Welcome to Waymaker Church! We are so excited to have you join us today! We exist to Encounter, Live for, and Advance the Kingdom of God!

This morning I am calling my sermon "be refreshed." As I was thinking about my sermon title, it got me thinking that often we only experience refreshing after first going through some exertion. The more I thought about this, it brought me back to when I was in organized sports, and I remember all of the workouts and times when my coaches pushed me past the limit and how exhausting it was.

I remember showing up to "voluntary" summer workouts for football in high school to lift weights and then doing sprints on the turf field that was over 100 degrees if it was above 90 outside. I remember how exhausting those times were. I definitely don't push myself as hard anymore, even though I should.

When I was thinking about tonight and all of those times, I remember that it was after those hard times when getting that drink of water or taking that shower was the most refreshing.

Here is the main idea of this morning: unrepentant sin leads to shame, guilt, and condemnation. Repentance leads to a refreshing from God from the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. Surrendering our lives to Jesus means we must repent from our sins. It is much easier to repent of the sin you commit in the light, and it is a whole other thing to repent from sin committed in secret.

Let's go to David. First of all, he is a man after God's own heart, this doesn't mean that he wasn't perfect, but he wanted what God wanted, and he chose to follow God and his ways. David's story is out there for us to study and pick apart. Even something he did in secret came out to light.

David's Example

I will tell you this verbally, but you can read it later in 2 Samuel 11 and 12. David was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and I bet some of you can relate to being in the wrong place at the wrong time. The Bible tells us that when kings are supposed to be at war, David is not where he was supposed to be. He was actually back at home. So your ears should perk up, and the way this is worded, you are supposed to think, "uh oh," what is about to happen? So he isn't where he should be, and it goes on to say that he was strolling around his roof, understanding roofs aren't what they are like today. So he is strolling around on his roof, and he looks over; he sees a woman bathing. He thinks she is beautiful, and he has his servants call her to his home, and adultery is committed. So we already know that taking another person's spouse is something that you shouldn't do. Still, David, instead of repenting, makes it way worse.

David writes a letter to one of the army's commanders and, in this letter, says to send Bathsheba's husband Uriah to the front lines near the fiercest fighting, then back off from him so that he is struck down and dies. So in his guilt and shame, instead of repenting and owning up to what he did, he says I will get rid of the problem. Committing adultery with this man's wife can't be wrong if he is no longer with us and no longer her husband, right?
The prophet Nathan comes up to him and tells him a parable

God is not happy with David, and we get a response from David, but we have to look at the book of Psalms to see. Here is what I love about Psalms and why you should read it: it is David and many other writers pouring out their hearts in songs.

We see that David has a change of heart, he can't change the action, and we can't take our sins back. We can't go back and blot out our sin, but we can seek forgiveness and repent. Repent means to turn away and go in the other direction. David wasn't perfect, but he knew who God was. Compassionate and forgiving as long as we come with the right heart. So we see in Psalm 51 that David is crying out to God and seeking forgiveness. We get another response from David and the forgiveness and refreshing that he received.

I want you to catch that David experienced the refreshing of God when he acknowledged his sin to God. David says something important, "'I will confess my transgressions to the LORD.,' and you forgave the guilt of my sin." He then says, "Therefore, let everyone who is faithful pray to you immediately."

Here is the reality of unrepentant sin; it will always lead to shame, guilt, and condemnation. David even said that when he kept silent his bones became brittle, meaning he felt weak. Day and night, the hand of God was heavy on him, and his strength was drained as in the summer's heat. When you are constantly in that feeling, it gets exhausting. Yet we choose to live in that for weeks, months, years. That is why the Bible says that the result of sin is death

The gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord