done is so bad that I can’t and most of all, I don’t deserve to be forgiven.”

I am praying for you this morning if you think that in your heart.

You see, real restoration is possible.

Real forgiveness can come to your heart.

You can once again experience the unbelievable grace of God in your life.

One reason I am so glad that God lets us in on this experience David had with Bathsheba is because it gives me and you hope.

If David could steal his friend’s wife, have him killed, then try to cover it and, yet, have God restore him, surely God can forgive and restore you.

BACKGROUND

And that is just what God does for David.

The last two weeks we have suffered through David’s terrible sin and his cover up.

We’ve listened as God has so powerfully confronted him that he reaches a point of absolute brokenness.

Now look at chapter 12, verses 13-25 and let’s see how God restores him:

So David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”

And Nathan said to David, “The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die.

14 However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.” 15 Then Nathan departed to his house.

And the Lord struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became ill.

16 David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground.

17 So the elders of his house arose and went to him, to raise him up from the ground.

But he would not, nor did he eat food with them.

18 Then on the seventh day it came to pass that the child died.

And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead.

For they said, “Indeed, while the child was alive, we spoke to him, and he would not heed our voice.

How can we tell him that the child is dead?

He may do some harm!”

19 When David saw that his servants were whispering, David perceived that the child was dead.

Therefore David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?”

And they said, “He is dead.”

20 So David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the Lord and worshiped.

Then he went to his own house; and when he requested, they set food before him, and he ate.

21 Then his servants said to him, “What is this that you have done?

You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food.”

22 And he said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell whether the Lord will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ 23 But now he is dead; why should I fast?

Can I bring him back again?

I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”

Then David comforted Bathsheba his wife, and went in to her and lay with her.

So she bore a son, and he called his name Solomon.

Now the Lord loved him, 25 and He sent word by the hand of Nathan the prophet: So he called his name Jedidiah, because of the Lord.

This passage shows us two principles of restoration.

The first is this

DIV 1: RESTORATION REQUIRES TRUE REPENTANCE

EXPLANATION

I read you 2 Cor 7:10 last week, do you remember what it said?

It talked about 2 kinds of sorrow, one which led to real repentance and the other which lead to death.

David had real sorrow for his sin.

It’s interesting to note that Saul, when he is confronted by Samuel for his rebellion and sin, uses the very same words that David does in his confession.

Both of them admit that they have sinned, yet one goes on to the restoration of the favor of God, while the other one continues down the road of abject rebellion.

What makes the difference?