Coveting is the Path to the Dark Side

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Yeah, let's just put it this way the children of Israel were Really good at complaining and They were demonstrating for us if you would in Perfect picture form for us to see it in our own lives how we don't trust

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God and we complain and all this kind of Stuff it's it's quite terrible. This is what it looks like to not have faith

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Well, here's the thing When when we perfectly reflect the image of God We would automatically recognize that our life our being our existence everything we need to sustain

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It would all come from God and we would give him perfect praise and thanks for it so what

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I have a theory and you have to just put it into the theory category and that is is that Satan because of his just abject hatred for God and his love for himself

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Which is really exemplified in the pot in chapter 14 of Isaiah, I will ascend to the highest

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Heights I will sit on the mountain of assembly. I will make myself like this is this is all how the devil talks

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That it's pretty clear that what he he heard God say that the day you eat of the fruit you will die

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He said he heard him say you will surely die and it's very clear that Jesus says of the devil and this is where you get the interpretive from the scripture interpreters scripture

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Jesus says from the beginning the beginning is a theologically charged word goes back to Genesis the devil was a liar and a murderer that Satan's intent was to murder the human race made in the image of God and To just make it even that much more delicious in a demonic way

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Was going to have God be the one Murdering humanity, that was what the intent was

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And so we know this from Jesus's words about him being a liar and a murderer from the from the beginning

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So you take that you take that bring it back to the front now You can see the motivation behind the devil where the devil shot himself in the foot scripture actually teaches

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It's not in causing us to fall where the devil shot himself in the foot was actually crucifying

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Christ That's where he didn't understand What was going on?

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And so in his murderous way of thinking he's going to kill the Son of God not understanding that by that very act it would undo him and so in scripture makes that very clear that had

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The principalities understood this they would not have crucified Christ. So the devil didn't figure out the plan and The devil played his part perfectly and Because of that the thing that undid him was not the fall but the death of God So that's that's what you have that you have to kind of look at it that way

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But great questions because they're kind of provocative you're thinking in the right direction It's just you have to pull in and get the right things in the right categories there.

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So yeah All right. Let's pray and we'll get started Lord Jesus again We recognize that your word teaches us that we cannot understand your word apart from your spirit

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Please send your spirit so that we may rightly understand what is revealed here that is we look at the mirror of your law regarding covening that you would uncover and reveal to us our own sin and shortcoming and then

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Through faith trust in Christ and what he has done for us So that we recognize that we are forgiven and then bear fruit in keeping with repentance and good works towards others

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We ask in Jesus name. Amen Last two commandments now, this is gonna seem kind of crazy

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But we've been doing the Ten Commandments for like ever many moons now The whole point of this is that this is where we were at as we were reading through the book of Exodus And we decided to drill in actually your pastor decided for you to drill in and dig down on the commandments and do a harder look at it and The hope is that in looking at the

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Ten Commandments you can recognize Number one your own sin recognize the magnitude of what each of these commandments demands from us from God Recognize how we fall short trust in Jesus that you are forgiven and reconciled and the reason why we do good works

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The commandments define for us what a good work is We do that we do these good works not in order to be saved because but because we is saved

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We are saved you always have to discuss it in this manner. Now the last two commandments They are they seem a little bit redundant, but they're not and so ninth and tenth commandments both have to do with coveting

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We'll look at them together coveting of stuff Material possessions is one is in one category coveting of people associated with your neighbor

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So are or living beings associated with your neighbor? So, you know cattle would fall under living beings and then wife spouse employees and things like that would also fall into that So it can kind of fall into two categories and the coveting thing

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We'll see in Scripture is a form of idolatry self idolatry if you would but it's a form of idolatry and It's really kind of one of the major roots of all kinds of evil

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So ninth commandment you shall not covet your neighbor's house the catechism asked the question.

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What does this mean? We should fear and love God so we do not scheme what a word scheme Isn't it how people work though?

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I mean and you'll notice all the really good Soap operas always have a schemer in them.

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Did anyone else notice that or maybe it's just me But you know what? I'm saying like any good

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Netflix binge watching Program, you know, you're gonna watch this on Netflix They're always gonna have somebody who's the schemer who you know, literally every waking moment

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They're trying to manipulate and twist things in order to for their own game But this is all sinful

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So we should fear and love God so that we do not scheme to get our neighbors inheritance

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House or get it in a way which only appears right? Yeah That's the other piece of this is that there's all kinds of legal loopholes where you can steal something from somebody legally

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We don't do that But you you help and be of service to your neighbor in keeping it tenth commandment

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You shall not covet your neighbor's wife manservant maidservant ox donkey

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Anything that belongs to your neighbor. What does this mean? We should fear and love

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God so that we do not entice or force away our neighbor's wife Workers animals or turn them against him, which is always the way it works, isn't it?

