Guardianship | Pastor Rick Wright | The Church at CW

Good morning, church.

Good morning.

Why don't you take your Bibles to 2 Samuel chapter 12?

2 Samuel 12 · chapter mention

And uh one thing I do want to make a reminder of before we jump in is this.

You don't want to miss next Sunday.

Next Sunday, we are going to be licensing Nate Smith to the gospel ministry.

Amen.

And so it's gonna be a special service.

Want to make sure that you write that down and make plans to be here.

Uh great job, Nate and worship team.

Worship was beautiful this morning.

How many of you have ever worked in any of these capacities?

Do we have any lifeguards in the building?

All right, we got some lifeguards.

How about any security guards?

Let's see who my people are.

Okay.

A couple of you both of those jobs.

Any bodyguards?

Okay, we got a few.

What about crossing guards?

Okay, in the back.

All right, some crossing guards.

Um how many of you have been a point guard?

What about the greatest point guard in human history?

Anybody been that?

I think we got a photo somewhere.

Maybe.

I thought they were just gonna keep me up there.

What is guardianship?

I thought in this series as I hit this title that guardianship would be a message that appealed mostly to maybe the elder of our congregation, the guard, who maybe have more experience, but as I dug in, and that's certainly part of this, I considered 2 Timothy 4, which says, Let no man despise thy youth, but be thou an example.

Sometimes a guardian is just someone who's more experienced in an area than you are.

And in this story, the story of David and Nathan, Nathan, quite possibly, and commentators would agree on this.

Many believe that he was even younger than David.

But he comes on the scene and he's a picture of a guardian.

Well, what does a guardian do?

That would help us.

A guardian is someone that watches over your life, but doesn't just watch over what is around you lifeguards, coast guards, uh, all that we mentioned.

A good guardian watches what is happening to you.

And so I want you to think on that as we pray.

Father God, we ask you this morning that you would open our hearts to your word.

I pray everything else that we carried in, any thought that we carried in, anything that's just been heavy or the week that's been behind us, maybe months for some, would come to a holy pause.

And God, that your word would have the opportunity.

Lord, I pray that you get me out of the way.

You and your Holy Spirit just speak.

God, I know that people here today need it.

I need it.

Lord, I pray that you would share to us what you would have us to do in this means of friendship.

We ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen.

2 Samuel there, chapter 12, we'll look at verse 1 through 4.

The first thing this morning is guardians detect danger.

Look at chapter 12, verse 1 through 4.

Then the Lord said to Nathan, then the Lord sent Nathan to David, and he came to him and said to him, There were 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 ew lamb, which he brought and nourished, and it grew up together with him and with his children.

It ate of his own food, and drank from his own cup, and laid in his bosom, and it was like a daughter to him.

And a traveler came to the rich man who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for a wayfaring 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.

So I just want to give you a little background before we get to this story, before Nathan comes and shares this story to David.

The background is this in chapter 11, David made a poor decision.

David was napping at wartime.

His army was out at battle, and David decided not to go.

He made a bad decision.

And as he made that decision, he climbed up the stairs to his rooftop, he looked across the way, and there was Bathsheba, a beautiful woman, bathing.

David continued in poor decision making, and he said, I want that woman.

And someone went for that woman, brought him back to him.

He laid with her, she conceived, and all this is going on, and her husband Uriah is out on the battlefield, and David, to try to make better for himself, tells Joab, his captain, send Uriah to the forefront of the line, and Uriah is killed.

David beat Goliath, but David couldn't beat lust.

David, James is a picture of James.

James says, lust when it is conceived, lust when it is enticed of your own self conceives and brings forth sin.

And sin when it is finished brings forth death.

And so David is a picture of this scene happening, and he's making calls and he's making a bad choice after bad choice.

And next thing we know, lust, sin, death.

Well, I'm glad the story doesn't end there, church.

It says in the first part of chapter 12, then the Lord sent.

The Lord sent a prophet to him.

He sent a man down to him.

God sent prophets for purposes.

God sent a prophet often for a word.

He sent a prophet for correction.

And he sent prophets for protection.

I think Nathan here has been sent for probably all three.

But hear me, Nathan doesn't come to confront David because Nathan is offended.

