June 27, 2026, ”The Slippery Slope from the Roof” Pastor Jamey Houghton

Hello and welcome to church. We're so

glad that you were able to join us here

at the McDonald Road 7th Day Adventist

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church here at McDonald Road and hope

that you are blessed in your worship

together with us today. God bless and

enjoy our worship service.

For three years, I worked in the Rocky

Mountain Conference um as a student

evangelism coordinator training kids to

do mission trips and to preach full

evangelistic series all over the world.

and I worked withmies, public schools,

homeschool kids. Um, really enjoyed

working with these young people and I've

I've led out on more mission trips than

I can count. And working with teenagers

is a lot of fun. And one rule that I

have for all of my mission trips is that

there's no dating on the mission trips.

If you're dating before the mission

trip, that's fine. just please don't

date on my mission trip and let's not

have any couples on the mission trip.

Just kind of pause the relationship, be

friends, hang out, but but no

relationships on the mission trip. That

makes sense, right? Because I really

don't want to have to be dealing with

that on mission trip stuff. I mean,

great place to meet somebody, but uh

that's kind of the hard and fast rule

for my mission trips. No dating on

mission trips. So, we went through the

whole there was only one couple on this

particular mission trip to uh Costa

Rica. There was one couple that were

dating, super nice young people, and

they, you know, I I made it general, so

I didn't, you know, point them out, but

I just said, "Hey, no dating on the

mission trip." Right. Okay. So, we get

down to Costa Rica and we have iPads

that the kids all use for the

presentations in the evenings. We work

on building sites in the mornings. We

have a couple hours in the afternoon

that are free and then they can use

those to work on their presentations in

the evening. And then in the evenings,

we're out in all these different

villages doing our meetings.

Well, one afternoon, and all of the

iPads are linked to my iPad's account,

by the way.

One afternoon, my iPad pings. I see a

notification on my iPad. I open it up,

and there's a really nice picture of

this couple, very close, not much room

for the Holy Spirit between these two.

And she's giving him a big wet kiss on

the cheek. And I was like, "Oh, this is

a little bit more than I had anticipated

us having on this mission trip as far as

relationships go." I thought, "Okay,

well, they have no idea that I saw this,

but I'm going to have to go and talk to

them." So, I screenshotted it on my

phone and went to go look for him

because they're like, "I got to have a

chat with them. We can't, you know, they

got to cool their jets a little bit."

So, I went and found him. They had

separate. He'd gone over by the boys and

she was hanging with the girls. And I

went and found her. I said, "Hey, can I

talk to you for just a second?" She

said, "Sure." So, she comes over and uh

I said, 'Hey, you and so and so, you

guys been keeping things, you know,

kosher on the trip here? Everything's

been like we talked about. Oh, yeah,

Pastor Jamie. Yeah. No, we haven't. I

said, "Nothing at all." "No, no, no,

no." And I I said, "Oh, you want to tell

me a little bit about this picture right

here?" And I showed her the picture of

her kissing him on the cheek. Awfully

close.

And she she kind of blushes a little bit

and she says, "Oh, I'm so sorry, Pastor

Jamie. That won't happen again. We uh we

I didn't know you were going to see

this. I was like, "Yeah, I bet you

didn't."

She's uh so sorry it won't happen again.

You could see just guilt all over her

face as soon as she saw that I had the

picture. She just like she said, "It

won't happen again. Won't happen." "All

right, just make sure it doesn't happen

again. You're fine. Don't worry about

it. Just just don't do it again." Okay.

So, I was like, "I got to go find the

boy." So, I went and found him. He was

with his buddies. I say, "Come here for

a minute." I can't kind of gave him the

same the same spiel. See, you guys been

I led him a little bit. You haven't been

doing it. Oh, no. No, Pastor Jamie. I

did the same thing I showed him. tell me

about this picture. There he is getting

a wet one right on the cheek. And his

face goes couldn't believe I had it and

embarrassed and he says, "Uh, I'm so

sorry, Pastor Jamie. It won't happen

again. We're going to keep it no more

pictures. No more we we'll keep it real

kosher the whole rest of the trip." I

appreciate it. Thank you very much. But

the guilt on their faces, as soon as I

showed them the picture that they were

denying,

the look on their face was just shock,

like we're busted.

