In the Battle or on the Balcony

Joke:  One rainy Saturday afternoon a guy walks out unto his balcony and sticks his hand out over the edge to see if it’s raining or not, and a glass eye falls into his hand.

 He looks up, and there is a gorgeous woman standing on the balcony above him, she apologizes and says I was just leaning out to check the rain and my glass eye fell out.

She asks if he could please bring it up to her, which he immediately does.

To say thanks, she gives him a passionate kiss right on the lips.  Mildly surprised, he asks, “Do you do that to every guy you meet?”

And she replies, “ Only the ones that catch my eye.”

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Last week I talked about David and being a street dancer.  I asked the question are you are window watcher or a street dancer like him.  I thought I was done with David but after reading something this week I was impressed from the Lord that we needed one more week.

How many of you have ever read the Bible all the way through?

I have as well several times actually, in several different translations and as I was reading this week I came across something that I had missed more than once.  I had to ask myself when did that Scripture get put in here.

Now honestly it’s always been there but the Lord just happened to highlight it for me after reading it this time.

That’s why Scripture tells us in Hebrews that the Word is living and active.  If we will allow it to it will speak to us, and if you let it, it will transform us in the process.

So are you ready to hear another part of David’s story?

Now before I begin, this is one of those stories that. . .well let me explain it to you this way. . .have you ever been watching a program or movie and something happens and you find yourself yelling, or at least wanting to yell at the screen?

That’s this passage.  Reading this one may be offensive to some, you might feel your blood pressure raising.  This passage is one that can get you a little bit upset.

Still ready. . .?

It’s found in 2 Samuel 11. . .

2 Samuel 11:1–5 (NIV): In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in kJerusalem. 2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”

Now it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize what happened between these two.  She sent word to David saying, “I am pregnant.”

I’m calling this message, In the battle or on the balcony.

Why does this story bother us?  It’s because we have David who is the king, with a married woman.  And it gets worse as we find David unsuccessfully bringing her husband off the battle field trying to get him to spend a night in his house with his wife so that he could hide the fact that he took advantage of Uriah’s wife.   And so, after that fails he sends him off in the heat of the battle so that he ends up dead.

Isn’t that like so many of us.  No maybe not to this extreme. . .

But often times we never think about the consequences of our sins just the pleasure of partaking of them in the moment.

But the truth is church, we need to learn to make the right choices in the moment.

Let me just point out this fact here first. . .Scripture tells us that when we are tempted God will always provide a way out.   Always.

What David needed to do. . .what we need to do is tell. . .show video not today satan

And what makes this passage in 2 Samuel 11 so difficult for us is because this is not some obscure character in Scripture this is David who we talked about last week.   That David.

I can remember when Bruce Wilkinson wrote that small book called The Prayer of Jabez.  I was like whose Jabez? He’s mentioned only twice in all of Scripture so to miss  him in my readings was a little understandable.

But this is David.  We all know David, this was the man that God called a man after my own heart.  David was a man that when you read his life story throughout the Bible your like wow what a guy.  You wanted to be like David.

I mean let’s think a moment about David’s life before this tragic moment took place.

The prophet goes to Jesse’s house asked for him to gather his boys together because I need to anoint the next king.   So Jesse brings out the seven older brothers of David.

And out walks Eliab and Samuel is thinking wow that’s him.  He’s tall, dark, and handsome.  But God said nope not him.  So out comes the second oldest Abinadab.   Maybe he’s not as tall, not quite as good looking, but he has a huge social media following and so maybe.  Nope not him either.   All the way down the line until the prophet asks any other son’s.

There’s one more he’s in the field tending sheep.  So, scripture says, they waited for David to come in from the field.

The one that is the obscure one tending sheep, the one nobody notices, the one everyone ignores, that’s the next king.  David.

Isn’t that just like God.  He loves the underdog.  He calls the apostles to follow Him and they were fishermen, a tax collector, a thief, even a murderer.  That’s who Jesus calls to walk with him.

Scripture tells us as well. . .

1 Corinthians 1:26–29 (NIV): Brothers and sisters, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were influential; not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. 28 God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, 29 so that no one may boast before him.

Let me read that once more from The Passion Translation.

1 Corinthians 1:26–29 (TPT): Brothers and sisters, consider who you were when God called you to salvation. Not many of you were wise scholars by human standards, nor were many of you in positions of power. Not many of you were considered the elite when you answered God’s call. 27 But God chose those whom the world considers foolish to shame those who think they are wise, and God chose the puny and powerless to shame the high and mighty. 28 He chose the lowly, the laughable in the world’s eyes—nobodies—so that he would shame the somebodies. For he chose what is regarded as insignificant in order to supersede what is regarded as prominent, 29 so that there would be no place for prideful boasting in God’s presence.

David was the insignificant one in the family.  All he did was tend sheep.   Not a warrior.   Not a lawyer.   Not a doctor.  A shepherd.

Now, maybe it’s just me, maybe you never thought about this at all.  But why wasn’t David brought in from the field when all the brothers were originally called out for the prophet?

Some theologians and many of those in the Jewish faith believe that that David was an illegitimate son.  Now I don’t know if that is the case at all, but this is where they come up with the idea.

