If You Want to Live, You Must Die

The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.

Kori Porter
My name is Kori Porter. I’ve been doing campus ministry probably for like the last 13 years, I came to faith at the University of Mississippi. And then I became a student leader who then got fell in love with God’s word went to seminary down in RTS and Mississippi, transferred over to Princeton Theological Seminary on campus ministry at Michigan State on Princeton University’s campus. And I’m just really thankful to be here said that a lot of times, but honestly, it was campus ministry that really formed me and cultivated in me a desire, earnestly a desire to seek God and to seek His Holiness. And often the conversation about saying, when you get into the local church, unfortunately, unfortunately, sometimes it can be watered down, people have more things at stake. But when you’re in college, you got nothing to lose, you just want to zealously follow God. And so I’m gonna have a real conversation today with you guys. It’s not going to be sugar coated, it’s going to be upfront about some of the things we struggle with, in hopes not to expose you or to make you feel bad. That is not what I’m here about. But I am here for our freedom, right? Our freedom away from the sin that keeps us in bondage. So if you guys are okay with that, on your talk, what you notice was back in 2019, I was asked to give this talk. And so I came up with out of Romans eight, inspirational is a gospel fight, dying to sin and living for Christ. And so if you’re online watching, and if you’re in your bulletins, you guys see that, but a 2020 happen. Amen. That was an Old Testament biblical type of years, it was flood famine, COVID-19 plague postcard. And so because of that dynamic, I decided to go Old Testament. And so if you’re a Bible lady, you know, your scriptures are if not, if there’s a little continent, context, part of the beginning of your Bible. And so I’m gonna start out of Second Samuel, chapter 11. And chapter 12, is where we’ll be today. And as you turn there, again, we’ll spend most of our time there, I do want to set the stage a little bit to say, the reason why I want to slow down in this is because COVID has really stripped away the distractions. And for many of us, as distractions have been stripped away, and the things that will keep us from really cold, like reflecting on where we are with the Lord. Now, because those things are going away, we’re actually start to see things that we don’t like about ourselves. And we have no way out of those things. We have sin patterns that we want to escape from, but we don’t know how to break free. And that’s a real situation. And in this passage with David, you guys know the pastors which is really good so we can get more kind of from David, the biblical character over to your life as well. In this passage, you’ll see that David is a man after God’s own heart like we are women after God’s own heart. But also in this you will see a man who struggles with and commits one of the greatest sins imaginable adultery with Bathsheba. And so again, as we get to this passage, I’m gonna pray for us and then we’ll start God I thank you so much for the women in this room. I thank you so much just for each and every soul guide from the college students to their mother to their grandmother, mother, father, for people who labor on college campuses, for the people who are watching online. So there’s a word for people in this room that’s what you told us that your word would go out God it would transform it would train your church up in righteousness. So Father, that’s what we’re asking for that as I teach through this passage, God, that she would decrease me decrease my nerves decrease parts of my personality that may be abrasive but God increase your word. In this room God we ask that you increase your spirit you increase who you are in our heart, so God that we may be freed from sin. You are good God, all of us believe it. All of us know it. That is why we are here. You are good. God give us a new word. We love you dearly. And your son Jesus Christ’s name we pray. Amen. All right. So it’s imperative again, that I kind of give us the step David, because if we start in Second Samuel chapter 11, what you’re going to end up starting with is David’s sin, and no one wants to start in a narrative about their life with their sin. Right? Nobody so want to do instead is start with David as who he was and how God saw him all throughout the biblical Old Testament narrative. David starts as a little shepherd boy out in the field, and guy sends this prophet Nathan. Sorry Samuel to anoint David to be the next kin. And God doesn’t look on David’s outward appearance. No, he looks at his heart. He says this will be a man who has a humble heart after me. That will trust me that will follow me. So as a little boy, not only does he go out into the wilderness he finds different lions, tigers and bears and he’s trained up into God. He uses his natural gifts as he builds them up. But then when the Philistines come against Israel, and they start to wipe out the Israel, they’re going to take them out. No man would stand against Goliath. No man was selling his skin Philistines, but who would? It was David, the little shepherd boy, because he trusts in God, he trust in the capabilities that God had given him. Again, moving forward. When David defeats Goliath, there was something that’s kind of ratchet, everybody turned ratchet. Okay, praise God. Everything that term ratchet, there was something kind of foul that happens. And what happens, the crowd looks at it and says, Oh, my gosh, Sol kills to 1000. But David kills 10s of 1000. Now, if you can imagine, Saul is the reigning king. He kind of knows that David is being popular and more popular than him. So he’s upset. And so it’s this envy and Saul, this starts to create. Now Gods spirits are left Sol, we already know that Saul’s already on something else he’s