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You know, it's like, you know, if you're gonna you want that guy's wife you find a way to kind of like get it in Her mind.

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Yeah that husband of yours. He's just worthless and you turn her affections away from her husband

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And of course towards you that's how that works So force away our neighbor's wife workers animals or turn them against him, but urge them to stay and to do their duty

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Central thought then on these commandments is God created us to be and here's an important word ready content content the opposite of coveting is content

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To be content with the gifts by which he sustains our lives So you think you know, what are some of the reasons why people are not content?

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Well Cuz well, it's all about me. It's all about what

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I want and then I'll note this that watch television and Every 10 to 15 minutes.

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There's a block of commercials and the whole purpose Behind these blocks of commercials is to make you discontent

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So there you are. You're flipping channels. You're watching the Vikings and you know and all of a sudden on comes a commercial

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Have you got the latest giz blamo microwave? Yeah, you're sitting there going why would

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I need a giz blamo microwave? Well, this microwave can cook pizza in 30 seconds your lousy old microwave that you have

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It takes three minutes to cook a slice of pizza. This can do it in 30 seconds Imagine how much better your life would be with two minutes and 30 seconds more for yourself

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And you're sitting there going I need to get myself a giz blamo microwave And so this is all you're thinking about right to everything about commercials is designed to make you feel like You're you're missing out

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You it's to create disconsent so that you are heading into town with your credit card in hand

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Ready to get the latest thing. That's the this is how our society works and it plays off of our inherent greed and Love for self, which is all part of the snake bit thing that we talked about.

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Yeah I This is why

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I always say prayers for you Vikings fans every year, but then again I was in a cult I'm a

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Colts fan. So last year was miserable, so the question then is what is coveting coveting is the sinful desire in our hearts to acquire for ourselves anything that Belongs to our neighbor.

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It's also That this sinful desire to draw away from our neighbor for our own benefit

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Anyone who is important to a neighbor a spouse a friend or so on and I want you to think about this and in and that is is that friends oftentimes can be the thing that you're coveting and we see this in how

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Humans kind of divide up into clicks. It's weird how it works this way but you see it where in this click this gal has this friend and This gal in this click wants that friend to be her friend and so the way you accomplish that feat to get this person to be their friend rather than her friend is you destroy the character of the friend so that you turn her against them and now you two are friends and that other person is

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X'd out of the equation and this is just how it works and There's I like When we talk about the doctrine of original sin, you know

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That's the thing when we talk about where we're all corrupted as a result of our fall into sin collectively as humans in Adam and Eve But moving from then on there are no original sins, you know, this is all the same

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Nasty stuff what you experienced in junior high in high school and those of you who are homeschooled

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You wouldn't save from some of this but you still have your sibling rivalries going on as best way

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I could put it But the idea is is that what you experienced in junior high in high school in junior high in particular? That was like the worst for me, you know,

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I think it should be illegal to force any child to go to junior high It was awful. I mean, that's that age when some kids hit puberty and others don't and and They have no check on their tongues and the bullying that goes on and the clickiness

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When I was in junior high school Some kids discovered popular music

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I hadn't discovered it yet and you know Mercilessly ridiculed and and of course

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I hadn't hit puberty yet So I ended up having to eat my lunch in the bathroom a few times to keep myself from being well beat up You know, it's just a terrible thing.

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Nobody should have to we need to we need a law Nobody should have to go to junior high school Yeah abolished get him out of here.

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Anyway, so The idea then is what you experience there it still continues on in adulthood

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It still does and it doesn't matter if you're in your 20s 30s 40s 50s I would say this the older you get the more complex the schemes become

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For the person who's doing the scheming But it's still the same junior high behavior and the reason for it is because of our sinful nature now

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Let's take a look at what scripture says in this regard and we're going to look at a few passages Romans chapter 7 we're going to do a little bit of work in here in context

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The verse I want to get to is verse 8 but I want to point something out here in the book of Romans and there's a very important point to bring up and This has to do with properly preaching and teaching law and gospel

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One of the things we recognize is that scripture makes a very clear distinction between the purpose that God has given us his law and the

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Purpose for which he's given us the gospel You do not understand the law properly if you think that the reason why

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God gave us our law his law is So that we can obey it in order to be considered righteous before God.

