Heart Transformation (Lucas Reutebuch, 02/15/25)

Dear Lord, thank you so much for the Sabbath

day. I ask that you open our hearts and our minds

and give us the Holy Spirit and gain some wisdom

and learn how to better experience renewal in

Christ. I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

So today we're going to be focusing on King David.

For those who don't know, King David was about

30 years old whenever he was coronated as the

second king of Israel. And he reigned for about

40 years. And people loved this guy. I mean,

he was a legend. He was known for being a great

shepherd that protected his flock from beasts.

And he was known as the kid that slayed the giant

with a slingshot. And he was an excellent military

leader. And under his reign, Israel was really

experiencing their golden years, so to speak.

And it really begs the question, what made David

so successful? Well, if you look throughout the

book of Samuel, you'll see that this phrase,

David inquired of the Lord, pops up quite a lot.

Whether the matters were big or small, David

always seemed to inquire of the Lord and to see

what the Lord would have to do for him. But at

some point, something went wrong. What went wrong

and when did it go wrong? And we're starting

here in 2 Samuel 11, verse 1. So basically, all

2 Samuel 11:1

of David's men are out fighting this war, and

David decides to hang back. in Jerusalem, and

maybe reflecting on his past victories, just

kind of soaking it up. And it's interesting to

see that problems arise not whenever David is

working really hard or is super invested. This

is in a time of leisure, and I think a lot of

us can sort of fall into this trap too, and things

are going easy, and we're becoming a little bit

more self -sufficient, that sometimes that's

when Satan wants to come and mess with us. So

it goes on. 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. So apparently, David sees

a woman, and she catches his eye, and he's a

fair bit interested in her, so he decides to

figure out who this woman is. And David sent

someone to find out about her. The man said,

she is Bathsheba, the daughter of Ilium and the

wife of Uriah the Hittite. All right, so at this

point, you know, I'm not so sure if David has

done anything wrong yet, but this is the stopping

point because now David knows that this woman

is married and that this is a no -go. So this

is a man that has been inquiring of the Lord,

a man that has had God at the seat of his throne

in his heart. And at this point, for a man like

that, this should be the stopping point. for

him and his interest in this woman. But this

desire keeps developing in his heart to the point

where it becomes not just a healthy attraction

to someone, but an unhealthy attraction one.

And we see someone who has God seated in his

heart experience a heart deterioration. And it

says that David sent messengers to get her. She

came to him, and he slept with her, and then

she went back home. And then it later says, So

David has just gotten himself into a world of

trouble. And when it comes to Satan and temptation

and doing bad things, usually Satan doesn't tell

you about the aftermath of the initial choice.

Satan tries to tell the young man to go out to

the bar and party, he doesn't tell him about

the hangover he's going to experience later.

Or whenever he tempts the thief to steal from

the store, he doesn't tell him about the lengthy

prison sentence he might have to spend if he

gets caught. And he certainly did not mention

any of the sort of pregnancies with David whenever

he tempted David to see Bathsheba. So right now,

David is at a crossroads, essentially. He has

two choices. He can inquire of the Lord, come

clean and see what he needs to do to fix the

situation, or he can double down and continue

to make bad choices. And unfortunately, that

is what David does. And ultimately, he conspires

against the husband of Bathsheba and has him

murdered. He gets away with it for about a year,

but it's probably one of the worst years of his

life. He is totally depressed, totally detached,

totally distant from God, not writing any psalms

as he's known for, and he is just in a completely

miserable state. And it's about after a year

or so that God tells Nathan the prophet what

David has done, and Nathan confronts David about

this, and he uses a metaphor about a rich man,

and a poor man and the rich man taking from the

poor man and asking David how he felt about that.

And he was enraged with the rich man until Nathan

points it out to David that he is the rich man.

And David at this point, his sins have been exposed

and he now knows the severity of his situation

for nothing in all creation is hidden from God's

sight. Everything is uncovered and laid before

the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed

or hidden that will not be made known. What you

have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight,

and what you have whispered in the ear in the

inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs.

So we've reached the climax of the story. We

had someone that had a pure heart, and now we

have someone that is in need of a heart transformation.

And a lot of us find ourselves in similar situations

where... We are in a state of brokenness or emptiness

or fearfulness or lustfulness, and we are just

at a breaking point, and we're looking for a

way to experience heart renewal. And if we want

to experience heart renewal, we should follow

in the same footsteps that David takes. How do

I experience heart renewal? Well, step one is

to come clean before God. And we see this is

what David had... David does. He says, I have

sinned against the Lord. And he goes into further

detail in this confession in Psalm 51, verses

Psalms 51:1–2

1 through 2. 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. So you are

right in your verdict and justified when you

judge. So the first step is just really just

laying it out before God and coming clean before

him and confessing what you've done and putting

yourself in a position where you're ready to

turn away from this behavior. And step two is

to simply ask God for a clean heart. And we see

this in the Psalms as well. Create in me a pure

heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within

me. When we give it all to God, when we confess

ourselves and we ask him for a heart renewal,

for a new heart, God gives that to us. And it's

not just, it's not superficial. It's not just

on paper. We actually experience a true transformation

of who we are. And I know this because when we

look into the New Testament and we look at the

mentions of David, 50 some odd times that he's

mentioned in the New Testament, never is he mentioned

as an adulterer or a murderer. And Acts 13 .22

says, God testified concerning him, I have found

David, son of Jesse, a man after my own heart.

This is a true experience, a true transformation

we can experience. We can go from total dejection

to complete and fullness and joy. Whenever I

was a kid, I used to live in Sumner County, and

it was in the early 2000s, I think about 2006.

There was this horrible, horrible tornado, like

an F3 tornado that just came and just absolutely

destroyed the county, caused millions of dollars

in damage, killed several people, just total,

total catastrophe, destroyed homes. And there

was one family in particular that... The mom

was at home with the kids, and the dad was stuck

at work, and the tornado was headed right for

them, and it actually went through their house

and destroyed their house, and the mother had

to lay on top of the kids to protect them. And

thankfully, they survived, but they were found

under a pile of rubble, and the mom actually

was paralyzed and confined to a wheelchair for

the rest of their life. And the community got

together, and they did the best they could to...

get food and clothing and shelter for this family.

But they did something else as well. They got

a bunch of signatures for a petition, more signatures

than there had ever been on a petition to get

on a particular show. And it just so happened

to be the extreme home makeover show. And this

family was able to have a brand new home after

having a completely destroyed one. So where you

would go and you would see rubble and death and

destruction, you now see a new beautiful home

and a beautiful family. And this is the same

kind of transformation that we can experience

with Jesus whenever we ask him for a clean heart,

when we confess our sins to him, because he is

the master builder of our life. It may seem at

times like there's no way to... change who we

are, to become a better person, but God guarantees

us and shows us in scripture that when we come

before him, we can experience true heart transformation.

Dear Lord, thank you so much for bringing us

together here. I ask that you can create a clean

heart in all of us and strengthen us with your

spirit and continue to be the master builder

in our lives. Please bless the rest of this day,

and please be with the silent prayer requests

of everyone in this room. I ask these things

in Jesus' name. Amen.