FBC Eugene

This Sunday, the chaos in David’s family continues as another son, Absalom undermines David’s authority and launches a coup to take over the throne.

Where is God in all of this mess? In this family? Especially in the family of a prominent spiritual leader and figure in the Bible?

After David’s moral failure with Bathsheba, a wave of chaos and wicked behavior continues in his family.

The Bible is open and honest about these devastating failures and records a gut-wrenching account of rape committed within David’s family.

So many people are affected by the evils of sexual violence, and as we process this passage on Sunday, we’ll look at how to face some of life’s most difficult challenges that cause us to grieve, act, and learn more how to demonstrate compassion and receive the restoration that only God can bring.

This Sunday, as the story continues, we’ll see how the effects of David’s sin continue to play out. David confesses his sin and receives God’s forgiveness, but there was still permanent damage and chaos from his decisions.

Temptation affects each of us, and when we sin, shame and guilt can haunt us, telling us we that are unworthy and that God no longer loves us.

In this Sunday's sermon, we'll learn how God can take our greatest failures and turn them into the greatest good, if we return to him and allow him to restore us in our relationship with Him.

In the last sermon, we saw David’s colossal failure with Bathsheba. He abused his power, broke commandments, and took advantage of her.

In this sermon, David is confronted by his sin, and we’ll see how he responds.

We’ll study Psalm 51, where David actually records for us his process of coming to terms with what he did and we see his prayer of confession to God.

When we sin, so often our response is to avoid God and distance ourselves from him.

In this sermon, we’ll learn about how to return and respond to God even after our worst sins and greatest failures. We’ll learn how to confess, repent and draw near to be restored to God again.

As we've seen in 1 & 2 Samuel, David has been on an escalator rise to power, from shepherd boy to national hero to now finally, to king of Israel.

Now, at the top of his game, his troops are out to war while David stays behind. Maybe he felt he deserved a break, maybe he was getting lazy, or maybe he was exhausted from years on the run. You can imagine the intensity of what he had been through–perhaps even PTSD from years of combat–and his adrenaline glands were probably shot from so many close calls of life and death moments.

As he looks out over his kingdom, David sees an attractive woman bathing and decides to take her. David abuses his authority and begins a series of despicable sinful acts that create chaos for him, his family, and eventually the kingdom.

We all face temptations of many kinds–and when we’re worn out, low, depressed, exhausted, or simply unwise and unguarded, we’re capable of things we never imagined possible.

The temptation that David faced is alive and well in our own times today, and this Sunday we’ll look at how to respond to temptation and how to win with God’s help.