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That's self -righteousness and Here's the thing there are a lot of people who are

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Christians who think that's the reason why God gave us the law and So what ends up happening in these churches is you will get a lot of law, but you don't hear any gospel

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So it becomes here's your problem. You don't measure up That's law God's law says you got to do this and you sit there go, but I'm not doing it solution

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Try really hard to do it and then God will be happy with you You see the problem with this situation here is what's missing the cross

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The biblical solution is not you've got a problem try harder fix it then God will love you

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You know the gospel teaches us God saw you in your sinful dead state and he loved you and sent

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Christ to bleed and die for you and he's made you alive in Christ The law reveals your need for a

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Savior shows how far short you've fallen so that then you hear the gospel Christ has bled and died for you reconciled you to the

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Father and Forgiven and redeemed you and you are now adopted in his family. You have a good standing with God and As one who has been set free from slavery to sin death and the devil and the world and its temptations

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You now bear fruit in keeping with repentance in good works for your neighbor So, you know it's a big difference all together

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But in the church is where the salute you the problem is you're not measuring up You got to measure up and God ain't gonna love you until you do

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What does that do to the people who hear that kind of preaching? It will it kills them but the other thing it does is it causes them kind of Adam and Eve style to put on fig leaves and Their sin problem actually gets exacerbated and we're gonna see that when you preach the law without the gospel what you're ending up doing is giving people and their sinful nature ideas about what to do and Since self -righteousness means you can't ever really confess what's really wrong or that you're a sinner

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What it ends up doing you ever put like a stone pit, you know stone pavers in your yard

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You ever turn one of those things over? like, you know in the summertime and all the bugs and the creepy crawlies and the spiders and the

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What preaching the law without the gospel does is it creates an environment where the creepy crawlies in your own life get out of control

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It's not a mistake that certain well -known pastors who've had spectacular

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Moral failings were known for harping on a particular sin Always preaching about the problem out there and them people who do this thing and that thing and then they get caught

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Breaking the law doing the very thing they were preaching about it Sunday after Sunday And the reason for this is we're gonna see this is that when you preach the law in that way

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Your sinful nature goes that kind of sounds fun. I should try that No joke.

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Watch what the text says Likewise my brothers you also have died to the law through the body of Christ So that you may know may belong to another to him who has been raised from the dead in order that we

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May bear fruit for God for while we were living in the flesh our sinful passions.

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Listen to this aroused by the law We're at work and our members to bear fruit for death

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If you're going to preach law and gospel, you're going to preach only the law Understand this you're going to end up Arousing sinful passions within the hearers

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So this is why you preach the law to convict people of sin and you placard Christ if you preach law

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And then say you got to try harder now. We've got a problem I'm not obeying enough and my sinful nature has actually been aroused by that kind of preaching

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It's a very scary situation And so legalistic churches oftentimes have a very hidden a very real seedy underbelly where people

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Literally have some very terrible vices and there's no way for them to get help for it

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Because to admit the problem is to admit that I'm a sinner and there's no gospel being preached there

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So law gospel have to go together Now we are released from the law having died to that which held us captive so that we serve in the new way of the spirit

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Not in the old way of the written code. So what shall we say that the law is sin? See sometimes people overreact and sit there and go.

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Well, we're just not going to preach the law then No Not by no means yet if it had not been for the law,

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I would not have known sin That's the purpose of the law for I would not have known what it is to covet

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If the law had not said you shall not covet and here's the miserable state of being

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Well snake bit but sin Seizing an opportunity through the commandment

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Produced in me all kinds of covetousness for apart from the law sin lies dead

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I was once alive apart from the law But when the commandment came sin came alive and I died The very commandment that promised life proved to me to be death to me for sin

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Seizing an opportunity through the commandment deceived me Through it killed me. So the law it is holy and The commandment is holy and righteous and good

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So the problem is we're not That's the point So what oftentimes happens then so we're talking in the context of coveting but keep this out here for just a second

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What oftentimes happens is that when people are abused in churches that preach la la la la la la la la la?