Nobody likes to feel guilt.

We've all felt guilt at some point.

Maybe when you were a kid and your mom

was baking some cookies or something and

she said, "Don't touch the cookies.

They're for later." And you had a weak

moment and you had some cookie. You

remember the guilt that you felt with

that or whatever your parents told you

not to do and you did it anyways. You

remember the guilt? It kind of bothered

you and you were like, "Shouldn't have

done it. I might get caught. I might not

get caught." But the thought of maybe

getting caught was bothering you and

your conscience was there like I

shouldn't have done it. You know the

feel of guilt and it's and it's kind of

in the pity of your stomach.

That's where we pick up with the story

of David dealing with guilt

because of some actions that he's taken.

Right now in the story of David, we're

jumping into 2 Samuel chapter 11. Things

2 Samuel 11 · chapter mention

are good for David right now.

David has had a lot of success. If you

look in chapter 10, just at the at the

end of chapter 10 before we go into

chapter 11, he's been out to battle.

There's multiple kings that he's

conquered, which now means that they pay

tribute to him. So, he's got income

coming in probably in addition to taking

whatever that he wanted from them. We

see in the next chapter over the end of

chapter 12 that he has a David gets the

crown of a king that he conquered that

has tons of jewels on it. It's super

heavy. He's getting all kinds of income.

His arm is doing well. Judah and Israel

are together. Things are great for

David.

When they're out to battle, he says,

"You know what, Joab? You take the guys.

I'm going to go ahead and stay here in

the palace."

That's where we find him in chapter 11.

It happened in the spring of the year at

the time when the kings go to battle

that David sent Joab and his servants

with him and all of Israel and they

destroyed the people of Ammon and

besieged Rabba. But David stayed at

Jerusalem. It says in the springtime

when kings went to battle, why did they

go to battle in springtime? In the

winter time, the weather was terrible.

Rainy, muddy roads, and they had to have

good roads to take all the supplies out

to the armies, the weather was terrible.

They didn't want to be camping out in

the rain in the cold rain. And it snows

at this in this area. Remember, one of

David's mighty men killed a lion in a

snowy pit, remember? So, it snows there.

And so basically, it was so hard to to

provide supplies for an army and nobody

likes the weather that everybody kind of

agreed that they're going to be fair

weather fighters and they're only going

to fight when the weather's good. So

that's why it says in the time when they

would go to fight in the springtime when

the weather's better. But David remained

in Jerusalem.

And it happened one evening that David

arose from his bed and walked on the

roof of the king's house. And from the

roof, he saw a woman. Her name ends up

being Ba Sheeba.

She's likely the granddaughter of a of

an advisor of David. She's probably from

a known family, a beautiful woman. And

she's married to Uriah the Hitittite,

not Uriah the Israelite. Uriah the

Hittite, which tells us that Uriah was a

convert to the worship of the God of

heaven. The Hittite capital was a place

called Hatushia, which is in central

Turkey. I've been to Hatushia before.

Beautiful, beautiful place. You'll see

uh sheep herders with their Anatolian

shepherds out there guarding the sheep.

It's the ruins of the of the Hittite

capital Husha are still there today.

Beautiful, beautiful place. Central

Turkey. That's where Uriah the Hitittite

is from. But Uriah's a convert to the to

worship of the God of heaven.

Uriah is out fighting.

Ba Sheba's at home. David sees Ba'ath

Sheba

and he allows his mind to wander.

I'm not going to go into all the

details,

but David gets a message

and she says that she's conceived.

She says to David through a message, I

am with child.

Now, David,

David had an option when he was up on

the rooftop. Actually, had two options.

He could allow his mind to wander, his

eye to stay where he was looking, or he

could have looked away. How much better

would it have been if he looked away?

How much heartache and pain could he

have avoided for a lot of people if he

had just looked away?

We find that he's in in a in a life in a

life stage where it's peaceful. He

doesn't have anything going on. It's a

little bit of leisure.

Everything is good. And his guard seems

to be down here.

And for us, we experience all kinds of

different temptations. Maybe some of the

same as as David, maybe some different

than David.

The devil tempts us in ways where we're

weak.

