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Jack Graham: You show me a man or a woman who lives in lust, and I will show you a person who is feeding that lust, who is fueling that thought life.

Guest (Female): On today's PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about how God offers you a new beginning, no matter what you've done. Now, here's Dr. Graham with his message, The King Who Stayed Home.

Jack Graham: Take your Bibles and turn with me to 2nd Samuel chapter 11. When you tell the story of David, two names are in the headlines with David. There's David and Goliath and David and Bathsheba. One headline has to do with David's greatest victory and triumph when he defeated the giant in the power of God with just a slingshot.

The other headline with Bathsheba has to do with his greatest failure and greatest defeat. We met David first when he was just a young man in the shepherd fields. He was unknown, unsung, but called from the shepherd fields and anointed as the king of Israel.

From there, he was on the battlefield serving food to his brothers, bringing lunch to his brothers when he sees the giant Goliath and wonders why nobody is standing up. So with courageous faith, he stands up against the giant and fells him with just one stone and a slingshot. It's the power of God. The battle is the Lord's.

Immediately, this young man, just a teenager at the time, becomes a national hero. They're having parades for David. Saul has slain his thousands, but David has slain his tens of thousands. He was a celebrity. King Saul at first was happy about the great win that David experienced for Israel, but ultimately he realized that David had been anointed by God to take the throne of Israel, his job.

Then Saul, the king demonized and filled with wicked spirits, begins to hound and hunt David. David once expressed it. He said, "Am I like a flea in the desert?" David became a fugitive on the run from Saul. Saul was determined to take David out, to kill him. Year after year, David is in exile. Though anointed king and proclaimed by God and promised by God that he would be the king, he's in hiding in caves and in the desert in the wilderness and running from Saul.

In spite of all of that, David never retaliated against Saul. Again, we see the wonderful heart of this young, to-be king. He refuses to take revenge. So he lets Saul live on several occasions when he could have taken him out. So far, so good. He eventually becomes the king when Saul is killed in battle. He ruled triumphantly. His poll numbers were way, way up. He's winning victory after victory, and he's walking with God.

The book of Psalms tells us this. He's writing psalms, great songs of faith and inspiration. This is David, the man after God's own heart. Everything is going fantastically according to God's plan until David got sloppy with sin. He was around 50 years of age when it happened. Look at verse one, 2nd Samuel 11. In the springtime of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all of Israel. They ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained at Jerusalem.

It happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch, that is he was napping in the middle of the day, and was walking on the roof of the king's house. He saw from the roof a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful. David sent and inquired about the woman. Who is this? One said, "Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, one of your soldiers, David?"

The servant is saying, "David, this is a married woman," but David didn't care. So David sent messengers and took her. She came to him and he lay with her. Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness. Then she returned to her house, and the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, "I'm pregnant."

Let's talk about the fall first, the terrible fall of David. How did it begin? It didn't begin on this day late afternoon in the spring when the event actually happened. It began with David's self-indulgence and self-interest because verse one tells us while all of the kings were at battle, David the king of Israel, he was at home hanging out.

He's just there at the palace. He gets up from his afternoon naps. He goes out to the balcony and he sees this fantastically beautiful woman bathing on a rooftop. What he should have done as a man of God was to turn on his heels and walk away. He looked again and he lusted after Bathsheba. He looked, he lusted, and then he took her.

In a short sinful moment of pleasure, he made a terrible, terrible mistake in his life that brought consequences to David for the rest of his days, as we're going to see in this message. David, his lust on this beautiful woman named Bathsheba, he spots her, he wants her. Even though he was warned this is a married woman, he didn't care. "I want this woman and I am the king."

In verse four, David sent for her. He slept with her. She went home. David probably thought, "Well, that was fun." He probably thought it was a one-night stand, but Bathsheba ended that story by saying, "I'm pregnant." She sends word she's pregnant. Now David has a huge problem. The man after God's own heart, the songwriter, the worship leader, the gifted poet, the courageous warrior, the mighty king now felled by his own sin and entangled in its web.