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Oftentimes they will react and end up in the opposite ditch Now this is going to be a broad -brush

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Statement, but I think it can it would bear out oftentimes when you see within a region culturally where Liberalism has kind of taken hold of the churches if you rewind

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The timeline a bit so over here. We got liberalism. They're ordaining women and homosexuals and There's no restraint on sin and you don't hear

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God's law preached at all. Well rewind the tape come back 30 40 50 years

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What are they hearing in the churches? Law legalism and antinomianism are

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Flip sides of the exact same coin Neither of them are Christianity, which we have got to recognize this.

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So this is the solution to the liberalism that we see over here is not a return to Pull yourself up by your self righteous bootstraps and get yourself back in line and you know and buck up That's not the solution

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The solution for this is long gospel. The solution for this is long gospel

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Because neither of these are Christianity. They're just opposite ditches Christianity lives in the tension between God's law and gospel you can't break the tension if You break the tension you'll end up in one ditch or another

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So oftentimes people who've been abused by legalism will end up over in this other ditch

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But they create their own weird kind of legalism itself the legalism of love which is still

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Law, it's just a different spin on it. Does that make sense? So My my admonition then and this little bunny trailer went on would be this

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It's very easy and I mean this really easy to Take a look at somebody who is liberal that you know

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It's one thing to rebuke a public teacher who's teaching false doctrine that's liberal, but you might know somebody who's under the sway of a liberal teacher and The best thing you can do to help them would be to listen to their story

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Because the story they tell you Just might in fact There's a really high probability be a story of I used to go to churches like this and it nearly made me commit suicide.

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I Always felt that God was angry at me that that there was nothing

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I can do no matter how hard I tried to please that God and so they've ended up over here an

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Empathetic ear to that person and say rather than saying you're just some weird liberal social justice granola crunching tree hugger

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Okay, which they might be but that just getting in their face and talking that way isn't going to help them

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All right That's going to get their back up and they're not going to listen to you because they're in just as much danger over here as They were over here

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But oftentimes we don't see Self -righteous legalism as the exact same kind of threat as liberalism is we don't but it is

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Neither of them are true. In fact, I would say this read the book of Galatians The book of Galatians is written against that self -righteous legalism and the

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Apostle Paul Doesn't pull any punches and he saves his sharpest rebukes and strongest rhetoric

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For the churches in Galatia who are into this self -righteous legalism I mean so much so he says that if you believe a different gospel than the one we preached you're damned and Then the

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Apostle Paul not being politically correct and a little rough around the edges because the whole thing centered around circumcision

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Literally later says those who are troubling you I wish they would go and cut the whole thing off get the lop it off of me

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You know procedure so I mean, I mean that's literally how he talks about the legalists

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But oftentimes because when we hear God's law we sit there and go that's true.

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That's right You're right. Homosexuality is a sin adultery is a sin stealing is a sin.

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They're speaking the truth They're only speaking part of the truth and they're preaching the law as if the solution is try harder or as if the law

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Can somehow give you the ability to obey it? Both both of these are opposite sides of the exact same coin

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Now that being case that the text then talked about coveting I wouldn't know what coveting was the commandment came and all of a sudden

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I was coveting everything I've been coveting everything ever since I could watch commercials Yeah, because that's what it breeds in us and I want you to consider this also

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Something to consider much of What has become our? observance of Christmas is

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Literally inculcating in our children Really bad coveting because it's not about Christ.

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It's about what do you want for Christmas? Sometimes that can you know a good gift with the wrong spin can get us into a really bad spot

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Keep that in mind. All right another text. I would like you to take a look at and that is

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James chapter 4 Yes, we Lutherans embrace the book of James.

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I Know some people what? mind blown James is a great book.

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Don't quote it out of context. Be very careful if you're doing that We're gonna look at a section of James chapter 4 and James writing to Christians Here's what he says what causes

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Quarrels what causes fights among you? Who's the you there?

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Christians now I'm important to note this the epistle of James is part of a small body of works within the

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New Testament known as the Catholic epistles Catholic small see

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They weren't written to a specific congregation they were written to The Universal Church all

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Christians of all times and in all places. This is a Catholic epistle Catholic small see universal and so he asks us

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What causes quarrels and fights among you? Now, can anyone honestly say that there's never been any quarrels or fights here at Kongsvinger?