tripping. And so this all has so much anger and sin in his heart that he pursues David to kill him. He’s going to take them out. And so what ends up happening is David flees into the wilderness. He doesn’t try to fight he doesn’t try to divide the kingdom. He flees because, again, he’s trusting God. Time and time again, Saul tries to kill David. But David again, never repeat, never replies with any type of animosity, David’s given several occasions and multiple occasions to kill Saul, and he never does. And when we see this, not only does he not kill him, when he’s in the wilderness, Davis where he flees, Portree comes out of David hearts to God. If you’re a woman, if you’re taking notes, it is Psalm 18, that David writes in the wilderness. It is Psalm 52, Psalm 53, Psalm 57, all of the flows that have David in the wilderness experience, and David and his willingness, he doesn’t, like push it back, or he’s upset about it. No, he’s embraces it. He actually sees a community out there, he gets 30 mighty men to be on his side. So David is, in some ways is flourishing, if you will, even though things are coming against him again, because he loves God. And so when Saul dies, after a battle with the Philistines, and then date the the tribes because Dave is so popular, the tribes come to him and they say, Hey, David, would you be willing to unite us and humble and impassionate? King Saul? I mean, David, what he does is he says, Yes, I will unite you. So David becomes king, the new king of Israel. And David does two important things just for biblical context. He establishes a political kingdom in Jerusalem, and he calls it the city of Saigon. Second, what David does is he seeks to build God, His beautiful altar and temple because not only does he want Israel to have a political kingdom, but he wants to have a place where people can worship. And this is the man that we’re introduced to before we even get to his sin. This is a man that from his youth, he’s been raised, and God loves God. And I’m talking to college students, you understand that some of you have never knew a day where you don’t know Christ. Right, but what’s going to happen as soon as you interact with the real world, in college, what would happen is people are going to come to you things are going to happen, you’re going to start to see things come out of you that you never expected. And so in the story of David, it is beautiful to see that God is still faithful. And so we’re going to transition over because again, this is David’s three dimensional, your three dimensional person. And my hope for you is if you get nothing else out of this story is that you start to see that there’s a pattern to sin. Sin never comes out of the blue. But there’s a pattern. There’s an evolution that develops in our hearts that causes a sin. And so when we see this passage, if you’re if you’re a note taker, again, I have a new title for you. And my new title is our desire, our sin, his death.

Kori Porter
Again, it was very simple, but I like to repeat, our desire, our sin, his death. And I’m pulling this from a particular passage. So it is kind of important that you write that down. The passage I’m pulling from if you guys were listening yesterday, is the same passage that Mary Wilson read, and it’s out of James one. And it’s so helpful. And James one verses 13 to 15. Here it shows a sin doesn’t just happen again, it is a process. And so 13 Agree with me if you’re there is worth it is actually worth turning there. So if you’re there, please read with me keep your hand on it will trace it throughout my talk. Let no one say when she is tempted, I have been tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one. That’s the setup, gotten in your sin. Amen. So but each person is tempted as says, when she is learned and enticed by her own desire. Verse 15, then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it’s fully grown, bring forth death. There’s a process there there’s desire, and the desire has conception and brings forth that sin and then sin when it’s fully grown has a death element to it. So we literally are going to trace in David’s life, that evolution of area process So point one, chapter 11 Verse one through three, David, tempted by his own desire. Now do you want to be clear about this and it came up in what sexual struggles women face. Desire is not the problem. If you were to Google desire, look it up in a definitional space you are to see urge craving curiosity. There’s nothing wrong with having a curious nature about yourself. Right? If you’re a reader, you want to know what happens at the end of your book has a good, right part of you got put desire, in essence, that is good, right? Even as a vegan woman I know is good and right, that you guys eat Chick fil A. Like I know that. Why? Because God has anointed that chicken to die for sacrifice for your stomach. That is a good thing, lady. So with that being said, desires not the problem. So if desires not the problem, then what is the problem is when desire is fleshly. So again, I’m trying to walk through this, I only got about 40 minutes, 34 minutes per Scott, and I got a lot to get through. So look up Galatians five to understand the flesh. Moving on. So what happens is in our tempted, we’re tempted, why our personal desire, and I’m telling you, the devil don’t come at you with her desire, her desire, he comes at you with your desire, what does your heart want? And that’s how he gets you. He doesn’t come at you what your boyfriend does and stays on fortnight for 1415 hours and shirks all his responsibility and doesn’t study for the exam. No, he comes at you. When you’re a woman who wants to look a particular way, you have a certain idea about yourself, you want to reflect that. And so what you do is you struggle with bulimia or anorexia, because the devil has turned to you in a space of your desire is nothing wrong with wanting to look well. It’s what we’re willing to do in order to achieve our desires. And that’s where the enemy gets us. Again, God is so gracious to us because he shows us that in order for us to thrive, that our desires have to become crisis desires, it has to become God’s desires, who does the best is Christ. Christ Himself has desires there again a God given good thing. And when he’s attempted in the wilderness, he does not sin, but the devil tips on how by his desires, right so crazy eight for four days and 40 Nights. So what is he tempted by