Nathan comes to confront David because God is offended.

And biblical confrontation asks this question: Is there a God offense?

Is there a biblical problem?

Now, listen, we all have opinions and preferences, but is there a Bible reason?

Nathan was a guardian that God sent to reroute David, one of the most, probably one of the most influential kings in the history of Israel.

And Nathan, when he was sent, it sounds like just a little sentence, he was sent with a big purpose.

But I want you to see a little more background of what's going on up to this point.

If you would turn your Bible, hold your place there, turn to Psalms chapter 32.

Psalms 32 · chapter mention

This is David talking about this period of time.

Psalms 32, verse 3 and 4.

Psalms 32:3

He says, When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long.

Day and night your hand was heavy upon me.

There is a one-year gap in between chapter 11 and when David is given this confession.

David has lived for about a year's time without any sign of dealing with his sin, without any sign of dealing with what happened with Bathsheba and Uriah.

And he says in Psalms, the most miserable year that this has been.

Anybody had a most miserable year?

You ever had a spiritually groaning year?

David is there.

And this comes from a man who had the money, the palace, and the woman that he went after.

Most misery.

It teaches an important spiritual truth to us, a truth that spiritual sickness can lead to emotional and physical sickness or weakness.

If we allow spiritual sickness into our life, we will reap the benefits of emotional and can be physical.

It says that David, day and night, it was heavy upon him and he groaned.

Well, look at the end of chapter 11.

You'll see a cold, bleak, vacant statement.

Look at what it says.

Feels emptying.

But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.

Feels like we should have a holy pause.

That thing that David did displeased the Lord.

Well, enter again, Nathan, and letter A, we see he confronted him.

He confronted him by a comparison.

I want you to look down at verse 5 and 6.

He gave that comparison about a traveler, a ew lamb, and a rich man who wouldn't give of his, but took from this poor man his one lamb.

Look at verse 5 and 6.

So David's anger was greatly aroused against the man, and he said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die, and he shall restore fourfold for the lamb because he did this thing and because he had no pity.

Now listen, Nathan doesn't come in as a prophet unwisely.

He doesn't come in with an accusation.

How do you think this story goes if Nathan walks in and he says, Adulterer, you low down two time and cheat?

That's not how Nathan walks into this story.

Wisely, Nathan, a prophet known for speaking wisdom, shares in that way.

Hear me, sometimes the wisest guardians don't immediately point out wrong, but they help someone to see what is wrong.

Nathan had a real relationship with David.

Now hear me, church.

If you want the right to speak into somebody's life, it starts with that relationship.

It starts there and it takes work.

He says, a rich man with everything took a poor man's prize sheep.

And David is here and he says, his sheep, his one little sheep.

David loved sheep.

And he is getting angry.

This sheep that ate with him, the sheep that lay with him laid on his bosom, like a sweet little, some of y'all with your little baby puppies, your little animals that sit up in your chest.

This is this man.

And he says, the rich man made him take his poor, his only thing he had, the thing he loved, and give it to the traveler to eat.

And it says, David's anger because of this story.

I mean, he's greatly enraged.

Have you ever lost it?

Anyone ever lost it?

I'm pretty laid back, but I got a button.

Right?

You got a button?

My kids know some buttons.

And I come in the room one day, it's been years ago, but I look, and it was time to kind of clean up.

Parents, you know cleanup time will be a button for you.

And I get looking around the edges of the bed and I see fruit snack wrappers.

And I think maybe that's all there is.

And so I'm like looking and I'm like, you guys need to get this.

And then the idea just starts to disgust me, and I start to get, that's David, his anger is around, I start getting really festering about the I'm like, you're sitting in bed like you're some king, and I look over and there's an empty trash can and hundreds of rappers.

Okay, I'm exaggerating, hundreds, but dozens of rappers that I can see.

And I'm like, what do you think the world is your trash can?

Just throw it anywhere, right?

And then I start to pick up the mattress because I'm gonna get under there.

And when I saw what was under the mattress, I threw the mattress across the room and I broke something.

And they're like, Dad, why are you raging?

I'm like, this is our home.

The world is not your trash can.

Well, do you see what David says here?

David says, This is not right.

He should pay that back first.

He says, he gets it out of order.