David was on top of the world. He wasn't just on top of his balcony. He was living large on top of the world. He had money, he had power, he had fame, he had everything. He had a relationship with God, but now he's fallen. He sins and sins greatly. How did it happen? David had dropped his guard.

It's a reminder to every one of us when things are going well, that's not a time to coast spiritually. We are to maintain vigilance, to live in our victory in Christ. Satan often uses those times in our lives when we're up, up, up to attack us. The devil loves a shining mark, and David was a shining mark. So are you as a believer in Christ.

So we must always maintain awareness and alertness. Be sober, be alert, for your enemy the devil, he roams like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. No one is an exception, including believers like David. Don't think that you are above failure or fall. None of us are. Paul tells us in 1st Corinthians 10 verse 12, when you think you are standing strong, be careful, for you too may fall into some sin.

It didn't just happen. Most of these scandalous, sexualized kinds of sins don't just happen. It's not a big explosion. It's a slow leak in a believer's life. David didn't fall suddenly. In fact, 2nd Samuel 5 tells us that David began taking many wives and concubines for himself against the direct command of God in the Scripture.

Now David is becoming more and more sexualized. His hot heart for God is gradually cooled with his lust for women. He allowed lust and sexual activity to consume his life. God has given sex as a gift to monogamous married couples, men and women together in the commitment of a beautiful marriage. That's a gift from God. To adulterate that, to pollute that is sin against God. You show me a man or a woman who lives in lust, and I will show you a person who is feeding that lust, who is fueling that thought life.

It may be porn. It may be sexualized music and media. It may be people that we hang out with. It may be places that we go, but feeding it and fueling it is a recipe for disaster. Hear this: you don't feed your lust, you starve it. And David did not starve it. He was idle, he was indulgent, and became immoral.

Guest (Female): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, The King Who Stayed Home. Did you know that you can join Dr. Graham for his daily devotion? It's a study of God's Word that will help you grow in your faith, encourage you in your walk with Christ, and show you how to navigate through the challenges of life. To sign up, text DIVA to 59789 and begin receiving Dr. Graham's devotion every day. Again, text DIVA to 59789.

Every day people are hearing the truth of Jesus Christ through PowerPoint's broadcasts, podcasts, and digital outreach. Some are discovering the truth of the gospel for the very first time. Others are learning to trust God more deeply. Friends like you help make it all possible through your support. That's why this month, we want to say thanks for your gift of $10 or more by sending you Dr. Jack Graham's book, Choices.

In this encouraging resource, Dr. Graham shares practical wisdom from God's Word to help you make decisions with confidence, clarity, and faith. To give your gift and request your copy, text AUGUST to 59789. Please limit one per household. Again, text AUGUST to 59789. Now, let's get back to today's message, The King Who Stayed Home.

Jack Graham: So when he saw Bathsheba, the moment he saw her, he was in the danger zone. He could have turned away because the Bible tells us in 1st Corinthians 10:13 that there is no temptation that has overtaken you that is not common to everyone. God is faithful and He will not allow you to be tempted beyond your ability. God will make a way of escape. You can live a pure life, but David is no longer pure. He's immoral.

Now no doubt he's rationalizing his sin. So what did David do? He did what so many people do when they sin, and that is to hide it. That brings us to the fallout. The fallout is described in verses 6 through 17, but let me tell you about the fallout. When David realized Bathsheba has told him she's pregnant, he's the king, he can fix anything. So he tries to fix it. Instead of confessing his sin and coming clean before God immediately, instead of repenting and receiving God's grace and God's mercy and God's forgiveness, instead of praying, he now starts plotting.

So what does he do? He's got an idea. This woman's married to Uriah, he's one of my soldiers. Bring in the soldier Uriah. He gets Uriah. Poor Uriah, he's on the battlefield fighting for his king, fighting for the kingdom while David is committing adultery with his wife. He brings him in from the field and he says, "Uriah, I want to thank you for all you're doing for our country. In fact, I brought you off the battlefield just to give you a little reward. Why don't you just go home for a few days and be with your wife?"