Kori Porter
a man? So again, another situation, Crisis Pregnancy is a big mountain top and it says you can have anything that you want. And then what happens? He says, No, I’m gonna stay with God. But why was that even a temptation? Why was all the kingdoms of the world and his glory a Temptation of Christ, because Christ was already promised it y’all, but Christ desire we see in the garden December was not to go to the cross. So what the devil says is, hey, I’ll give you what you can have without the cross. That was crisis temptation, but yet he still stays with God. Desire again, it’s not the problem. Christ submits his desire to God and says, Let your will be done in my own. Very similar again, we have to have this so I’m gonna pick up in verse two, we’re gonna scrap one for a second pick up into one evening, David got up from his bed and walked around the roof of the palace. From the roof, he saw a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent someone to find out about her. The man said she is Bathsheba, the daughter of William and the wife of Uriah the Hittite. So in verse two, what we see here is Dave is just living his life y’all. David didn’t do an unspectacular. He just got up from bed. He saw a woman she said, he said she was beautiful. I nothing wrong with that. That’s a good right desire, he actually sent somebody to inquire about who she is, again, not the problem. But I will tell you just very quickly, that sometimes our temptation comes most when we don’t expect it. So again, it’s not a problem. But the problem is we have to check our desires daily, right? It’s not a thing that we do once a year and I think we do a community group is daily I’m checking what am I desiring from the situation out of life? And where is it leading me to? And so if I’m going to be practical very quickly, I wrote down some things one is your accounts that you follow? Who are you desiring to look like to be like to image to reflect the pictures we post you cannot have John 316 and then a bikini shot come on since well, yet that is a disconnect. Cognitive dissonance. Okay, we comments we leave on people’s posts, right? Look at how you’re forming your your thoughts there. And then what do we entertain in private, our DMS, these are important things to think through. So don’t get me wrong. Again. Social media is amazing. It connects us during COVID. But it’s important to realize that we have to understand where our desires are. And so if David could walk up and have this incredible crazy sand that he does, just get him out of bed and have all this suffering your iPhone can bring suffering, trust me is the mundane things of life to try plus efficiency and it’s not the big spectacular things. My last point on this is that sin is a choice I mean desire it desire has a choice to it right so you’re not you have the Holy Spirit in you if I was in Romans chapter eight, which you will realize that the same spirit erase Jesus from the dead a man lives in your body. That means you are captive by no sin. That means you have in a way to be able to overcome this David Old Testament they didn’t have the Spirit in them, but we know that spirit was a part on David in Old Testament, so David too, had the ability to free himself, but he chose not to turn. The point to turn would have been in first three, when he got up, he saw the woman and he naked, he probably should have turned away. Right? So but he didn’t. And many of us if we’re being honest in our lives, when we start to have our desires, we reason we have what I say on rationalize foolishness, if you will, we rationalize our craziness, like, oh, I can just do a little bit of this, or a little bit of that. But, you know, that’s gonna get you nowhere but called into sin. So we continue with the conversation again, God will always give us a way of escape. Anytime there’s a desire presented that you need to get out of this first Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13. And there’s a lesson here, if I’m moving quickly on this, and it is to if you’re trying to get to practice goals of what do I do about my desires? How do I fight my desires, I would say quick, practical. One is prayer and the Word. When I have desires that I’m realizing I’m struggling with, again, those temptations or thoughts are not bad. I go to prayer, I bring what is in darkness and what is eating at me, I bring that and I say it out loud to the Lord or I say that prayer with him. But I am talking to him. It has no ability to have power over you when you bring it to light. It feeds and darkness don’t allow your desire sustained in darkness. Confess that to the Lord to your community, and the Word of God. I’m going to read this it’s really important. It’s a word I have lived by it a second Timothy 316. And it shows us with God’s Word does is exactly fit for this. It says all scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach and what is true and what makes us realize our right and our wrongs in our lives in Lt. USB, it corrects when we are wrong, and it teaches us to do right. The second Timothy 316 The Word of God soaked in your heart will allow you to align your desires in a way that is different from what you had before. That’s how Christ was able to get out of his desires, right that he had he pushed back with what the Word of God is a sword it fights for us get a plan. I said this in the sexual panel, but you need a plan if you struggle with masturbation, pornography, why is your phone by your bed? Right?

