Let's go to our text today in Exodus. This is going to be part two in the topic of the sacredness of biblical marriage. And we're looking at the commandment, thou shalt not commit adultery. And we're looking at the life of David to get our cues from him about how to watch ourselves and prevent ourselves from not only adultery, but sexual immorality because the commandment that states you shall not commit adultery has to do with a series of commands that deal with sexual immorality. It's a whole category that falls underneath that. So not only that, but marriage and even in parenting, it comes down into that category. So this is a key idea, a key principle, a key law for not only you personally, but for society. and I'll make some applications to society. But see, one of the things you realize now as you look at our society, how sexually immoral they are. And anything goes at this point in time. And so because of that, it's a total disregard for God's law, obviously. But what ends up happening is when people choose not to do this command, they will lose control of their lives in a sexual way. They'll lose control in their marriage, they'll lose control in their parenting, so it affects all areas. So there are consequences to not obeying God's law, obviously. Now for us as a believer, we know the command, we obey the command, but what we have to understand is that that command is for us too, because we can all be tempted in sexual immorality. All of us are there. All of us can have these things. And what I've been trying to point out, like I did last week, is point out David's proclivities that led him up to this point. And what I want to show today is some more proclivities that also we can apply as well. So David is a great template about this. And what we learned about last week about David was this. David had no structure in his life. He had no accountability. He doesn't have anything that's accountable for his time. And so we saw him that he didn't go to war, he didn't go with his troops, and so he's on the rooftop. And so we learned that he didn't have accountability. And then the second thing is we learned about David's history, that he has a history of rejection, and that rejection causes a proclivity in him. And so we reviewed that, we talked about that, and how important to understand that is. Now I wanna go into some more things. So by way of review, let's just read the passage so we get the context again. This is 2 Samuel 11, one through five. And it happened in the spring of the year at the time when kings go out to battle that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel. And they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Raba. But, here's the key right here, but David, remained in Jerusalem. There's him having no structure, right? Remember that? Then it happened one evening that David arose from his bed and walked on the roof of the king's house. And so that's where we talked a little bit about the background. No, because you think, well, what's the big deal? He's out there moseying around on top of his rooftop. No big deal. No, no, it's a big deal because he's unaccountable. He's not where he's supposed to be. And his background doesn't help the situation for what's about to happen. And so we talked about understanding our backgrounds, understanding where we come from, that David has a shame identity. Shame identities are taken on by people who are constantly rejected through their life. Now you can get out of the shame identity because you have to find your true identity in Christ, but most people don't do that and they don't know how to do that, so they remain in a shame-based identity. Well, in a shame-based identity, what the person tries to do to navigate through life is to hide that shame identity and then cover it up through performance. And that's what David will do. I mean, David's a mighty man. I mean, his performance and the exploits that he did, not just killing Goliath, but 10,000 people at a time, he could massacre. I mean, he was major Rambo type of guy. And so everybody knew that, but so David fronted that. If you saw David, you'd say, he's a great king, he's a great warrior. But if you took David into his personal life, and you look at his personal life, it's a disaster. On the outside, it looks great, but on the inside, if you went behind the scenes, it's like, oh my goodness, he has a problem with women, he has a problem with sex, he has a problem with his own family, he's not that great of a father, he's an absentee father. And so, This is what you need to know about not only David, but ourselves. Where am I coming from? What's my background look like? What kinds of things set me up for sexual immorality? Well, if you come from a shame-based identity of rejection, that is one of the markers that leads to people having sexual immorality. And like we talked about last week, Satan will flip love and turn it into sex. Because all David was looking for was love and acceptance for who he was. But ever since his daddy rejected him, he's had rejection all of his life, even to 50 years old. The nation had rejected him. Some were loyal to Saul, and a lot of the