He says, We're gonna kill him.

And then he says, then after we kill him, he's gonna pay it back two times, three times, four times what he did to this man, sweet little.

He says he took no pity.

And David loved sheep.

He said, I'll show him.

He said, Sheba, get my sling.

We're gonna go get him.

He was so mad.

Well, let's see what happens.

Letter B his conviction by the conclusion.

Look at verse 7.

We'll say some more about what it took for Nathan to get here.

I believe he looked him in his eyes.

Then Nathan said to David, You are the man.

Thus says the Lord God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you from the hand of Saul.

I gave you your master's house and your master's wives unto your keeping, and gave you the house of Israel and Judah.

And if that had been too little, I also would have given you more.

But a story about a man and some sheep, and David loses it.

He condemns the man, demands restitution, and declares that he deserves to die.

David reaches probably the right conclusion about the wrong man.

David sees injustice everywhere except in the mirror.

And then Nathan looks at him and he says, You're the man.

You're the man.

The sin that we sometimes so easily see in others, could it be the same sin in us?

And I want to tell you, church, before I'm preaching this to any of you, all week long God has been preaching it to me.

David had just pronounced judgment on himself.

Sometimes God will let us condemn in someone else what we have learned to tolerate in our own selves.

And that's David.

Nathan didn't have to take time to convince David that the sin was wrong.

David already knew it was wrong.

He just had to help David to realize whose sin it was.

Some people have been so mad about someone else's weakness and lost in the haze of madness their own weaknesses.

You know the story in the New Testament.

He says, they've got a gnat in their eye.

He says, What about the beam in your own?

David had lost sensitivity to his own sin, but he hadn't lost sensitivity to sin itself.

David's problem isn't understanding what sin is.

He just temporarily excluded himself from the standard.

Now hear me.

Everyone here can grieve or quench the Holy Spirit of God in your life.

And I want to ask you today, will you pray?

Will you pray for brokenness again?

What David needed was to be broken about David.

It wasn't that he didn't understand that sin was a problem.

David needed to be able to look into his own heart once again.

I want you to go to 2 Corinthians for a moment.

Chapter 7.

It says, Now I rejoice not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance.

For you were made sorry in a godly manner, and that you might suffer loss from us in nothing.

For godly sorrow, church, produces repentance, leading to salvation, not to be regretted, but the sorrow of the world produces death.

Church today.

If you will hear him afresh, I'm gonna tell you, church, I've heard from him this week.

Will you?

Second point this morning is this guardians deliver the truth.

Once you go back to 2 Samuel 12, says there that you are the man, and he goes on to talk about from the Lord, I gave you your master's house and your master's wives, into your keeping, uh, the house of Israel and Judah, and if that had been little, I'd given you more.

Verse 9 Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight?

You've killed Uriah the Hittite with a sword, and you've taken his wife to be your wife, and you've killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon.

Letter A, we see proclaiming the problem.

I believe Nathan probably had to muster a lot of courage to proclaim the things that he spoke forth when he said, You are the man.

And notice, as someone with courage, he doesn't say, David, in my opinion.

He doesn't say, uh, David, people are saying, he boldly says, The Lord said, I made you a king and delivered you from Saul.

I gave you a horse, made your royalty, and you've forgotten, David, where you came from.

Have you forgotten Goliath?

Have you forgotten the stone that somehow magically sunk through his forehead?

Did you think you were that good of a shepherd?

Have you forgotten the armies and the wars and my hand upon you?

Have you forgotten the anointing of Samuel?

Have you forgotten where you've come from?

And he says, if it weren't enough.

The Lord said, Nathan says, The Lord said, if you needed more, he would have given you more.

But you didn't ask for more.

What you did do was go after something that wasn't yours.

When Nathan met with David, and nothing else for a year brought David to repentance, the convicting word of the Lord brought David to a place of repentance.

Oh church, this book, this book should be able to open the ears and eyes and hearts of every person here.

If there is such a coldness to your heart that this book can no longer penetrate it, there's a problem.

The Bible works and it says through contrition of heart.

Will your heart be able to be contrite again, broken again?

Well, David reaches this point because of the convicting word of the Lord.

And Nathan proclaiming it, will let her be.