But one way that we can help fight

against temptation is to keep our mind

focused on God

and not allow our mind to wander onto

the different temptations that the devil

puts in our path. David

could have turned away and gone back to

bed,

but he didn't. And now he gets this

message that completely turns him upside

down because really by Levitical law he

could be put to death for this. That's a

very real possibility. If word spreads

if Uriah gets back, Uriah could make a

case for the death of David.

So David's in a pickle now. And this is

just like sin. Once you make a mistake,

if you try and hide it or cover up,

you've got to make another mistake to

cover that mistake. Then you got to make

another one to cover that one. And it's

this slippery slope that goes downhill.

And that's exactly where David finds

himself.

Patriarchs and Prophets page 717 and

7:18. It says, "It is impossible for us

in our own strength to maintain the

conflict. And whatever diverts the mind

from God, whatever leads to

self-exaltation or to self-dependence is

surely preparing the way for our

overthrow." The tenor of the Bible is to

inculcate distrust of human power and

encourage trust in divine power. It was

the spirit of self-confidence and

self-exaltation that prepared the way

for David's fall. David was surrounded

by the fruits of victory and the honors

of the w of his wise and able rule. It

was now while he was at ease and

unguarded that the tempter seized

opportunity to occupy his mind. That

last part caught me when I read this.

The devil occupied his mind. If your

mind is already filled with godly

things, there's no room for the devil to

occupy your mind. If we keep our minds

set on things above, there's no room for

those temptations to stick around.

And this downtime, this ease allowed for

the devil to access his mind and to

occupy his mind. She says,

"Now, David hatches a plan to try and

cover everything up so nobody knows."

Verse six says, "David sent to Joab,

saying, "Send me Uriah the Hitittite,

and Joab sent Uriah to David." When

Uriah had come to him, David asked how

Joab was doing, how the people were

doing, how the war prospered. Can you

imagine how awkward that conversation

would have been?

David is sitting down talking to a man

he has wronged

and playing it off like there's nothing

going on. Uriah must have thought, "Why

is he calling me and asking me for a

report? I'm not Joab. You want me to

tell you how Joab's doing? This is such

a weird conversation.

How the war is going?" Okay.

Verse 8, David had a plan. He says, "Go

down to your house, wash your feet." So

Uriah departed from the king's house,

and a gift of food from the king

followed him. But Uriah slept at the

door of the king's house with all the

servants of his lord and did not go down

to his house.

This was David's plan to cover things

up.

So when they told David, saying Uriah

did not go down to his house, he's got

spies watching Uriah,

letting him know where he's at, hoping

that he goes home.

David calls Uriah back and says, "Did

you not come from a long journey? Why

didn't you go down to your house?" Can

you can you sense the desperation in

David's voice here?

Why didn't you go home? You should have

gone home. Why aren't you home?

His plan is unraveling.

Here's what Uriah says. This really

makes me like Uriah. He's a good guy, I

think. He says to David, "The ark and

Israel and Judah are dwelling in tents,

and my lord Joab and the servants of my

Lord are encamped in open fields. Shall

I then go into my house and eat and

drink and lie with my wife? as you live

and as your soul lives, I will not do

this thing. Can you imagine David's face

when he hears those words?

Then David said to Uriah, "Wait here

today also, and tomorrow I will let you

depart." So Uriah remained in Jerusalem

that day and the next. But David's not

done yet. He still has one last ditch

effort to try and get Uriah to go home.

Verse 13 says, "Now when David called

him, he ate and drank before him, and he

made him drunk. And at evening he went

out to lie on his bed with the servants

of the Lord. But he did not go down to

his house.

I find it fascinating that there's

alcohol on tap in David's house,

readily available right there.

And that he would use alcohol to try and

get Uriah to get drunk to compromise

Uriah's convictions.

I think that is one of the best things

that alcohol does is compromise people's

convictions.

Alcohol has ruined more people's lives

than maybe anything else on the planet.

And some people might say, well, see,

David had alcohol there and he's, you

know, a good guy in the Bible. So then

maybe alcohol is not a big deal. Today

in today's society, secular society for

sure, but even in Christian and 7th Day

Adventist circles, alcohol is is kind of

given given a pass as not that big of a

deal.