tribes didn't accept him. He had all this problem. So what ended up happening is David has this rejection identity, and so he thinks that women or sex is the answer. So think about this, guys. David has a harem, a harem. He has multiple wives. He can have all the sex he wants at any time, but it's not enough. He needs one more. And that's why he strays to Bathsheba. You have a harem, aren't you satisfied? No, because it's not sex he's looking for. Again, he's redefined sex to be love and he's on the search for love. So each time he has sex with one of his harem or his wives, it doesn't satisfy him because they don't give him what he's looking for. He's looking for connection. He's looking for bonding. He's looking for someone to love them and accept them. Well, the harem, that doesn't give it to them. And then the women he married don't give it to them. So, he's on this perpetual search. So he's set up because of a shame identity. Okay. We need to know that about ourselves. And to overcome a shame identity, you have to know who you are in Christ. Okay. So we dealt with that last week. Now I want to move into other proclivities that we need to watch out for ourselves in this area, in this arena. One of the aspects of David that comes out when you read the whole story about David, and I want to project forward a little bit. So you already know the story that he commits an adulterous affair with Bathsheba, they have a child, and then David's trying to cover up the whole thing. You know the whole story. But at the end of it, the prophet Nathan has to be sent to David to wake David up, all right, to get him to repent. So the prophet Nathan comes to him and says, you're the man, you're the guy. And what he says to David is interesting. This is where we get our clue. He says, what you have done is you have stomped, basically, or trampled on the word of God by doing what you did. Now, this goes into the mentality of David in the fact that he believes he's entitled. Because the idea of stomping or stamping your feet on the law means he thinks he's above the law. That's what Nathan was trying to say. David, the reason you did this is because you think you're above the law. That's called entitlement. Now, entitlement can go two ways. First off, entitlement comes from going through a bad situation in your life, or many situations in your life that are bad, and then using that as an excuse for entitlement. Well, I've had such a bad life. My dad rejected me. David could say my wives didn't even love me. I even killed Goliath and got no thanks from that. And Saul tries to kill me because of what I did. I was killing 10,000. He still tried to throw a javelin through my heart. I went on as a fugitive. Oh, poor me. My life has been so bad. I'm entitled to a little escape. You see how it works? I went through such a bad thing that I'm entitled to not obey. That's when you think you're above the law. The other thing David could have done, we know he's entitled, we don't know all the reasons, but the other thing is through performance. So he performed, because shame-based identity, you have to cover up the identity and then you have to perform with another identity. So how David performed was through his exploits. This guy was a mean motor scooter, okay? You don't get any more Rambo than David. David slays 10,000 people at a time. I mean, you should have seen him on the battlefield. It would have been amazing to watch him on the battlefield. And so, everybody knew him. They made songs about him, right? That made Saul furious that they sang songs about David. Remember that? He was a national hero. This guy would be the main guy that everybody knew. Fame. He's got money, he's got women, he's got everything, you know, from the world standpoint. But what that does to people, very few people can handle that. If you look at, like, professional athletes, or if you look at Hollywood elites, or any of these crazy billionaires, you know, what happens? They think they're above the rules. Bill Gates thinks he's above the rules. LeBron James thinks he's above the rules. Don't they? Tiger Woods thought he was above the rules. They all think you're above the rules. Why? Because, oh, I perform. I perform. Look at me. I'm so great. I'm so great. I'm an actress. And so you've got Miley Cyrus telling you how to vote politically. Why does she think that? Because she thinks she's smarter than everybody else because of her performance. When you get to that point and you think because of who you are and you're so great, you start thinking you're above the rules. And David, either way, whether he blamed his suffering or he's using his performance, either way, it created an entitlement mentality that I'm above the law of God. Those rules don't apply to me. Now here's the deal. Bridges to society. Right now, all of our young kids, these younger generations are being taught by the public schools and the colleges and universities that they need to be entitled. They're all taught that they're a victim of an oppressive class. Do you know who the oppressive class is? Evangelicals. Yeah, it's you and me. We're the oppressive class that made their life so