Kori Porter
Why are we doing like move your phone, get a plan, move things around so that you may be free. Right? If you have a gossip problem, and you talk with one of your girlfriends all the time tell her to correct you. I know Jackie did a talk on the tongue. I wish I was there for that. Because my tongue Oh, my God. And so I tell one of my girlfriends when you see my tongue get it out of pocket. Let me know why. Because I don’t want to be a teacher teaching about the gospel and my same mouth that I bless people with I curse people wait, what are we doing? We step away from that you get a plan in your life and it gives you freedom moving on community who has access to your life who can speak into your life? Are you so prideful and bold if I was where I couldn’t allow people to speak in my life? No, no, no, I opened my wife I say hey, here’s my phone, if you need it, hey, here’s my accounts. I am open there is nothing someone can pull up about me that I have not already shared. My mentor out of 13 years is here. For sophomore in college, I met this lady, and she is I am 32 years old, but she has kept me. Right but not just her Don’t exhaust one person praise God. Put a community of disciples and networks around you so that they may be free. Right? We do this together and community. Point two is verses 11. I mean, chapter 11 verses four through 25. So David’s desire comes. And he conceives and gives birth to sin of a pastor friend of mine, his name is Lawrence Jha. And the reason why I’m mentioning him is because I don’t believe in Patriot plagiarism. And one thing that Lawrence told me about sin, He says sin is like a moving train. Unless you get off, it will take you where you never expect it to go. Right? So one minute David is getting up from his bed. And then the next minute, he’s getting back into his bed with sin. That’s not what he expected. You could just get out of bed and walk on the roof. Think comes back as many as insane. Wow. So when I think of sin, I think of the New Jersey Transit System. Amen. Okay. i It’s the place of all my anxiety. Like I don’t even know how to get back home to Princeton have no idea. So when I go to the airport, I travel places. What I ended up doing is I go from i come through, but there’s so many different towns before you get to Princeton. And so I never know where to get off. And at some point, you’re just in this hyper state and you just pass out. So I go to sleep on train, and I woke up and I was in training. There’s a couple towels David over y’all that’s not the towel supposed to be in. Right? So we took me somewhere that I’m not trying to go and when you fall asleep in the face of sin because it is crossing your door and is looking it’s a sin is crouching at your door and it desires you about that. Not that we have desire sin has a desire and this desire is for you. And it says that not only they are respected, I’m sorry. So it’s desires for you and he says to a sorry this was able. Okay, he says to Cain, he says you must master it. This was before he even killed his brother. Right, there’s ways to look at our desire and to get out of it. And moving forward, when I’m looking at these verses, I’m seeing this overview happen. And I’m about to transition to read out four through 13. So bear with me, again, looking at your scriptures. But here, what you’ll see is David goes farther than he ever planned. He has lust that goes to adultery that goes to deceit that goes to dishonor that goes all the way to, to murder. So let that trace out with you lust, adultery, deceit, dishonor, all this can be found in verses four through 13. Then David sent messengers to get Bathsheba. And she came to him and slept and he slept with her. Now she was purifying herself from her monthly of cleanliness. And then she went back home, the woman conceived and sent word to David saying, I am pregnant. So David, he sent word to Joe up, send me Uriah the Hittite. And Joab said to David, when you’re, I’m sorry. And then Joe upset him to David. Now, when you Raya came to him, David asks, how’s Joe? How Joe was and how the soldiers were and what were they doing out into more? Davis really to for somebody who just slept with his wife. Then David says to Uriah, go down to your house, and wash your feet, just hang out guy. So So Uriah left the palace, and then David lays it on thick here. It says a gift from the King was sent after him. So David even gives him a gift, Joe. That’s how guilty David feels. But Uriah slept at the entrance of the palace, and all of the Masters servants and did not go to his house. So David was told that your writer didn’t go to sleep with Bathsheba so that he can cover up the he has slept with his wife and then be able to have the baby in your is name instead of his name and his whole kingdom would go down, right? So David realizes that she were in, in riot and sleep together.