He figures that Uriah and Bathsheba would have relations, and then the baby would be presumed to be his, Uriah's. But Uriah refused to do it. He said, "How can I go take pleasure in my life when my soldiers are on the battlefield?" So he slept outside the king's palace. He refused to go to his wife.

David hears about it. He says, "Okay, I've got another idea." He brings him in, throws a party, and gets Uriah drunk. And while Uriah is not in his right mind drunk, David says, "My offer is still good. Go home and be with your wife, Uriah." But Uriah drunk had more character than David sober. He said, "No, I'm going to just sleep outside the palace here."

Now David's problem is increasing and the plot is thickening. So David said to his generals, he said, "Take Uriah. We'll send him back to the battlefield. Take Uriah back to the battlefield, put him on the front line, and then at the height of the battle, the heat of the battle, call the forces back and leave Uriah to fight alone." That's what happened and Uriah died valiantly in battle, but it was at the hand of David, not the enemy.

Now David is not only an adulterer, he is a murderer. And Uriah dies, and there was a period of mourning for Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba. After the mourning, the Bible says that Bathsheba came to the household of David, married him, and it appears to be over. Look at what 2nd Samuel 11:27 says. It tells us that after the mourning 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.

Yes, David's sin was against Bathsheba. David's sin was against Uriah the Hittite. David's sin was against the nation of Israel. David's sin was even against himself. Ultimately, like all sin, the sin was against God. Thus came the fallout. Remember before we go any further, David was a believer, but now in this period of his life, he's miserable. He writes about his tortured soul in Psalm 51 and Psalm 32, all in the aftermath of this great sin.

Here is a man who loved God. The hand of God was on this man's life. The presence and the power of God followed him wherever he went, but now he is living for a solid 12 months in unconfessed, unrepented-of sin. He is miserable, haunted by guilt in his life. You can read about it with me in Psalm 32:1-5. He says, "Blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit.

"For when I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long, and for day and night Your hand was heavy upon me and my strength was dried up as by the heat of summer. I acknowledge my sin to You and I did not cover my iniquity eventually. I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord' and You forgave the iniquity of his sin."

So he has physical symptoms. His body's breaking down. He's lifeless. Hear me, Christian. If you're bound to sin, you're bound to suffer because God will not allow His children to get away with unconfessed, unrepented-of sin. David is then paid a visit after that terrible year, torturous year. He's paid a visit by a prophet by the name of Nathan. Nathan shows up and tells David a story.

Here's the story the prophet told David. He said there's a man who was very wealthy. He had everything, had great flocks, many possessions. But in this parable, Nathan said he saw that there was another man that had a little lamb. It was a pet lamb for this man who had hardly anything, but the wealthy man wanted that one little lamb though he had all these other things. So he took it. He took the man's lamb. Nathan says, "What do you think should happen to a man like that?"

David is enraged. He's furious, and he said, "He should pay fourfold and then be executed." And that's when Nathan the prophet stuck a long bony finger in David's face and said, "David, you are the man." Immediately, David knows that he's busted, but thankfully I can tell you one last part to this story, and that is the forgiveness. David repents of his sin and in the grace and mercy of God in his fall and in his failure and in all the fallout, he is forgiven.

I wish I could just end the story right there, and I would, but I wouldn't be honest with you in telling the whole story. Because the rest of the story is that David paid a heavy price for this sin. Though forgiven, he paid a heavy price for this sin till his dying day. The rest of his life he bore the consequences. He lost his leadership, he lost his testimony, he lost the kingdom that gets divided, he loses most of all his family. He was never the same. Where there is fall and failure and sin, there is always fallout.