difficult. And so therefore, you know, the society needs to coddle them. They're a victim. They've been oppressed, and poor them. And this is why critical race theory is being taught, is to make people victims. Because if I can make them victims, I can control them. So everybody's a victim. I'm a victim. I'm a victim. And so God bless these parents that are going to these school boards and saying, not having it. Like this guy here, I want you to see this video. Look how he pushed against critical race theory and pushed against victimhood. Watch this video. I am the direct descendant of the North American slave trade. Both my parents are black. All four of my grandparents are black. All eight of my great great grandparents, all 16 of my great greats. On my mother's side, my ancestors were enslaved in Alabama. On my father's side, we were enslaved in Texas. I am not oppressed. I'm not oppressed and I'm not a victim. I'm neither oppressed nor a victim. I travel all across this country of ours, and I check into hotels, and I fly commercially, and I walk into retail establishments, and I order food in restaurants. I go wherever I want, whenever I want. I am treated with kindness, dignity, and respect, literally from coast to coast. I have three children. They are not oppressed either, although they are victims. I've taught my children they are victims of three things, their own ignorance, their own laziness, and their own poor decision-making. That is all. My children, we are not victims of America. We are not victims of some unseen 190-year-old force that kind of floats around in the ether. Putting critical race theory into our classrooms is taking our nation in the wrong direction. Racism in America would by and large be dead today if it were not for certain people and institutions keeping it on life support. And sadly, sadly, very sadly, one of those institutions is the American education system. I can think of nothing more damaging to a society than to tell a baby born today that she has grievances against another baby born today simply because of what their ancestors may have done two centuries ago. There is simply no point in doing that to our children, and putting critical race theory into our classrooms in part does that. Putting critical race theory into our classrooms is not combating racism. It's fanning the flames of what little embers are left. I encourage you to support this resolution. Let racism die the death it deserves. And let's keep living the life it came to. Thank you. Amen. I like that. He goes, I teach my children three things that they're victims of. Their own ignorance, that's good. Their own laziness, I like that one, and their own poor decision making, that's good, amen. That's what they should be teaching the kids. Right, it's huge. But here's the deal about this. When you teach people to be victims, it creates an entitlement mentality, and then they think they're above the rules. Okay, so watch how this happens. You can see the direct link. They're teaching these kids, hey man, you're oppressed. You're oppressed by the patriarchy here in America. You're oppressed by Judeo-Christian ethics. You can be anything you want. You wanna be a girl, go ahead. You wanna be a guy, go ahead. Have a sex change. And see, the person is taught, oh, I'm entitled to do anything I want, so I will change my sex and you now have to call me Brandy instead of Brandon because all of a sudden I'm above the rules biologically. How did someone think that they're above the biological rules of their DNA? Yes, Satan, but he's created an entitlement in them. Oh, I'm above the rules. I'm above the rules on marriage. I'm above the rules on sex. I'm above the rules. I can do anything I want. That's what entitlement does. That's why it's so dangerous. And David has that background. You and I have to fight entitlement in ourselves. You could do the poor me thing, and that will create entitlement, or you can do the performance thing, and it will create entitlement. You and I can never go down that path. That will actually guard you from sin. I'm responsible for my own life. I'm responsible for making it what it is. That actually protects you a lot of times from sin, and particularly sexual immorality. But let's go on further. One of the things, if you look at David's life, and I'm using his whole life as a panoply to understand his background, what you will realize is David has a lot on his shoulders. Being the king of Israel is a major, major responsibility. So David's not just a king, he's a warrior, but he has to provide for Israel as their food sources and make sure the whole government's working correctly, make sure that the temple is working correctly, or sorry, the tabernacle I should say, that everything's functioning religiously, economically, everything that a king would have to do. And I will say this, the scripture says he's a great king, he's one of the greatest kings Israel had. No doubt about that. But remember, with his position comes responsibility, big time. And obviously, for some reason, and maybe he's thinking about this himself, Well, I don't need to go to battle. I've done enough battle. I've