Kori Porter
So in verse 10, he says Uriah, David was totally right, didn’t go home. And so it says so. So he actually right. Um, so I mean, you’ve been out and you, you’ve just come from a military campaign. So why don’t you go home, right? So he’s trying to cover from sin and he’s realizing that you’re right is not going to participate? Could because his sin is so in him. He’s trying to cover it up, but he doesn’t know what to do. So verse 11, Uriah says, uh, David, and rice, so honorable, he says, The Ark of the Covenant, the place where God dwells, Israel, Judah, are all staying in tents. And my commander job and my in my lords, men are camped in the open country. How do I go to a house to my house to eat or to drink and to make love to my wife, as surely as I live, I wouldn’t ever do such a thing. Uriah has more integrity than David in this moment. And so, again, David said, Oh, okay, well, you know, stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back. So Uriah, remained in Jerusalem that day. And then next, so now David starts plotting. So David invitation to the to Raya, and Riot, he ate, he drank with him, and David made Uriah drunk. But in the evening, Uriah went to sleep on his mat amongst his master servants, and he did not go home. Sin will make the Christian love it. Sin will make the Christian protect it, and it will make you despise holiness. And that’s what happens with David. He doesn’t He’s not a man after God’s own heart right now. No, he’s a man after his own sin and his own protection. He’s protecting it and he is not protecting your Ryan he’s despising Uriah is holiness and his unwillingness to forfeit his friendships on the battlefield or the Lord. And so we see this before this is not new. We see this in the garden right? When Adam and Eve have sinned, they protected they sold these fig leaves. And here in verse six, David has fig leaves. He says, Hey, man, are you doing? Have some wine have this go party, he’s covering up all these things. We’re actually performances. And ladies, I know this. I’ve been in college ministry myself, performances, oftentimes hard hide a hard heart, a heart that does not love God, a heart that does not pursue God. But I’m talking to my leaders in here I’m talking to the girls who can beat 1001 Bible studies, the girl who knows the text backwards and forwards can teach it way better than me talking about the girls who are the worship leaders. I’m talking about the ones who’ve been in church for so long. You don’t even know what to say, talking to you. I’m saying that your performances, your hard work, all of those things are just that they’re yours. They’re not unto the Lord. If you’re struggling with sin, that it’s just you’re just doing it to cover up the sin that you’re struggling with. You’re actually caught. And so that that that that that Bible study, Utah doesn’t as the Bible says, don’t even go past the roof of the house unto the Lord, because it’s about you. It’s about covering up your foolishness and not unto the Lord. So again here, I love that God is so gracious to us though. So even though our sin natures is not performances, God is still so faithful to David. He still keeps David even his foolishness. Don’t we realize that the breath in our lungs that even curse God comes from him. That’s the way God deals with David. He doesn’t immediately strike him down. He’s patient with it. David, he moves toward Dave and I want to make this to be very clear, I know I’m teaching a hard word. I know our personnel is very intense, I get all that. But I’m telling you, when you’re in community and you’re talking with somebody, you’re saying, You need people to be tender to you. You need people to listen to you, you need to be able to confess in spaces that will give you freedom. That is what this is about. I’m hard on something because I know when you don’t want to let someone go, you got to talk hard, okay, but also know that this is a place of mercy and justice and goodness from God. And so sin, I’m gonna be honest, it has benefits. That’s something that they don’t talk about. Sin does have benefits. And that’s why people do it. Right. But the point about it is, it’s short lived, and it will never give you the return on your investment that you want, ever. And in God’s grace, my prayer is that he would expose my sin and your sin so that we may have freedom and never be captured by it and never be plotted with it. So David, again, he protects his sin. He despises Uriah, in the backdrop of you guys, I’m trying to get there. Remember those 30 Man when Dave was in the wilderness who kept him, one of those were Uriah talks about this loyalty. You slept with your boys wife. That’s how grown David was in his sin, sin will have you reasoning stupid. Literally, it will. It will make you get to a spot where the places and the things that you used to do that you don’t even do anymore. You do new behavior, because sin has a behavior. Sin has a nature, please do not miss that. And so here in the backdrop, what we realize is that David and Uriah are their friends. And Dan, you’re right. And Dave is not the man right now. That’s the kingly man No, you’re riot is your riot stays loyal to David. He says, loyal to the men and Uriah. Again, in his honorable nature,

Kori Porter
he’s someone to be esteemed. So what I’m saying is, is that sometimes, when you’re dealing with sin, particularly with others, I had a situation with a friend, unfortunately, and it was her sin, but yet I paid the price. And that’s what I’m telling you. Sometimes when you’re in Christian community, sometimes it’s a sin of others that you paid a price for, and you should not lose your integrity over it. You should not become angry or bitter. No, you say that God will reveal on his last day into his comments you trust yourself like to God, Uriah does it to the point of death. God doesn’t rarely ask us to do something that’s severe. Right? So there’s so many times where David could have stepped out of this, he could have stopped sinning, right? So many times. One of the reasons why he can stop sinning was in verse 12. If you’re with me, he could pull back me he relaxed you riot was not willing to participate in his foolishness here in verse 13, he could have pull back after a while even he got your eyes drunk in the Rye steel and go into his house. Verse 14, we’re not gonna go over it because I don’t have