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Okay enough said we'll just move on but you get the point. So is it not this That your passions are at war within you

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Doesn't that sound like what it's like to be a Christian you desire and you don't have

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So you murder? you covet and You cannot obtain so you fight and you quarrel

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You do not have Because you do not ask and so I can honestly say

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Your pastor has this problem, but I can honestly also say that I've the four almost four years

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I've been here I can see that we all together still wrestle with our sinful passions and that there are at times

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Quarreling among us and we must recognize that this comes from our sinful nature

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Well, this is what we have to recognize So then the question then comes up.

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How do we fear and love God in? Keeping the ninth and the Ten Commandments First we fear and love

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God by not coveting the gifts that he has given to our neighbor This would include and I hate it

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So it seems so basic not plotting to acquire our neighbor's stuff in a way that appears only proper or legal

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I would read out like Isaiah 5 8 woe to those who join house to house field to field until there is no more room

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This is talking about a Practice that was going on in ancient Israel where rather than recognizing that individual families had land

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Inheritances that were given to them by God when they came into the land and they were passed down from generation to generation

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That was behind what was going on with Naboth and his vineyard Instead there was this kind of scheming of kind of joining things together and creating these ginormous estates

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This was a form of theft But done under a pretense of that it was legal and God spoke out against this and said woe to those who do this

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Micah chapter 2 verses 1 through 2 says woe to those who divide devise wickedness and work evil on their beds

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Now think about this for a second there you are it's morning time

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The Sun has come up and it's just kind of Getting a sliver right there in the window and there you are in your bed and that little warm spot and Just to the right and to the left of you are the cool parts of the sheet.

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And you know, it's just Blissful the windows open. It's not hot yet.

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And look you can hear the birds singing and maybe a Bee buzzes by your window and it's this beautiful serene picture, but inside of your mind

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The only thing you're thinking about is how you're going to sin that day Does anyone see the problem with this picture, but here's the thing we've all done this

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We've all done this where the only thing that's going on in your mind is how I'm gonna get back at that person or how

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I'm gonna Take my favorite sin and I'm gonna just go hog -wild with it

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So the serene beautiful picture of morning bliss inside of your heart head and your heart

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It's all black dark sin muck And oftentimes you're working out.

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Okay, if I do this thing and I say this then that person's gonna Oh, they're really gonna get it

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And as absurd as that sounds Who of us has not devised evil in our beds in the morning in that same way?

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we have We are snakebit I'm gonna keep using that phrase for a while today

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Let's consider we mentioned this in passing last week. Let's read it out this week let's consider it like the ultimate example in Scripture of Coveting and how that went second

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Samuel chapter 11 Second Samuel chapter 11 in the spring of the year the time when

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Kings go out to battle David sent Joab and his servants with him and all of Israel and they ravaged the

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Ammonites and besieged Rabbah but David remained at Jerusalem So this is

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David midlife if you would maybe a little older than midlife Maybe in his 40s, maybe in his early 50s.

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Who knows but Getting up there. His sword swinging isn't what it used to be.

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And you know, he's He doesn't quite have the spring in his step that he did when he was younger and so The council went something like this, you know,

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David, you're kind of getting up there in years. You're not a spring chicken anymore It's time for you to maybe stay back.

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Let us go and fight the battles and we'll just we'll send you reports Hey, okay

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Hey, okay, that's that's fine So it happened one late afternoon. I love how the story says that it happened one late afternoon

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When David arose from his couch was walking on the roof of the king's house kind of thinking kingly things and you know, maybe

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Doing this with his kingly beard and there he is. He's up and he looks down and whoa

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Whoa from the roof. He saw a woman bathing Why was this woman bathing there?

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And the woman was very beautiful and David sent and inquired about the woman and one said is this not

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Bathsheba the daughter of helium and The wife of Uriah the

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Hittite now at this point the story should end and say well, she's married.

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I'm married Yeah, that's that's the end of the story. Ah, but not so So David sent messengers and listen to the word took her

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Doesn't say invite took her and Well, she came to him not like she had much of a choice and he lay with her

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Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness So then she returned to her house the woman conceived and she sent and told

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David I am pregnant some scholars have wondered based upon the way the verbs work in this if this was not a sexually abusive relationship

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If Bathsheba were living today and she was on Twitter Would she be hashtagging me too?