It doesn't stop there.

He pronounces the punishment.

Look down at verse 10.

Nathan courageously continues.

Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.

Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of this sun, for you did it secretly.

But I will do this thing before all Israel, before the sun.

Nathan continues on deeper.

I mean, if he'd hadn't said enough, now he gives the punishment from the Lord.

And this is what makes Nathan a good guardian.

Hear me, church.

He's willing to say the hard thing because listen, he actually cares about David's future.

It's not just about himself and what's gonna happen to me being a prophet if I say this.

He actually cares about David's future and how David's future affects a great many people, the Israelites that he was rubbing elbows with.

Everyone, church, hear me, everyone needs someone who loves them enough that they are willing to say the hard thing.

Some of you are thinking, Pastor, I'm great at blabbing hard things.

Now I'm not talking about because you just read a scripture and you don't have a filter.

That's not what I'm talking about.

I'm talking about first, there's a relationship.

If you don't, it's empty.

If you don't, it comes across condemning.

But if you will put in the time to care about somebody when you have to say a hard thing, it can make all the difference.

Nathan isn't here threatening David.

It's not Nathan's consequences to give out.

God is pronouncing them through the word of a prophet.

And he says, hard things, the sword shall never fall from your family.

The way that you had Uriah sent to the line and killed by sword, it's going to be all riddled in your family because of what you've done.

You might have done this privately, but it's public.

Who doesn't know by now that you're with Bathsheba?

You might have thought that you did it privately, but it's public.

Private sin doesn't mean invisible.

Bible says, be sure that your sin will find you out.

Bible says, Proverbs 15:3, the eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good.

Proverbs 15:3

He sees what we're doing.

There was an evangelist named Rick Amato, and he said this quote often You have the power of choice, but you don't have the power to choose the consequences of your choice.

Nathan lays out consequences from the Lord.

But now the rubber kind of has to hit the road.

Nathan said all he has to say there.

He's talked about the comparison.

He's brought forth his sin.

He said, David, you're the man, and this is what's going to happen because of it.

Now David has a response.

And it is all the difference in this passage.

Point three is this guardians defend healing.

Look at 2 Samuel verse 13 and 14, David's response.

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.

However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child who is born to you shall die.

Guardians defend healing.

I want to say something here about David.

David let his guard down.

Okay.

David made a decision over here.

He messed up.

Now some people will jump to the conclusion about this story.

Maybe some people in that time say, I knew it.

David's always been a fake.

May I remind you, David was not a fake when Samuel came and anointed him.

David was not a fake when he picked up those stones and believed that Goliath could be slain.

David was not a fake following God.

He wasn't a fake when he was pronounced a man after God's own heart, but he did, church, let his guard down.

And we all can be susceptible to letting our guard down and letting the enemy come in.

And we have to be careful of letting down that guard.

If he can be unguarded, a man after God's own heart, we all can become unguarded.

But I have good news.

If you saw what Nathan said, this quick.

He said, I did this great thing unto the Lord.

And Nathan quickly said, And the Lord has put away your sin.

Where sin abounds, church, grace does much more abound, Scripture says.

And so there's grace for it.

In order for you to want healing as a guardian or a needed guardian, there has to be grace.

And Nathan says it.

He encouraged letter A confession.

He encouraged it.

His being there, his truthfulness.

And then David, what he does, he immediately does confess.

I read it in Corinthians.

Godly sorrow, you have to first feel something, that heart has to have a penetration of whatever that wall is.

And godly sorrow leads to repentance, which means I'm not on that path anymore.

And if you look at the story of David moving forward, he's not on that path anymore.

Godly sorrow leads to repentance.

It's owning your part, and that's what we see David do.

How many of you have told your child to say, sorry?

They did something wrong, and you said, Tell them you're sorry.

Have you done this?

Now I'm going to be honest as parents, that sorry is pretty sorry most of the time.

You tell them you're sorry.

Sorry.

And then you're like, did you mean it?

Of course they didn't mean it.

They weren't.

Right?

But I understand the action, the process, it's important for them to learn something.

But godly sorrow is not so.

It starts with this heart before it ever hits these lips.

Godly sorrow leads to repentance, which leads to change.

David owns his part.