time to read it with my time. But David, he writes a letter y’all to Joe up to get date to get a Uriah to go to the battlefield. And he puts him at the front of the battlefield, and he tells the troops to pull back. So your riot is killed because he keeps trying to get your eyes asleep, his wife, but he will never do it. So what David does is put them again on the front line. And he’s like, Well, they’ll take care of that. So then nobody will know who the baby daddy is right? What would I’m saying there’s a word for you. David wrote out a whole letter. At any point, he could have stopped it later. Right? At any point, you could stop your sin. Right? You have a text message just like a poll page long. That is sin. I don’t care what it is. When you’re in an argument and you’re going through with a friend or you got a text messages, though. Three, four different pages. That is said stop it. All right. And so thank you. Finally a laugh. Y’all have been up here like well, y’all it okay. Verse 25, verse 25, again, you would have thought at a David completed the task, what he did to kill him, you would have thought, oh, wow, like David would have confessed me when I sin. Sometimes I’m like, Oh, my God, I’ll never do it again. Right. Somebody can feel me on that. Amen. And but nothing would David says in 25, he says to Joe up, who’s the person who sent you right to the front lines, he says to him, he says, Don’t let this trouble you that your eyes that Joe, my accomplished murderer, he says for the sword devours. Now one and then another. He’s just saying what will happen? What will happen then on us that was the battle for the war. He’s not owning his sin. As he God is so gracious to us that he doesn’t leave us in our foolishness. I cannot say that enough. Before I get to that point, I just want to say this really fast. There’s an imagery that’s in James one. And that imagery is that imagery of pregnancy. And so when you notice it’s really interesting that God uses that because in the imagery of pregnancy, right, a person has desire and then it has conception and then it bursts. Similarly in pregnancy, first trimester second trimester third, well, the same thing happens with sin, right? And because of this, it because it’s natural, in a way, it’s unnatural to stop it. Right, it’s going to be unnatural to come out of the sin that you’re in. And what’s going to end up happening is you’re gonna realize it’s costly, because it goes against your flesh to come out of sin. And so it’s gonna feel exposing. Again, it’s gonna require you to confess it’s gonna require you to repair relationships that you’ve broken, to be humbled. These are all unnatural to our flesh, but the Spirit of God it feeds off of it, it doesn’t. It doesn’t feel like You’re getting stronger, but tell you sister getting stronger when God is feeding off of this. And he even sometimes again, you may be judged. But let me tell you again, the mercy of God is great. The mercy of God is good, the mercy of God is splendor. I’m gonna get to a point in this passage if you’re if you’ve been uncomfortable desire, and you’ve been already off me for saying you’re gonna really hate the death part, I’m gonna be really honest about that. So what I decided to do in my talk in my prep and prayer was I decided to set up this point, which is point three, verses chapter 11, verses 26, all the way through chapter 12. To verse 23. David sin produces death, very simple. But in that what I want to start with because you will not understand the consequences of David’s sin, right, we will not understand the consequences of why it feels so hard. You feel like God is angry. He’s mean he’s mad. No, no, no, no, God is holy.

Kori Porter
And in today’s society, there’s there’s really not a way to be able to express the holiness, the reverence of God that we should have. But when I say He’s holy, since I mean, he is holy. He is Holy, holy, holy, the Lord Almighty, who was and is and is to come, that is God and His Holiness. In verse 27, it says, The David had did a play a thing to displeased the Lord. This is Chapter 11. And who can stand who have displeased the Lord who can stand in the sight of a holy God if they have displeased him? Right? No man can this God is so holy, that eternity pass again eternity to come, he cannot stand the smallest sense of blemish. He has never let us do it beside him. So can David stand beside him when he’s committed adultery and murder? Absolutely not. God is so holy, that when I see God in the Bible, he comes down to the orphanage, this world shutters.

Kori Porter
I’m talking about trees blow back, I’m talking about mountains, Trimble, give me one thing that does that. That is our type of God, he is so good that he brings Israel out of the mighty hand of Pharaoh. There’s no man that can stand against our type of God. That’s his holiness in his mind. It was the imagery that we have of God. And in that imagery that we have of God is one of the most beautiful spaces because there are angels, that when we see angels, we think that’s God. That’s how holy they are. They have no sin. And even though they have no sin, they say that when the angels come before him, what do they do, they cannot stand just outright, they have to cover their hands over there, the wings, I’m sorry, over there, their eyes, they cover their feet, because God is so holy, and God is holy, and he is good. Because he is holy needs good. He desires for you. And for me to be holy. He says, Be holy, as I am holy. This is the type of God that we have here. So God in His mercy, because he wants us to be holy, he points out of our sin is never for your condemnation is always for your conviction is always for your good, I don’t care what it is. I don’t care if you’ve committed adultery, I don’t care if you’ve if you’ve, you’ve had one of the most heinous things happen, or you’ve done the most heinous things Is still God is working. And he is doing something even for you, the person who’s committed to see and that’s who this message is for, it’s not for the one necessarily who’s offended. But teaching to the Reott. Uriah is right now teaching to the David’s right. And God again is holy. And so because he’s holding because he good, he’s good. He sends Nathan who’s a prophet. And he sends them to David. And when he sends them to David, God uses this parable about this little lamb and one man had a lamb and