got enough things on my mind. I've got enough things on my plate. I can't go to battle. And so I'm going to kick back and stay here. I need a break. I need an out. I need an escape. I need some type of way of getting away from the stress and the pressure of the anxiety and maybe the stress I feel of this position. Maybe. But I can rest assured it's a very common trait. That's probably one of the reasons he stayed home, is because at 50 years old, the older you get, the less you can handle stress, the less you can handle anxiety, the older you get. When we're young, in 25, man, we can light the whole world. We can take the whole world on our shoulders. When you're getting to my age, you can barely take anything. You can barely take it if your car breaks down, and then you fall apart. But what am I saying? He's 50 years old. He's in a position where the weight of the world's on him. So typically what you'll see with leaders is they will have some type of worldly escape. And it's not always good. And the funny thing is, when you read background biographies of people who were in leadership, you find out, man, that dude or that gal was involved in some weird stuff, man, in their private life. On the public life, everyone loved them and everything, but then you find out about their private life, and you're like, oh my goodness, I can't believe they were involved in that. Why? They used worldly escapes to escape from the stress and pressures of life. Okay, David uses sex and women as a way of escape. Okay, that's what he's doing in function. So let's explore that a little bit. The devil is gonna come to you to tempt you to use worldly escapes, but you have to know that there are biblical escapes from pressure and anxiety. And so a lot of people don't know how to do that. So because they don't know how to do that, they turn to worldly escape. And even your days before Christ, your BC days. The only way you handled pressure and anxiety is you found ways of escape or ways to get a relief yourself. And some people turn to drugs, alcohol, sex, food. Food is a big deal. Some people turn to workaholism. Some people turn to cleaning. I know that sounds weird, but people actually start cleaning. They get monomaniacal about cleaning. And they will clean the house twice a day or vacuum three times a day. And there's all kinds of weird stuff that starts coming from that because they're trying to get control of their environment because they feel out of control with the stress and anxiety. So it makes perfect sense. The drugs, the alcohol is just a temporary escape. But the problem is when you use worldly things, Several things happen. First of all, you think you can control the alcohol, control the drugs, control the sex, control the cleaning or whatever. And you think, Oh, okay, I feel good because I can control it. What you don't realize is when you turn to those things, they actually end up controlling you. Okay. they end up being what destroys you. And it takes you in a downward spiral. And you keep going back to it because it does give temporary relief. No doubt about that. But you're in a downward spiral and you're losing control. So the funny thing is you go to get control, but you end up losing control through the whole process. Okay. Before you know it, those things turn into addictions and stuff like that. Okay. At the same time that people look for those outlets, they're destroying themselves and not realizing it, and it keeps them believing lies. What do you mean? Well, if you have anxiety or stress about life, which all of us do, you know, it just hits us, and this is what it is. We all are gonna get hit with stress and anxiety. I mean, if you're not, you know, thinking about what's going on in this world, that's enough to stress anyone out, right? Mandates, the collapse of our U.S. government, Afghanistan, I mean, just name those things. Gavin Newsom, oh, I'm ready to have a heart attack. Oh my goodness, and they're cheating in the election? I mean, that's enough to keep you up all night. Okay, so how do you deal with that? Well, you don't turn into worldly things, but what ends up happening is that when you do turn them, you actually start believing lies. It keeps the lies going inside you. So let me explain this. To figure out how to deal with anxiety and stress, you first have to ask yourself, why am I stressed? Why do I have anxiety? Okay. So let's use an example. The example would be, uh, your work is going to mandate vaccines and you're against the vaccines and you're not going to take it. It'd be a cold day in hell before you take the vaccine. Okay. So now you're up against the wall and the wall is I'm going to lose my job. They're going to fire me. Okay. And I don't have enough money to hire a lawyer and to fight this. So what starts happening? Anxiety, panic, stress. Uh, I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. And the temptation will be to go to an outlet outlet outlet outlet. But when you boil it down, you ask, why am I stressed? Well, Brandon, I won't be able to provide for my family. OK, it's legit. But what are you leaving out of the equation? I can't provide for my family. So the