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I? Think there's a real case to be made that that's what's going on here Not just with the took her bit, but after her husband is murdered she mourns his death and The one thing we know at this point is is that this is not a relationship of equals

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She's a commoner He's the king he took her and She there was no way for her to say no to any of this so the chances of this actually being of a sexually abusive aggressive predatory act on the part of David really high

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It's definitely within the realm of possibility as a right interpretation and understanding of this text

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That's what we're talking about here. He sees her covets her

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He takes her And he takes all of her and now she's in a pickle she's conceived and Jewish law

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Would demand as her as an adulteress the punishment for this is the death penalty

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So now she sends to David. I'm pregnant and that's her way of saying you got to step in because you you you you this baby's daddy and I Could literally be stoned for this

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That's what's going on So she sent word. I am pregnant

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No repentance on the part of David at this point, so David sent word to Joab Send me

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Uriah the Hittite. He's gonna spring into action use his kingly authority Pull some strings will make it so that Uriah gets a little

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R &R Gets a maybe a five -day pass from the army and you know

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What soldiers do when they get a little bit of R &R and they're in town. He's gonna go spend time with his wife

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Sure, she'll give birth eight months later, but you know Who's counting?

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He happened to be gone for a while So when Uriah came to him David asked how

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Joab was doing how the people were doing? How's the war going?

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Seems like strange small talk, doesn't it? You know? Oh the war is going great So then

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David said to Uriah go down to your house wash your feet Uriah went out of the king's house and there followed him a present from the king, but Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his

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Lord did not go down to his house When they told David Uriah did not go down to his house.

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Uriah said David said Uriah Have you not come from a journey? Why do you not go down to your house?

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Uriah said to David The Ark in Israel and Judah dwell in booths and my Lord Joab and the servants of my

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Lord are camping in the open field shall I then go to my house and eat and Drink and lie with my wife as you live and as your soul lives.

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I will not do this thing This guy has some pretty good character he won't allow himself to enjoy stuff that his

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Brothers -in -arms are not enjoying at the moment true camaraderie with the other soldiers

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So David said Uriah. All right remain here today and tomorrow. I'll send you back So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next how long can this guy not want to be with his wife?

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so David invited him and he ate at his presence and he drank so that he made him drunk and In the evening he went out to lie on his couch with the servants of his

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Lord But he did not go down to his house Well, that didn't work

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So in the morning David wrote a letter to Joab sent it by the hand of Uriah Now I want you to consider just how sick this is

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David is summoned Uriah He is written out Uriah's death sentence

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Rolled it up put it in its container Gave it to Uriah and said give this to Joab The entire time

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Uriah is traveling back He's carrying the orders for his own murder.

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I Don't think it gets more premeditated than that That's how sick and twisted this story is.

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I mean, this is a political scandal of scandals Name me one president of the

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United States who if found guilty of doing this would still be the president So in the morning

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David wrote a letter Joab sent it by the hand of Uriah in the letter he wrote set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting then draw back from him so that he may be struck down and Die, it's the perfect murder because When there's war going on people die

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There's no crime scene There's no murder weapon it's the perfect crime and The only person who knows of what really happened is

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Joab and Joab and him are tight Joab's not going to rat him out. There's a

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God in Israel so It's Joab was besieging the city He assigned

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Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men and the men in the city came out and fought with Joab Some of the servants of David among the people fell

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Uriah the Hittite also died It's tidy There's no evidence.

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And now David can marry the widow of Uriah the Hittite and look like a hero

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Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting Instructed the messenger when you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king and if the king's anger arises

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If he says to you, why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall who killed

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Abimelech the son of Jeru? Jerubasheth did not a woman cast an upper millstone on him from the wall so that he died at the

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Bez Yes that did happen. It's in Scripture. So why did you go so near the wall then you shall say

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Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. So the messenger went Came and told

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David all that Joab had sent to him to tell Messenger said to David the men gained an advantage over us came out against us in the field

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But we drove them back to the entrance of the gate Then the archers shot at your servants from the wall Some of the king's servants are dead and your servant

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Uriah the Hittite is also dead David said to the messenger thus shall you say to Joab do not let this matter displease you for the sword devours now one and now another

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Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it and encourage him and When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead

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She didn't mourn listen to this. She lamented She lamented over her husband

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This is a nightmare for her Yeah, this is a lot more than mourning lamenting is like mourning times a hundred this is weeping this is

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Like uncontrollable out of control not consoled Put yourself in her shoes

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This whole thing is a nightmare. She's pregnant by the king. Nobody knows but her and him

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Now her husband has been murdered and she knows it was not an accident that he died it doesn't get any darker than this and What started this whole snowball rolling?