I can't find anywhere in the Bible where

it's like two thumbs up for alcohol.

People say, "Well, you know, what about

Paul?" He didn't say that that the the

alcohol was good for your stomach. It's

the grape that's good for your stomach.

If you want to look at more on this, I

have a video on my YouTube channel,

8:32, and the the topic of the video is,

"Will there be alcohol in heaven?"

That's a question we should ask, right?

Will there be booze in heaven after

choir practice with the angels? Can you

have a Miller Light?

Well, okay. Was there alcohol in the

Garden of Eden? Absolutely not. Because

the fermentation process means that

there has to be breakdown. Um, and and

here I'll I'll read it to you exactly

what happens. Decomposition in order for

fermentation to to happen is the process

by which dead what word did I say?

>> Dead organic substances are broken down

into simpler organic or inorganic matter

such as carbon dioxide, water, simple

sugars, and mineral salts. Was there

anything dead in the Garden of Eden?

Will there be anything dead in heaven?

No. If you read one of the best verses

in the Bible is Revelation 21:4. It

Revelation 21:4

says, "There will be no more death in

heaven." Now, we look at that, we're

like, "Amazing. No more human death.

That's the best news ever. We're never

going to die. Our loved ones are never

going to die. But it it doesn't just

mean us.

There is nothing that's going to die in

heaven, which means that nothing can

ferment in heaven, which means there's

no booze in heaven. Nobody's going to be

drinking alcohol in heaven.

And as we prepare to be citizens of

heaven, doesn't it make sense that we

prepare for that lifestyle right now?

It's not like God's trying to keep us

from having fun. God's trying to help us

avoid trouble.

He's He's trying to help us have clear

minds so that we can delineate between

temptation and truth. That's why God

repeatedly says, "Don't be drunk. Don't

be drinking alcohol." That's why there

won't be booze in heaven.

It's not because God's trying to

withhold something from us. It's God

trying to help us and prepare us to be

citizens of heaven.

And here, David uses alcohol to try and

get Uriah to compromise.

That doesn't work. He doesn't go home.

So, David resorts to murder. He writes a

letter telling Joab to put Uriah at the

hottest point of the battle where for

sure he's going to die. He says, ' And I

want you to pull back to make sure this

guy dies. He seals the letter and hands

it to Uriah himself.

Says, "Give this letter to Joab." It's

his own death sentence. And you look at

this and you're like, "How could David

David who wouldn't touch Saul's a hair

on his head

stoop this low?"

Now he's covering his own sin,

doing anything, adding sin to sin.

And that's exactly what happens.

Joab

partners with David in this crime.

Joab can't just be like, "Well, I was

just following orders." That doesn't

work here. Joab participates in this

murder. And it says multiple people

died. It says some of the people of the

servants of David fell and Uriah the

Hitittite died also. More than just

Uriah died. Several other soldiers died

there for David's cover up.

Verse 26, it says, "When the wife of

Uriah heard that Uriah her husband, was

dead, she mourned for her husband." That

would be a 7-day mourning period. And

when her 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. It says

David thought he was getting away with

all this stuff and hiding all this

stuff, but God saw it all. And it's not

that God's just waiting for us to mess

up. It's God looking at and saying,

"What are you doing? You're hurting

yourself.

Stop hurting other people and hurting

yourself." That's what sin is.

But the idea of sin hurting God, which

David talks about a little bit later on

in in uh Psalm 51,

that's really the nature of sin. We sin

and hurt each other. David sinned

against Uriah, but more importantly, he

sinned against God. And and the idea of

sin and how serious it is

kind of hit me aresh as I was reading

through this because it made me think of

the story of Job.

And I remember what God said about Job

to Satan when they were having this

conversation. Remember in Job chapter 1,

Job 1 · chapter mention

I think it is. God said, "Have you

considered my servant Job? Does this

mean that that God and the devil have

conversations about us?"

Surely that happens.

And in those conversations, I hope that

I'm on God's side of the conversation

where God can say, "Have you considered

my servant Jamie?"

as opposed to the opposite side saying,

"Did you see what I got Jamie to do this

week?" and throwing it in God's face.

When I look at it that way, it makes me

really want to be on God's side so I

don't I don't cause him that pain

because sin is against each other as

well. But it's also against God because

God died for our sins.