Christian, there is no cover-up that is good. God sees it all. He knows and hears our lies and there are consequences. Remember the story that Nathan told him and David said the man should pay fourfold, four times. There are four major events in David's life that sequence in the rest of the story at the end of the story. For one, the baby that Bathsheba bore died. That was that famous moment when David said about heaven, he said, "I can't bring the baby back, but I can go to the baby. The innocent ones are with the Lord." So that was one.

And then a sordid thing begins to happen in David's family and sexual abuse begins to take place among the children of David. One of his sons by the name of Amnon rapes his half-sister Tamar. That's two. Absalom, the brother of Tamar, is enraged by the sexual abuse of his sister. So you know what happened? Absalom took it into his own hands and Absalom kills his brother, half-brother, the son of David, Amnon. That's three.

From there, Absalom is a total nut job. He's so steeped in sin himself, he organizes a rebellion against David, fights his own father for the kingdom, and ends up dying in battle. His hair caught in a branch of a tree and he's mutilated. It's when David cries out in the Scripture, a brokenhearted, beaten-down father. He cries out, "Oh Absalom, Absalom, would I had died in your place!" But that was four.

There are consequences to the decisions and choices that we make. You can take a board and hammer nails into that board and then say, "I want to take them out." You can pull them all out, but you look at the board and there's still holes there. So David lived with this the rest of his life. Yes, he was forgiven. Thank God for His grace, but he really never got over it.

You say, "Well, I've never committed adultery. I've never committed murder," but you, we, all have sinned in the sight of a holy God. But there's good news. Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So you can be forgiven and your life changed and transformed by the power of Jesus Christ.

Guest (Female): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, The King Who Stayed Home. Let me remind you about an encouraging resource Dr. Graham created to help you navigate life with biblical wisdom. It's his book, Choices, which comes as our thanks for your gift of $10 or more. When you give today to support the outreach of PowerPoint Ministries, you'll help share biblical truth and the life-changing hope of Jesus with people around the world through broadcasts, podcasts, and digital ministry.

To give your gift and request your copy, text AUGUST to 59789. So that everyone has a chance to take advantage of this limited offer, please limit to one per household. Again, text AUGUST to 59789. Did you know that you can join Dr. Graham for his daily devotion? It's a study of God's Word that will help you grow in your faith, encourage you in your walk with Christ, and show you how to navigate through the challenges of life. To sign up, text DIVA to 59789 and begin receiving Dr. Graham's devotion every day. Again, text DIVA, D-E-V-O, to 59789. Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today?

Jack Graham: I want to speak to three groups of people for today's PowerPoint. First, to those who are standing strong today. Maybe you're thinking, "Thank God that's not me. I would never do what David did." Can I lovingly warn you? That's exactly what David thought 15 years earlier when he stood before Goliath. Pride comes before a fall. The moment you think you're above temptation is the moment you're most vulnerable to it. Don't let your guard down. Stay vigilant. Keep your armor on.

Second, to those who are in the middle of this very sin right now. You know who you are. You're living in secret sin. You're hiding something. You're covering up. And like David, you're miserable. Your bones are wasting away. The weight of guilt is crushing you. Listen to me. The cover-up is always worse than the confession. God already knows.

The question is, will you come clean before the fallout destroys everything you love? Don't waste another day. Don't wait another year. Confess it today. The same grace that forgave David is available to you right now.

Third, to those living with the consequences of past failures. Maybe you've already fallen. Maybe you've already confessed. Maybe you're forgiven, but you're still living with the holes in the board: the broken relationships, the damaged reputation, the lost opportunities. Let me remind you, God's grace doesn't just forgive the sin, He redeems the story.

David wrote some of his greatest psalms after his greatest failure. Your story isn't over. God specializes in new beginnings. The Christian life is a series of new beginnings, and today can be day one of yours. Maybe you've never surrendered your life to Christ. Today is your day. Maybe you're a believer who's drifted far from God. Today is your day to come home.

Guest (Female): And that is today's PowerPoint. Join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about the power in the name we proclaim above all others. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.