this man had like 100 lambs. And then his one lamb that he had, he took him and he said, dinner feast, like the Richmond Fed it to these people. So what it happens is, and I can’t get into it, because of time, women, what ends up happening is the God uses just the mundane things of life to be able to convince you. It’s not always this big sit down moment is what I’m trying to get at. Sometimes it’s just a TV show that you watch, sometimes as you overhear in a conversation. So at the airport, and overheard a conversation talking about a girl talking about her mother was passing. And I was immediately convicted about my own mother, my relationship with her. There’s not always again, the big things in the text is just sometimes God just showing up to stop you for a moment to speak to you. And so there’s consequences to the sin here for David. And these consequences are two. The first one is that he takes away the wives of David. And he gives them to another sound familiar, David took someone’s wife and became with someone else. And so God says, I’m gonna do the same thing you do. And I’m gonna do it in the light, because there’s no darkness in me. Right? He continues, and he says, And he continues and the second one is, is that that David has a blood shed base in his family based off of David’s sin. God takes the baby away that the Sheba conceives, he takes the baby away, not because the baby was wrong, but because David was wrong. His sin produces death. That is point blank always going to happen in here. Unfortunately, the innocent, the innocent suffer, and there’s a thin line with David, that in David’s sin innocent suffer the innocent continue to suffer so what you’re right Yeah, right with the baby, even you start to see in the his femoral line, there’s a lot of division, a lot of depth, there’s a lot of things to go through is the innocent pneus. And what I love about teaching is right off the heels of Easter Sunday, I don’t even have to give you the whole picture of what happens with Christ. But if you ain’t seeing yourself in Davis store this whole time, I want you to see yourself in a story in this way that you to me too, has spilled innocent blood. Right? We know that. On Easter Sunday, you talk about how you rose on on a Good Friday, you talked about his death. But if you will entertain me for seconds and Matthew chapter 27. There’s a space where Paul is going back and forth with the crowd and who was the crowd? It’s the Jews who wanted to crucify Christ. And in verse 22, they have Polly says, What shall I do then? With Jesus who is the Messiah? And then they answered, Crucify Him. And then he says Pilate, why, what crime has he committed? But then they loud, even more louder, said crucify him. And in verse 24, is interesting here, the pilot saw that he was getting nowhere, he saw the crowd was starting to get really rowdy. So he does is he says, he took water, he washed his hands and from the crowd, he says, I am innocent of this man’s blood. And he said, it is your responsibility. Now, you’d have thought that moment again, the crowd would have been convicted? Nope. 25 they answer? They say his blood is on us and our children. And my point here is just just like that crowd, who has self interests who take the blood of Christ in order for they may have benefited gang would it be political gain at the time, whether it be just they have this God in Jesus out of their hair, they take that innocent blood and very similarly, their sins, put him on the cross our sins, put Jesus on the cross and the innocence but shedding of Jesus blood,

Kori Porter
we are no different. We’re no different than the crowd, right? We’re no different than the Peter who denies him several and several more times. It is the innocence of crisis, blood that is on the cross that is shared. Very similarly, we too can say that we’re like, David, we have shed innocent blood. In Acts chapter two, though, I told you I did not come to preach a message of condemnation, but I came to preach mission of freedom and restoration. And the Acts chapter two, something beautiful happens. You’re always beautiful. It’s beautiful. It’s beautiful. And in Acts chapter two, there’s a conversation with Peter, who again, has denied Jesus three times. So he’s culpable of Jesus’s death as the crowd who crucify him and listen to this interchange of data. And this is after Jesus rose at the grave. It’s after Jesus has went in the Senate to the right plan to the Father, and Jesus is now live. And so we have to accept you have to Pentecost spirits upon them. And so things are moving in the church, and there’s all these great things happening. And they’re like, oh, my gosh, crap, that was Christ. What shall I do? So in chapter two, verse 37, Peter says this, God has made this Jesus whom you crucified. Again, God has made this Jesus whom you crucified, But Lord, both Lord and Messiah, verse 37, when the people heard this, they were cut to their hearts. And they said to Peter, and the apostles, brothers, what shall we do? Peter replied, Repent. Repent, says, like you repent, repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And in verse 39, is so sweet, I’m sorry, right before 3930 38, he says, you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, that’s our promise to you. You, I’m telling you, if you are in Christ, and you’ve sinned, it’s not that Holy Spirit has ever left you, he still dwells in you, if you for the first day are receiving Christ, in this season of your life, and you’re starting to understand about Christ, and he says that once you confess your sins for the first time, he says, you receive a good gift, which is him through the holy power of the Holy Spirit. And so he ends here, and there’s the biggest promise, remember what I just read back in Matthew, right? And Matthew, what did they say? Let it be on us and our children. And what is Peter, give back to them? He says, The promises for you and your children. The exact same thing you give up in your darkness, I don’t care what it is God restores 10 fold, because it’s never about to because his glory is too much because he’s redeemed you he calls you your his royal priesthood, so he will always redeem you back to his self service. And he not only gives you what you forsake, but he gives you tenfold more. And I know this because right here at the end of this verse, it says, For all who are far off, so