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Coveting Wanting something that belonged to somebody else Beth Sheba was the wife of Uriah God put those two together in a marriage what

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God has joined together Let no man tear asunder and because he wanted her because she was hot

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He took her impregnated her murdered her husband and Nobody knows except for Joab has one bit of the story

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Bathsheba has the other bit It's dark. This is where two covening takes us

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Story doesn't end there. I better tell more of the story because otherwise we're all gonna be really upset 2nd

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Samuel chapter 12 Interesting type and shadow in this passage. So Yahweh sent

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Nathan to David Just remember there is a God in heaven. He came to him and he said to him

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And I love this Nathan is going to rebuke David, but he doesn't start off with the direct approach

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That might just get David's ire up And so he tells a little parable there were two men in a certain city the one rich the other poor

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The rich man had very many flocks and herds the poor man had nothing Except for one little you lamb which he had bought and he brought it up It grew up with him and with his children it used to eat

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Morsels and drink from his cup and lie in his arms. It was like a daughter to him

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Now there came a traveler to the rich man And he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guest who had come to him

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But he took the poor man's lamb prepared it for the man who had come To him.

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There's a perfectly great parable. What did Uriah the Hittite have? From the sounds of it not much

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But God had given him Bathsheba so then David's anger was greatly kindled against the man and he said to Nathan well as Yahweh lives the man who has done this deserves to die and He shall restore the lamb fourfold because he did this thing and because he had no pity

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Nathan said you're the man Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel.

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I Anointed you king over Israel. I delivered you out of the hand of Saul I gave you your master's house your master's wives into your arms

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I gave you the house of Israel and of Judah and if this were too little I would add to you as much more

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Why have you despised the word of Yahweh the ninth and tenth

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Commandments? to do what is evil in his sight as well as the Fifth you have struck down Uriah the

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Hittite with a sword and have taken his wife to be your wife You've killed him with the sword of the

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Ammonites Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house because you've despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the

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Hittite to be Your wife thus says Yahweh behold. I will raise up evil against you out of your own house

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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 The Sun for you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all of Israel and before the

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Sun Now watch what happens next David doesn't dig in He doesn't deflect

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He doesn't Place the blame on anyone else David said to Nathan I have sinned

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I've sinned against Yahweh No excuses Just the truth and Nathan said to David Yahweh also has put away your sins and you shall not die

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That's an absolution He's forgiven nevertheless Because you did this deed

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You have utterly scorned Yahweh The child who was born to you shall die

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Then Nathan went to his house now consider this The story goes on to explain how the son born to Bathsheba and David dies

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And you're going to note this is in now in type and shadow In order for David to be forgiven somebody dies

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Who dies the son of David? Hmm. I know another son of David who died

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So that we all can be forgiven So this little infant and then in a very real way in type and shadow points us to Christ The innocent dying for the guilty the one who did nothing wrong

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Dying instead of the one who deserved to die David won't die It's the son of David who will die and when you say it in those terms

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Then you can see in type and shadow how this child's death Then will prefigure the death of the son of David Jesus Christ the innocent one who died so that we can live

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Very interesting, but all of this terrible horrible awful story begins with coveting coveting is nothing to Take lightly it is the cause of quarrels among us

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It is the root that leads to adultery is the root that leads to murder

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You know as Yoda would say it is the path to the dark side and that sadly is

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That that path already is paved in your heart Because we are all snake bit

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So when you find yourself coveting recognize it for what it is Repent pray to the

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Lord to forgive you and Pray that the Lord would bear the fruit of Repentance in your life and the fruit of that is

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Contentment and we're gonna spend a lot of next week Talking about what contentment really looks like and we're gonna take a look next week at a couple of passages

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I'll prepare you for it. Now. Have you ever heard the passage that says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me?

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All right. It's so popular as a sentence that That it shows up on bumper stickers it might actually be a refrigerator magnet that's on your

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Refrigerator at home, you know think of it this way when somebody goes to the Super Bowl off You know in the

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NFL there's a lot of people who are Christians and so there you've got them interviewing guys from this team as they're getting ready to go to the

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Super Bowl and in preparation for defeating this team Somebody says

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I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me Let me just ask I'll throw it out there.

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I want you to think about it this week Do you really think that passage is about you? defeating things in your life like the opposite team in the

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Super Bowl or You know overcoming an obstacle in your life that's standing against you and your dream destiny or things like that Wait till you see the context that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me shows up in because it has everything to do