Psalm 51:5 (KJV): Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me.

And then David goes on to tell us in Psalm 69 that his enemies outnumber the hairs on his head.  And in verse eight he says,

Psalm 69:8 (NIV): 8 I am a foreigner to my own family, a stranger to my own mother’s children;

So to be honest, I don’t now if he was illegitimate or not but what I do know is that no one even considered that he would be the next anointed king.  Not even his own family.

And when this process was taking place the prophet says something really revealing.  The oldest son steps up Samuel is sure he’s the one then. . .

1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV): But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”

Hear this church, man will always consider you by how you look, what you wear, how successful you are.  But we serve a God that sees the heart.

He says, I’m the type of God who sees past your past, sees past everything else, and sees what’s on the inside.

And listen, God is more concerned about what’s on the inside than what everyone see on the outside.  Because if he can get the inside right, the actions and life that others encounter on the outside will also be right.

So David goes from the one no one sees in the field to the anointed son who would become king.

Now let’s fast forward a bit into Davids life.

David’s going to his brothers who were supposed to be fighting a battle, his been told to bring them lunch.  But when David shows up there’s no battle going on because they are all really scared of this giant Goliath.  So, David says I’ll take him on, his brothers make fun of him, the people are like sure you will.   And you already know the rest of the story.

But why is it church that the more mature in the faith we become it seems like often times the more problem we have stepping out in faith?  Trusting that God can still be the one who is fighting our battles with us and for us.

So David goes from this one no one sees in the field to the anointed son, to a giant slayer.

So everybody wants David to lead them, the votes are in and they are all rooting for David.

They even made a song about him. . .

1 Samuel 18:6–7 (NIV): When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with timbrels and lyres. 7 As they danced, they sang: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.”

Now that made Saul a bit bothered, but that’s another message for another time.  Let’s get back to David. . .

David finally becomes their king.  And he’s not just your average king.

As I mentioned last week David teaches them how to worship, really worship, even when others are watching as the presence of God is being brought into the city.  So much so that his own wife despised him because of his exuberant worship.

And truth is church so often when you get excited about God, excited about the things of God, sometimes those closest to you will have a hard time with that.

So we have David who comes from the field, goes to battle with the giant, leads the people, demonstrates unhindered worship, to where we started out with our text in 2 Samuel 11 with him on the balcony looking at someone else’s wife.

And when you read this story it almost makes you yell out.  NO DAVID NO!  Think about it boy.

And when you read this story you find yourself asking how did this happen, how did David with all those past victories, all those past experiences, find himself in this situation.

And we find the answer in verse one, look at once more. . .

2 Samuel 11:1 (NIV): In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.

It’s actually the first part. . .In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war.

In the spring that’s when they go because everything is coming back to life.  They can mount their horses and take off because there’s vegetation for them to eat.   The weather is turning warmer so they can camp when they need to.

So once again verse one. . .

2 Samuel 11:1 (NIV): In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.

Now here’s a little pop quiz for you, ready?  Was David king?  Where should he have been?

But David remained in Jerusalem.

Maybe he was tired, maybe he thought I’m just getting too old for this, whatever the reason David says,  “hey guys I’m sitting this one out you go fight I’m hanging out at the palace this time.”

And so when David refused to be who he was called to be and what God called him to be and just hang out on the balcony tragedy struck.

And I think so many in the Body of Christ actually do know what they are called to do, and who they are called to be, but refuse to move off the balcony.

They would rather step back and let someone else step in and do the work, instead of themselves.

You pray for me, you worship for me, you tell others about Jesus for me.  I’m just going to sit this one out.  I’ve been here too long, worked too much, I’m just too old and too tired to fight for myself anymore.

This story isn’t about what what you think it is.  It isn’t about some king that had a big libido, no it’s about someone who simply forgot who he was.   David had an identity problem.

He forgot that the best place, the safest place for him to be was on the battle field.  Because that is where kings were called to be.

The safest place was where he was called to be, and what he was called upon to do.

Was the battle easy.  Of course not, it never is.  But David knew better.  Remember last week I mentioned that David wouldn’t sacrifice what didn’t cost him anything.  So he knew.

And I believe part of the reason we end up on the balcony is not because we are afraid of the battle, but rather because we don’t think we have much more to offer.

Truth is church, each one of us has a battle raging, but you will never see the victory when you’re hanging out on the balcony.

Listen, I know the battles hard.  We all have a little David in us thinking I have been fighting this battle for years.  It’s time for someone else to fight for it too.

And maybe your thinking I don’t have a battle I’m fighting.  Yes you do.   We have a spiritual battle that we fight everyday that’s why we are told in Ephesians to put on the full armor of God.

Hear this church, your family is worth fighting for, your marriage is worth fighting for, your health is worth fighting for, your relationship with Jesus is worth fighting for, people who don’t know Jesus are worth fighting for.

But you will never get your victory watching from the balcony.

The trouble is we end up on the balcony when we forget where we came from, or where we are going.

• Fighting for healing. (let someone else do, when I pray it never works anyway).
• Fighting for growth in the church. (Let someone else do it everyone tells me no anyways)

Church your called to battle not the balcony, hanging out on the balcony can get costly.  Just ask David.