And when we see sin in that light, it

makes it that much worse and it should

make us not want to partake in that.

Chapter 12,

God sends Nathan the prophet.

And can you imagine God telling Nathan

what he wanted him to go tell David?

That's a tough message. Two people have

died because of the message that they

sent to David. the one that brought the

news of King Saul and the one that

brought the news of Saul's son, the

death. David had both of them executed

because they were celebrating what he

didn't think they should celebrate. So

bringing bringing a bad message to a

king is a pretty dangerous thing. And

Nathan was probably like, "You want me

to say what to David?"

But Nathan was faithful.

And it says in chapter 12, "And he came

to him and said to him, there are,"

she's talking Nathan talking to David.

And he says, "There are two men in one

city, one rich and the other poor. The

rich man had exceedingly many flocks and

herds, but the poor man had nothing

except one little U lamb which he had

brought and bought and nourished and it

grew up together with him and with his

children. And it ate at his own his own

food and drank from his own cup and lay

in his bosom. And it was like a daughter

to it." It paints this picture of this

guy. This guy loved this little lamb.

His kids loved the lamb. It's the only

lamb they had. And a traveler came to

the rich man, verse four, who refused to

take from his own flock and from his own

herd to prepare for one one for the

wayfairing man who had come to him. But

he took the poor man's lamb and prepared

it for the man who had come to him. He's

telling David this story.

Verse 5, David's anger was greatly

aroused at the man. The sense of justice

in David was was strong still even after

he'd messed up.

And David says to Nathan, "As the Lord

lives, the man who has done this shall

surely die,

and he shall restore four-fold for the

lamb because he did this thing and be

and because he had no pity." Then Nathan

says to David some strong words.

He says, "You are that man."

Can you imagine David's face when he

hears from God's prophet the turnaround

on that story and that he's just

sentenced himself

in this story. He goes on verse 9, "Why

have you despised the commandment of the

Lord to do evil in his sight? You have

killed Uriah the Hitittite and with a

sword and have taken his wife to be your

wife and have killed him with the sword

of the people of Ammon." He's confronted

with his sin right there.

And David says to Nathan verse 13, "I

have sinned against the Lord." Here's

the difference between David and Saul.

Saul would push back and excuse what he

did. David, and it sometimes took a

prophet coming to get him straight,

would realize

what he had done was wrong and repent.

Let's turn over to Psalm 51. David

writes Psalm 51 at this time after his

visit from Nathan the prophet. And

there's some highlights in here that

you'll probably find to be familiar

because you've read these before. And it

tells us a little bit about the heart of

David as he's confronted with this sin

and what his response is to this sin.

Chapter 51 verse one, he starts off,

"Have mercy on me, oh God." At the end

of that verse, it says, "Blot out my

transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and

cleanse me from my sin. For I

acknowledge my transgression and my sin

is always before me. You know,

basically what he's saying here is that

he's had to deal with guilt since this

happened.

Guilt can be a good thing.

What does guilt do to us? Thoughts from

the Mount of Blessings, page 10. She

says, "God reveals to us our guilt that

we may flee to Christ and through him be

set free from the bondage of sin and

rejoice in the liberty of the sons of

God in true contrition we may come to

the foot of the cross and there leave

our burdens." I love this quote and this

is exactly what can be our story as

well. If we've been carrying burdens

around, if we've been dealing with guilt

in our own lives where the Holy Spirit's

been pricking our conscience and saying,

"You need this to not be a part of your

life. You need to make this right with

God." We have the opportunity to come to

the foot of the cross and ask

forgiveness of God and leave our burdens

there. I like that part.

David here is expressing these burdens

have been be before him constantly. He's

been his conscience has been bothered.

He's been trying to figure this out, but

just adding sin on top of sin.

But Jesus says,

"Come to me all you who are weary and

heavy laden and I will give you rest."

How do we have that rest? When we lay

our burdens down at Jesus' feet

and we leave them there at the foot of

the cross and experience his grace.

That's how we can have true happiness.

David continues

some verses you may find familiar.

