BOLD Daily Devotional: Are You Where You Are Supposed to Be?

So today, 2 Samuel chapter 12.

2 Samuel 12 · chapter mention

2 Samuel chapter 12.

2 Samuel 12 · chapter mention

And I promise I'm gonna let you all go to broom, so I'm not gonna talk for 27 minutes.

I apologize for that.

Straight from the notes.

Last night we discovered that David was somewhere, but he wasn't there.

Today, 2 Samuel 12 shows us what God does when someone he loves has gotten somewhere they were never supposed to be.

Once again, God has a place called there for each and every one of us.

So when we're not there, what happens?

What happened when we're not there?

You can almost go back to Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

Genesis in the beginning.

Adam and Eve ate the particular fruit, the forbidden fruit.

And when they ate the forbidden fruit, they were not there anymore.

So much so that God asked Adam, where are you?

And as they did that, then it's interesting, it's like, hold on.

God knew geographically where Adam was, but relationally he knew something was off as well.

Who initiates the contact?

God does.

God initiates the contact.

So because of that, we see what God does to us.

He pursues us, he stands at the door, he knocks, he comes toward us.

But like Adam, particularly Adam out of response, we heard you coming, so I was afraid.

And so we pull away from God.

When God is like, no, no, no, no, no.

Never run from me, run toward me.

And fortunately, we tell this and beyond numerous time.

That's a pattern that people still do today.

We fall short, we miss the mark.

We know it as sin.

That's literally an archery turn.

So imagine you either shoot at a bullseye or you're hunting and you miss it.

If you miss the mark that you're trying to get, that's literally called sin.

Some of us, when we miss the mark, we say four-letter words.

They will call that sin.

That's literally what's in it.

There is a wow.

It's a place called there.

Place called there, God wants you to get to miss the place called there.

We can us define that from the Greek text like sin.

See that photo.

So in chapter 11, we see, but the Lord was displeased with what David had done.

This is verse 27, chapter 11.

David has successfully hidden his action from people.

Once again, the deception.

But his action hidden is not the same as healed.

Just because nobody's confronted your misalignment doesn't mean God has to change his mind about it.

Or David was somewhere but not there.

And in chapter 12, we see God loves David enough to locate him.

2 Samuel chapter 12, verse 1 through 7.

2 Samuel 12:1–7

So the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to tell Daniel a story, David, a story.

Don't rush pastors.

The Lord sends Nathan.

David is not going out for Nathan.

David's mind's own business doing his own thing.

He's in the king's palace, probably celebrating the birth of his new child.

Hey, God sends Nathan to David.

Nathan tells a story about a rich man taking a poor man only limb.

David becomes furious.

As surely as the Lord lives, any man who does such things deserves to die.

Nathan, ha ha ha, you're that man.

Here's the connection.

David could identify misalignment in somebody else's story while remaining unable or unwilling to recognize it in his own.

The New Testament talks about that.

Why judge the speck in the other one person's eye when you miss the plank in your own eye?

Right?

Sometimes we know scripture.

Sometimes we know right for wrong.

We can counsel someone else.

We can preach it.

We can recognize there, there.

And we still need God to reveal us.

Look at where you are.

Grace doesn't only tell you where God is.

Grace sometimes, most times shows you where we are.

God's words reveal the distance.

2 Samuel 7 through 12.

2 Samuel 12, 7 through 12.

David, God begins reminding David, I anoint you as king, I save you, I gave you.

And if there's if it hadn't been enough, I would have given you much more.

Then God comes with a question, verse 9.

Why then have you despised the word of the Lord and done this horrible deed?

Why then have you done have you despised the word of the Lord?

Which takes it back to Mark chapter 4.

Mark 4 · chapter mention

We know that whenever we see a word from God, you have an enemy that's coming to steal, kill, and destroy that from you.

That's really John 10 10.

But we know that the enemy comes for the word, affliction, persecution, chases as well, lust for other things.

Those things the enemy used to get us off consistency, discipline, and focus on the word of God, which either A brings us to there or we receive while we're there, right?

So what did God say?

David's behavior that somewhere revealed somewhere along the way, something else became more weighty, more important than God's word.

There requires us to know, requires more than simply knowing God's word.

I must allow God's word to search me.

I must allow God's word to reveal to me where have I missed the mark, where have I fallen short, where am I off in my thinking, my words, ultimately my actions.

Does my life align with the standard?

Christ is the standard.

Right?

That's part of why prayer must change us before it changed our situation.

Because if all prayer does is make us feel close to God while living unwilling to be corrected by God, I haven't learned to abide.

Once again, God chastises or disciplines those whom he loves.

We're talking about me.

Protect me from my lust, lustful flesh.

That's why the Bible, the body, the Bible, so I'm sorry, Galatians 5 talks about the battle versus the spirit and the flesh so much.

That's why what you feed more has the final say.

And as we abide with him, your spirit is filled more.

Your spirit has the opportunity to overrule what your flesh is saying.

The way back to begin with truth.

David says what God wants us all to say.

I've sinned against the Lord.

I have sinned against God.

He stopped managing his perception, stop trying to hide, make stuff as he wants it to be.

Started to take a sober look at him, man.

I really messed up.

Adam and Eve, they stopped trying to hide.

All they knew they had something wrong, and they were trying to fix it.

David, I have sinned against the Lord.

So he agrees with God about where he is.

Do we allow God to locate us?

Do we say, okay, Lord, yes, you're right.

I need to get us some gear ready.

I need to move.

We cannot realign from a location that we refuse to acknowledge.

But look at Nathan's response.

Yes, but the Lord has forgiven you.

This is the thing.

Because of his choices, there are consequences.

Meaning, because of David's sin with Bathsheba, there's still a child and children coming.