not only does he redeemed the Jews who crucify him, but he redeems us, the Gentiles. Give us a good word. This is the type of God that we serve. He is powerful to restore us to redeem us to keep us no matter what you have done. And so when I’m talking to the sister who’s had the abortion, I’m talking to you I’m talking to the sister who feels like the things and the things of my tongue and my issues and things I’ve done to my parents and things I’ve done against my children. Whatever it is, God is still gracious to you to redeem You and to keep you He will never leave nor forsake you. No, no, no. Again, mostly important because it’s about him. And I love that there’s a passage in Second Timothy that talks about God is so good to keep us not. Because when we are faithful LIS, He is faithful. So when you’re faithful lessness, God is always going to be faithful to you. And it’s sweet. And it’s just, there’s writing is good. And the reason why again, that’s Second Timothy, chapter two, verse 13. The reason why this is important, is because it would be weird for God to leave David, and he does not he actually keeps David. So while he keeps us with the cross, he also keeps David back with, with the situation with Bathsheba and chapter 12. It says that God will not leave you, He will not continue that was an eight and tells him you’re going to have consequences. So you’re saying that is real, I cannot ignore that enough, especially if you’re a new believer, please believe that there are gonna be things that you’ve done when you are in your world. And there are going to be consequences, there were consequences to my sin that I had to deal with when I was in the world that is just real. And so when I came to Christ, it’s not that those things went away, I still had to have, again, repentance, I still have to have different things go on between me and the Lord. And there were things that God had to get out of me, if you’ve been sitting in the stands for 20 years, how you think the next day that you’re not gonna have to form new habits and godliness, right?

Kori Porter
So don’t be discouraged when you realize, oh, man, I got this new life in Christ, but I’m still doing X, Y, and Z, give your time, self and grace, to grow into the things of godliness. But again, again, I can’t I’m stressing this. And I’m in the here that God is faithful to David. He’s faithful to David because he made a promise to David. And his promise is going to come in second Samuel, chapter seven, is one of these key verses that if you go to seminary go to your pastures, there’s one of the key verses they say you explain the rest of the Bible to this one chapter here. And in Second Samuel chapter, Second Samuel chapter seven, he gives him a promise. He says, Your house, your kingdom, will endure forever before me. Raise up an offspring and establish your kingdom. Again, he’s gonna give David a kingdom, but he says, gonna live forever before me. How is that going to happen? Who is he talking about? Here, way back in Second Samuel chapter seven. He’s not talking about the next one that will come, which is Solomon, he couldn’t be talking about the baby that he took away. Here. He’s talking again about Christ, He sent through the lineage of David Christ will come. So David is kept, I will say, because God loves him, because also God has made him a promise, and God will not forfeit on his promise. And so when Christ comes back, it’s a revelation. And the beautiful thing about Revelations we know everything will be made right? There will be no more sin, there will be no more anxiety, there’ll be no more falter, there will be no more shame. Now, the only way that we will see any remnants of sin in heaven, do what it is, is Christ as Hans, it says, still pierced when hole scars. That’s how much he reminds you of your redemption that you had and in the earth and the redemption that he’s bled for that you would have now in heaven. But when Christ comes back, it’s in the end. And it closes out in Revelations, the last chapter one little, last couple of verses, Christ could identify himself and close his book of the of the Bible with anything he wanted to he had identified himself as Prophet as priests is king, anything. But you know how He identifies Himself the King of the universe, He identifies Himself back to the promise of Second Samuel chapter seven. And he says this, I am the root, and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star. That’s God, that’s our Christ. He always reaches back he never forsakes what he has said that will happen in your life, regardless of what the sins that you struggle with. Again, God not only forgives your sin, but he also restores us back from our sin. Ladies, I’m so thankful for your patience with me. I’m so thankful for your time here. I’m going to pray for us and then I’m going to let us go gotta thank you so much for the women and men’s room. I thank you so much for your kindness for your generosity to us that God we would be able to even meet got to be able to sit in your word I thank you so much for the heads that were bowed during this time that they were just taking notes. God, I know your Spirit has moved in this moment. I know you have not forsaken got your own word. I know it has done something has accomplished something. We ask God that Christ would reign in this room and reign in our hearts. And God, I know, there are things that have nothing to do what I’ve said, But God and the women in this room have been reminded of the things that you want to bring to bear. And God you do it never for conviction. You’ve said that time and time again, we got to only do it for their glory. You only do it so that they may have intimacy back with you. So God I ask that the women in this room where this may be a heavy message, a message that feels somewhat like they got a weapon. Father, I asked that they would feel the healing balm of your spirit that your spirit would come in and would minister to these women that got this will spur women all to do and you what they could never do in themselves in their own flesh. Again, God you are good for the woman list. Single line we pray a special blessing that they would tune into this talk father, even though they are far off God, they are brought near in this moment just as they’ve set in your word to God we love you. We thank you we praise You and your son Jesus Christ name, amen.