lie is that they are the only provision for their family. That's the lie. What is the truth? My God will supply all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ. You see the difference? Oh, it's all on your shoulders versus no, God's got this one. God will open up another door for me. God will provide another opportunity. And my God will provide the things that I need. See how you transfer from lies to truth. Now, here's what the truth does. As you know, the truth sets you free. But a lot of people don't know how to cast their cares or anxieties on the Lord because He cares for them. So you heard that motto, it comes from the scripture, and people don't know how to do it. Well, I'm just going to give it over to Jesus. What does that mean? I don't know what you mean by that. What do you mean when you're going to, I'm just going to give it over to Jesus? Because it's going to be on your front door on Monday morning. You can't just jettison the problem. You can't just get rid of the problem. What does that mean? It means this. The way you cast your anxieties to the Lord is you find out what you don't believe about Him. So in the case of provision, if the person's worried about getting fired, losing their job, providing for their family, then the way I would be able to cast my anxieties on him is I gotta get to the truth. And the truth would be, no, God's promised me I will not beg for bread. The righteous do not beg for bread. My God will provide a way of escape. He will somehow provide another job. I'm making less money, but I'll still make it. That's how I cast my anxieties. I cast them when I know the truth. You can't get rid of your anxieties if you don't know what truth you need. So the first thing you have to identify is what am I not believing him for? And then you can move to the truth. Okay, that's what David's not doing. So he takes it all upon himself and he's looking for an outlet. And his outlet is instead of taking it to the Lord, because you'll never see him go to the Lord about this. He'll never go to the Lord, man, this is too much, Lord, I can't deal with it, I need grace, I need mercy, I need your help. He won't see that in managing the kingdom. What you'll see is David going from woman to woman and marrying and going to his harem and then doing the thing with Bathsheba. He doesn't do the right thing. So that's an example of what I wanted to point out. But let's continue in the story. Because it gets a little bit deeper than you think. And from the roof, he saw a woman bathing. And the woman was very beautiful to behold. Well, let's just stop right there. We've got a problem here. This is not some witch hazel with warts all over her nose and a hump on her back. OK? This is not the hunchback of Notre Dame. So he's up there. Whoa! It's a beautiful girl. By the way, when you see the Bible say that someone's very beautiful, that's objective beauty. When someone's told that they're beautiful in the Bible, they are beautiful from an objective standpoint. So the situation is becoming a storm, as you can see. The storm is building. So now we have a beautiful girl out there bathing. Okay, the girl is Bathsheba. Now here's the thing about Bathsheba. A lot of people misinterpret Bathsheba herself. They think she's a kitten, innocent little dove, doesn't know what she's doing. Out there bathing, no one's watching me. No one's watching me. She's on full display. She knows full well. If you think Bathsheba is a kitten, you're wrong. She's a tiger. And if she's older than David, she's a cougar. All you have to do is watch her activities, and man, she, here's a deadly combination. You ready for this? A deadly combination. And it could be guys and girls. Attractive and aggressive, okay? When you see someone that's attractive and they're aggressive, watch out. You got a tiger on your hand, either male or female, okay? And here's the funny thing about tigers. they have an unusual keen sense to sniff where they need to go. Studies have been done on this, that these tiger types, males or females, they can go into a room and they can sense who's emotionally available and physically available by walking into the room. They can go into a bar, they can go into a nightclub, they can go into a church, they can go into a singles division at a church, and the tiger will sniff out who's emotionally available and who isn't. You know why? Because people put out signals. People put out signals that they're available. How do they do that? They're not wearing a sandwich sign, a sandwich board saying, I'm available, hit on me. No, they don't do that. But 90% of our communication, the way God designed us, is nonverbal. So they actually put out nonverbal signals, and the tiger captures that signal. So if you put a tiger in a room, that tiger will go exactly to the person who's available. Okay? Studies have been done on this. So here's the deal. David puts out a scent. He's available. Just because of his background, he's exuding, I'm available. I'm looking for this, right? So there's the problem already. And the tiger is looking for it as well. It's a deadly combination. But one of the things I want you to see too, how