But the Lord has forgiven.

God confronted David because he was not finished with David.

Correction isn't always evident that God is pushing you away.

Sometimes correction is evident that God is calling you back to alignment.

Once again, God chastises those whom he loves.

He corrects, he disciplines those whom he loves.

And there's a huge difference between condemnation and conviction.

Bible says Romans 8:1, there's therefore no condemnation who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit.

Romans 8:1

And so that's critical because sometimes we conflate the two.

Oh, you call me out.

Oh, I that doesn't feel oh, you you you you you in my stuff.

No, that's conviction.

God convicts, the devil condemned.

What's the difference?

I've sinned against God, I've made a mistake.

That's conviction.

Condemnation, I am a mistake.

I am unable to get right.

Huge difference.

It's a difference between I messed up, I missed the mark.

Because if you're out there shooting at a target, throwing darts, shooting basketball, if you missed a shot, keep shooting.

Shooter, shoot.

Oh, I missed the shot this time.

Okay, cool.

Let's just get that back, keep shooting.

But to say, I missed the shot, so I'm gonna stop shooting.

Not only stop shooting, I'm gonna stop praising.

I'm gonna stop trying to get better.

I'm gonna stop adjusting the thought processes that led me to that.

I'm gonna stop adjusting my words, adjusting my actions, I'm gonna stop examining myself.

Why?

Because I cannot get better.

That's the exact opposite of grace and mercy.

No, there's therefore no condemnation.

The devil is the accuser of the brother.

The devil will tell you can never get right.

So the devil will say, the devil will say, This is the way I am, so I stuck the way I am.

God says, as my son is.

My son is.

My word tells you what your limitations are.

His word does.

And we know his word has the capacity to create new possibilities because the word is a seed.

So let me close this one up.

Prayer must change us once again.

My word from the summer before it changes our situation.

Prayer must change us before it changes situation.

In this example, sometimes we come to prayer wanting God to show us what they did, what they need to change, what doors need to open, what the enemy needs to move, what circumstances need to change.

But God is like, okay, but can I show you you?

Let me reveal some things to you.

Let me show you you.

The good, the bad, and the indifferent.

David got a revelation of that in Psalms 51.

Creating me a clean heart, Father God.

Show me me.

And please know that when God shows you you, He's not doing so because He wants you to, He hates you.

No, He's doing it because He's showing you how far His amazing grace reaches.

Think about that.

God, I'm I miss this, I miss that Q, I miss this Q, I miss this, I do this.

But yet you love me any way.

God, this is how my story began, but yet you still have an expected end, have a place called there for me, God?

That's just yes.

God, I have been non-loving towards you, towards your word.

I've wavered, which means to Vocillate between two opinions.

Between walking by faith for one second, next, won't he won't do it.

Well, yes, yes, he will, he won't do it for me.

Yeah, vocality, but because you said a double-minded man is a stable ways.

So I've been a stable, but you were like, No, I'm the firm foundation of which you can build your thoughts, words, and action.

So we read his work and we simply allow God to examine us there.

About to wrap this thing up so we all can have time to talk and hear from you all.

At least give us time to pray together.

I know it's about 10 of us here.

I think probably better we just allow those to want to pray to pray.

Psalm 51.

I read that, then I'm gonna stop.

When David was confronted, it literally says to the chief musician, the Psalm of David, when the prophet, Nathan Prophet, came to him after he had gone to Bathsheba.

819 verse, I'm gonna read it quickly.

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgression and my sins ever before thee against thee and thee alone.

Have I seen?

That's an interesting statement because we said yesterday, this is why we pray for people in positions.

Because David's sin affected other people.

He said, I send this against God, but we know a man lost his life.

We know a woman, excuse me, it has now she's and she's the side chick, all right.

A lot of other things socially happened because of that decision.

This is why we gotta remember sin is selfish in the sense of we think it affects us only, but there's other people that are impacted by your sin, which is the opposite of your obedience.

This exact same way in the opposite direction.

If obedience to God brings blessings to other people, sin does the exact same in the opposite direction.

I'll think about our sins, and how because we've lost focus on the word of God, the place called there, how it affects other people.

That's why God needs to locate you.

Hey, yes, Lord, show me.

This is why forgiveness is critical too.

No, I'm sorry.

I've I apologize for that.

I apologize for that.

That's why it's humbling, because as God shows us us, he shows us how to correct human relations as well.

Done this evil that thou might justify, be justified when I speak it, and be clear when I judge.

Behold, I was shaping iniquity and the sin of my mother conceived me.

Behold, thou desirest truth in the inward parts, truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part that thou shalt make me to know wisdom.

Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean.

Wash me and I shall be white in snow.

Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which thou have made may rejoice.

Hide thy face from my sin, blot out my iniquities.

10.

Create me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit.

Then I will teach transgressions thy ways, and sinners shall be covered, converted unto thee.

That's what, oh glory, that's what true repentance does.

We change our mind about it and we get back to work for him.

Right?

He likes, hey, you bring this back to me, I'm gonna convert other people.

I mean, other people will be blessed because of me, because of my getting on some get right.

Deliver me from blood guiltiness, oh God, thou God of my salvation, my tongue shall sing aloud thy righteousness.

Oh Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.

For thou desires not sacrifice, else I will give it.

For thou delight not in burnt offering.

This is what Samuel told Saul in 2 Samuel.

I mean, first Samuel the sacrifice of God are a broken spirit, a broken contrite heart, oh God, that thou wilt not despise.

Do good and thy good pleasure unto Zion, build out of the walls of Jerusalem.

Then shalt thou be pleased with the sacrifice of righteousness, with the burnt offering and the whole burnt offerings.

Then shalt thou offer, they offer bullocks upon thine altar.

And with that, I'm gonna stop talking.