Not just looking at the circumstances or looking at who came.

He didn't say, Nathan, how dare you! He didn't say something about, oh, it was Bathsheba.

He owns his part.

Comes from the heart.

Now Nathan wisely frames what David needed the most.

He encouraged him.

And after he confessed, I love this, the prophet said, now the Lord has put that away.

I want you to see in Psalms 51 a little bit of breakdown.

Won't take long here because it's not the heart of this message, but I want you to see how David breaks down in this Psalm his confession.

It's called a prayer of repentance.

In Psalms 51, I'll read verses 1 through 3.

We'll track back a little through there.

But it says, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies.

Blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.

Against you and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight, that when you found when that you may be found just when you speak and blameless when you judge.

Number one, appeal to God.

He appeals to God, to the mercies of God who has endless amounts of mercies.

He says, God, have mercy on me.

Two, aim for cleansing, for a clean heart.

He says, clean me.

Later he uses the word purge me.

I was recently cleaning out Wyatt's.

He had a wound from after a football game, and I was putting some neosporin and working a bandage.

And I got, he didn't see it, but I got emotional for a moment, and I didn't, I didn't intend to, but I was just looking at the bruise, and it made me emotional thinking about the game and his effort and energy that he put into the game, and looking at that wound for a moment made me feel that emotion.

David, for a long year, groaned with a wound.

And I believe you could say he about let it get infected.

You know what happens to a wound when it gets infected.

You can lose part of you.

Hear me, those with hearts.

If you don't cleanse a wound, if you don't fix an infection, it can get worse and worse and worse.

And so David aims for cleansing.

He says, Clean me, purge me, God.

I know what I did, and I need you to get in and clean this heart.

Well, further he says, I acknowledge my sin.

And he says sort of a perplexing statement.

He says, Against you and you only have I sinned.

Now that feels like, well, if you're keeping score over here, what about Bathsheba?

Did he sin against her?

What about Uriah?

Did he sin against him?

What about Joab, the commander that he involved?

Did he sin against him?

What about the nation of Israel?

What about his other wives?

Why did he say, Against you and you only have I sinned?

He's acknowledging this.

And I've often with my children when explaining something that's gone wrong, I said, Nah, you didn't just do something against me, disobeying.

I see, when you sin, you sin against the Lord.

And David says, Before I cheated on anyone else, God, I put my relationship with you on the side.

To do this thing that I did, I had to put you on hold.

I paused my walk with you to go and get what I wanted.

I cheated and I cheated on you.

Have you strayed church family?

From the one who gave so much.

Well, the last part is in verse 10, Psalms 51, 10.

And God sent me here one time.

Not one, but one time I remember for sure, and then others.

He sent me to Psalms 51, 10 and 11, and this is what he said.

Renew a right spirit within me and lead me into the way everlasting.

Interestingly, he asked God to create.

He says, create.

God, I know what I did, and in me, this thing, the motivations of this heart, the intents of this heart are so deceitful to my own self.

The Bible says, deceitful above all else.

Who can know it?

And out of this heart springs the matters of life, and my heart has messed up on me.

I need you to get in, and I need you to change that old heart of stone and create something new.

Don't fix the old me.

Create a new me.

Restore me.

Well, that's letter B.

The expected restoration.

If you'll go back to Psalms 51, look at verse 12 and 13.

All the angst, all the groaning, verse 11 can speak to that.

He says, Do not, God, cast me away from your presence.

Do not take your Holy Spirit.

Verse 12, he says, restore to me.

Somebody today needs to say, God, restore to me.

Restore to me the joy of my salvation.

Do you remember when God saved you and changed you and you got excited about it?

Do you remember when church wasn't something you had to put on your back and carry a load to get here?

Do you remember when you're excited to serve?

Do you remember when you felt joyful?

He says, Restore to me my joy.

Some need to say today, can you make me smile again, God?

Start somewhere.

And look at what he continues with, and uphold my hold me by your generous spirit.

Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will be converted.

He said, God, if you'll change me, I'll change.

And maybe what I have gone through, I can help somebody else to change too.

David says, Restore me and I will teach.

He says, Transgressors, other people that have messed up.

I've walked through this.

I've messed up.