Again, verse 7, purge me with hip and I

will be clean. Wash me and I shall be

whiter than snow. This word, this this

phrase is in our closing song in just a

little bit. We've added it to songs

because it's so powerful. Verse 10,

create in me a clean heart, oh God, and

renew a steadfast spirit within me. This

is part of a song as well. Anybody ever

learned this to song before?

Create in me a clean heart, oh God, and

renew a steadfast spirit with me. Do not

cast me away from your presence. Do not

take your holy spirit from me. Restore

to me the joy of your salvation, and

uphold me by your generous spirit. Verse

14, deliver me from the guilt of

bloodshed, oh God, the God of my

salvation. When David is confronted with

guilt and with sin, he goes to God

and he repents and asks for forgiveness

and a change of heart. He says, "Wash me

and I shall be whiter than snow." A

fresh start is what David is wanting and

needing.

You see,

the devil

likes to portray sin as something that's

desirable. Here in Patriarchs and

Prophets, the author says, "From the

beginning, Satan has portrayed to men

the gains to be won by transgression.

Thus, he seduced the angels. Thus, he

tempted Adam and Eve to sin. And thus,

he is still leading multitudes away from

obedience to God." The path of

transgression is made to appear

desirable. But as Proverbs says, but it

is in the end it is the way of death.

And that's the way of temptation.

Temptation wouldn't be a temptation

unless it looked good, right? Unless we

thought, hey, that might be a viable

option. It was the same way with Adam

and Eve in in the Garden of Eden. The

devil said, "Hey, if you eat this fruit,

you're going to be smarter." Like,

smarter? That sounds good.

That sounds like a positive thing.

If we remain soberminded

and with our noses in the Bible, we will

be able to delineate between what is

desirable and what is true and good for

us.

But I believe it's only when we keep God

before us and our faces towards Jesus

and knowing what the Bible says that we

will know what is true and what is a

temptation. and then we'll be able to

avoid the temptation even better.

When we have times like David, when

we've messed up,

let's look to his example of going back

to God. Maybe maybe don't make it so

that God has to send a Nathan to us,

but go right to him. There's another

quote from Thoughts on the Mount of

Blessings, page eight. I love this

quote.

Where whatever may have been your past

experience, however discouraging your

present circumstance,

if you will come to Jesus just as you

are, weak, helpless, and desparing, our

compassionate savior will meet you a

great way off and will throw around you

his arms of love and his robe of

righteousness. Doesn't this paint just

an incredible picture of Jesus? I love

it. It says, "Our compassionate savior

will meet you a long way off, a great

way off." He's looking for you to come

back to him. His arms are wide open for

you to come back to him. People may

think that that it's it's what you've

done is, "Well, Jesus may not be ready

for me to come back." No, no, no. Jesus

is always ready for you to come back to

him with arms wide open, ready for a

bear hug. Have you ever been away from

somebody for a really long time, maybe

years, somebody you love, and you see

them again, and you give them a huge

hug, and you hold on tight because you

love that person, you've missed that

person. Aren't those hugs the best?

You just hang on, and there's there's

some chemistry that must happen in there

because you're just want to hang on and

there's so much love in that hug.

I love this depiction. Our our

compassionate savior will meet you a

great way off and will throw around you

his arms of love and his robe of

righteousness. No matter what your past

has been, the arms of Jesus are always

open for you to come home.

>> And his grace and forgiveness is greater

than anything you could have had in your

past. If God can forgive David, he can

forgive you and I.

His grace is greater than our sins.

There's a young lady this week on

Wednesday

that has a Tik Tok channel, very

successful one, almost a million

followers,

and

she's been getting slaughtered

in the comments and the vlogs and

everything this week.

Her her Tik Tok channel is called Alex

Reads Tarret and she reads tarot cards,

this tarot readings and promotes

witchcraft on her channel. Very

successful. She's had, like I said,

almost a million followers on her Tik

Tok channel, something like 58 million

likes on her videos.

And she put out a video on Wednesday.

And in her video, she said, "I'm no

longer going to be making videos about

tarot cards and witchcraft."

She said, "In fact, I'm going to be

deleting all my videos that I've made."

She said, "Over the last several months,

this isn't just a snap decision. Over

the last several months, I've felt that

God has been leading me into a

relationship with him.

>> And I'm going to be pursuing that and

following the prompings that I've been

receiving from God and pointing me

towards him.