Who knows better how to help somebody that's messed up than somebody who's messed up?

And he says, if you restore me, God.

Jesus said, I didn't come for the well, but for the sick.

David said, I'll be an advocate.

My story will cause people to look to God.

And here we are today.

And we're relating because we mess up.

We fail.

Our heart gets filled.

Over here, we were no less called by God.

We were no less loving God.

But we let our guard down.

And David says, I want to help people.

Sinners need clean.

People hear your story, your storm, your testimony, your struggle, and may change because of what you went through.

He says, Jesus, I'll be an advocate.

I want to tell you today, church, family, none here has an unusable story.

There's not one.

David had an advocate in Jesus and in Nathan, and now he says, These people were a part of my restoring.

I want to also be a restorer to God.

Well, the story doesn't end there.

If you want to go back to 2 Samuel 12, remember where we close, Nathan is giving a list of consequences.

This is important about him being a guardian.

Three passages.

If you want to turn to them, you can.

2 Samuel 12, 15 and 16, 2 Samuel 12, 24 and 25, and then 1 Kings 1:32.

1 Kings 1:32

And 15 and 16, David's son passes.

And I want to tell you something important.

Nathan came and gave a confrontation.

He came and gave a word of the Lord.

But you know who was there when David's son passed?

Nathan the prophet.

He didn't leave.

A guardian does more than just bring the confrontation.

He stands by his side and does not leave.

And then in 2 Samuel 12, 24 and 25, guess what?

Bathsheba and David birth a child.

And guess who's there at the birth of the child?

Nathan the prophet.

Nathan the prophet gives the name of the child.

How many of y'all are gonna let me name your child one day?

Who knows what you'll get?

1 Kings chapter 1.

1 Kings 1 · chapter mention

David's son later in his life is trying to usurp the kingdom.

Adonijah, he's trying to steal the crown when Solomon is the one that's supposed to inherit the crown.

And guess who David calls on at this moment?

Nathan, the prophet, who's still there.

And Nathan comes and anoints Solomon.

Guardians defend healing.

Nathan was there, he was there, he was there.

Well, I wanted to share a story that I came across this week in closing in December 1907.

And I want you to see this picture and just hold it in your mind for a moment.

There was a ship called the Edmund J.

Finney that wrecked during a horrific storm.

They're about 300 yards offshore at Sandy Hook in New Jersey.

And they have life-saving crew stations.

What great names these are given.

These one of these crews came out and came to the rescue, and they had to wade through two miles with equipment through freezing and flooding conditions.

And during that, if you look at this contraption, five sailors were brought ashore in what's called a breeches buoy.

As the ship was breaking apart, this buoy was used to traverse back and forth, carrying people who were on the brink of death.

Lastly, the captain and the first mate got into a breeches buoy.

This picture of something that many of you probably have never seen before.

I'd never seen it before this week.

Some hundred seventy seven thousand lives before the 1950s were saved by a breeches buoy before the advent of the helicopter when it came bringing people to rescue.

But what they did with a breeches buoy, one by one, this crew would go out one by one, bringing and drawing a man, holding a rope and pulling a rope and drawing a man, man after man, giving all they had so that people would be pulled out of storms and into safety.

A guardian church is willing to pull you when you don't have the strength to pull yourself.

David was drowning.

I mean, for a year, on and on and on, this tension, this thing festered, this wound was going, he was groaning, and hear me, he let his guard down.

But Nathan came in, he was holding the line.

Nathan came in and said, David, will you hear me?

He said, Will you come to safety?

He didn't come in with condemnation.

Did you see that?

He came in softly, but he came in with the truth.

And he said, Here's the truth.

You got to have this to get out of that.

And he held that rope.

And I think, you know, God could have done it some other way.

But rerouting the course of Israel's history under one of its greatest kings.

See, Nathan was a great guardian, but church, Jesus is a better Nathan.

Nathan threw David the line.

Jesus became your line.

Nathan could point David back towards safety, but Jesus came all the way into your storm and he puts you on his back and he is Savior.

Nathan said, David, you're in trouble.

And Jesus says, Church, I'll take all of your troubles.

Church, you need a line.

You need a line.

I'm gonna ask you to bow your heads and close your eyes this morning.