And I'm going to be changing the

direction of my life.

Within 20 for 48 hours, she lost 30,000

subscribers. And somebody commented on

there said, "Yeah, but you've got

billions of angels cheering you on in

heaven, so that's okay."

She switched sides.

She followed the prompings of the Holy

Spirit to follow the God of heaven and

to give up working for the dark side.

And you know what?

Jesus doesn't care about any of those

videos she used to make.

What Jesus cares about is her future and

where she's going now.

Jesus can wipe her slate clean for all

the bad stuff she's done in the past.

And she's pointed a lot of people to the

adversary.

But you know what? She's got a fresh

life with Jesus now.

And it's as if that stuff didn't even

happen. The Bible says that that it's as

if our sins are thrown in the deepest

part of the ocean. And then it says a

little bit later on that there's no

ocean in heaven. There's no sea in

heaven. Do you ever put those two

together? That means your sins are gone

as if they never even happened.

That's the grace of Jesus. He takes care

of our past and guides us in our future.

And our future with him is the only

thing that matters.

Like David said, "Create in me a clean

heart, oh God." Part of part of this

whole change in life is us realizing

that our sins are hurtful to people, to

ourselves, or to God and sincerely

desiring to change.

And then God's grace and God's power

help us be overcomers

of those old habits and those old sins

and those old temptations.

And God will give us the strength and

the courage to look away when we need

to. to look up when we need to to avoid

those temptations that the devil puts in

our past.

First John 1:9 says, "If you confess

1 John 1:9

your sins, he is faithful and just to

forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us

from all unrighteousness."

Like it says in Thoughts from the Mount

of Blessing, in true contrition, we may

come to the foot of the cross and leave

our burdens there.

This story is not about David's sins.

This story is about David's forgiveness

and grace

and God taking him

and washing him and making him whiter

than snow.

And God will do the same thing for you

and me. This story of David's fall and

his his resurgence with Jesus, with God

and this forgiveness is our story, too.

And whenever you feel

like you've gone too far, that maybe God

doesn't want you back, I want you to

remember this quote right here from

Thoughts from the Mount of Blessings,

page 8.

Whatever may have been your past

experience,

however discouraging your present

circumstances, if you will come to Jesus

just as you are, weak, helpless, and

desparing,

your compassionate savior will meet you

a great way off and will throw around

you his arms of love and his robe of

righteousness. What a good God. want to

invite our worship uh singers to come up

and and help lead our closing song. And

we quote David in this closing song. And

it's Jesus paid it all. And the words

say, "I hear the Savior say, "Thy

strength indeed is small. Child of

weakness, watch and pray. Find in me

thine all in all." And the chorus goes,

"Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe.

Sin has left a crimson crimson stain."

And here's David's word. He washed it

white as snow. Let's sing together our

closing song. Stand with us.

Father in heaven, thank you for the

story of grace in David's life. Lord,

thank you for the story of grace in our

lives as well. And Lord, may we when we

feel the prick of conscience in our

minds and in our hearts, may we respond

to those by coming to your feet to the

foot of the cross

and making things right with you and

asking for that forgiveness so that we

can be washed clean like David says and

leave our burdens there at the foot of

the cross and live looking up towards

you. Lord, thank you for

making grace possible by your sacrifice.

And Lord,

we ask that you give us the courage to

keep looking up and looking away

when we need to from the temptations

that the devil puts in our line of

sight. Keep us faithful, God, to you

till you come to take us home. In Jesus

name I pray. Amen.

Thanks so much for joining us here at

the McDonald Road 7th Day Adventist

Church for worship. Each month we reach

between 25 and 30,000 people with gospel

content online. We're looking to expand

our audiovisisual department this year

and looking to raise $30,000 in this

project. We would love for you to

partner with us on this and consider

making a donation to our audiovisisual

department as we look at expansion and

reaching more people with the gospel

across the internet this next year. You

can go to mrcsda.org

og to make a donation directly to our

audiovisisual department. Thank you so

much for considering making this

donation and the privilege is ours to

partner with you in making this a bigger

and more effective ministry here at the

McDonald Road 7th Adventist Church. God

bless each one of you and thanks again

for joining us here at the McDonald Road

7th Adventist Church.