Satan is setting up the situation, is the terrace that David's on. If you can see in the picture, he's on a terrace looking down. And this is how the city of David was. Where David's at is the highest point. So there's the city of David right there. It's the outline you can see from the Temple Mount. So David would be on the top portion. And you can see the Temple Mount, you can see the palace. The palace is at the top portion of the city of David. So the city of David comes down and its elevation goes down. So if you're where David's at, he can see all of the city and its rooftops. He has a perfect place to see it. And Bathsheba knows this. Okay? And so how I want to form this, it's Satan's way of making everything conducive for the temptation. Okay? As he can see down. Now let me add some more stuff. Let's go back to the scriptures real quick. And so David sent and inquired about the woman. Now, let me talk about this. She's attractive. and she's aggressive. Okay, so let's talk about attraction. Attraction normally works when you're dating, and then eventually you marry your spouse. That's how attraction should work. It attracts you, and you learn about the person, you grow with the person, and then, okay, that attraction turns into a relationship, and then eventually marriage. Okay, great. That's how it's supposed to work. What Satan does is he takes the attraction and flips it on its head. And what Satan does is very clever. He's the smartest creature that God ever created. And this is what he does with attraction. And you need to understand this. He will then, you will see the attraction. It could be anything, an object or a person, whatever. And what he does is he twists it in your mind not to see the negative. So what happens is you can only see the positive and you start idealizing the person or the attraction. Okay, that's what David's gonna do. He's gonna start idolizing her. And by the way, he's known her for a long time. I'll get to that. So you look at the attraction and you see, oh man, this is perfect, this is great. This is like when your kids come to you and they're dating and they're teenagers. And they come to you and they bring a loser at your house. And you're like, where did you get this guy? Oh my goodness, this guy's a loser. How come you can't see that? I mean, he's got a big L on his forehead. We don't bring losers here. Oh, dad, you don't understand. I love him. I love him. And I'm going to marry him. You're 15. What are you talking about? And what's happening is Satan is using attraction, but they don't see the negative. And you as a parent sitting back there, dude, I see all kinds of red flags. Get this person out of here. There are red flags. I don't want my daughter or my son dating that. Because why? You're not emotionally attached. You don't see the attraction. And so you have an objective point, and you're seeing all the negatives. They don't. They don't, because they're already emotionally involved. So then what happens is Satan takes it a little step further. And he says, aha, yeah, see, that other person's just totally positive, perfect, doesn't have a flaw. I mean, they're always put together. And then, guess what happens? You go home to the spouse. And the spouse and you are dealing with the daily pressures of life. Bills, kids, arguing, which is normal, daily stresses of life. And so Satan goes and says, see, that one's perfect, and this one's a battle ax. You see what's happening here? And you get caught in this quandary. Everything's good here, I come home and it's a disaster. I'm fighting all the time, we're fighting with the kids, we're fighting with bills. It's just, ah. So Satan says, see all negative. See all positive. You keep doing that over and over again and he splits reality for you, you're on your path to a divorce. You're on the path to an affair because he splits the thing in half. That's how he messes up with attraction. So guess what? The new person that the person is attracted to becomes a rescue mission from the bad spouse, the all bad spouse to the all good attraction. And so this is how David is set up, and we can get set up as well. So let's continue on, watch this. And someone said, is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? Ah, this is God intervening with somebody saying, stop, David, please stop. You're going too far. See, this is 1 Corinthians 10, that God will provide a way of escape through temptation. He's trying to say, David, stop. So this guy is trying to remind David, this is Bathsheba, she's married, and by the way, she's the daughter of Eliam. Don't do this. You think David's gonna stop at this point? No, he's too emotionally involved. It's just like a teenager, just like a junior hire. It's not thinking straight. That's what happens to adults. They actually regress back to being a teenager in their mindset. They regress back to being a 12-year-old with puppy love, and they can't get through it, and so they can't see. So even though David's being told the truth, wait a second, she's married, he's gonna barrel through it. Now here's the thing about this. There's a history here. And this is part of the problem. Now, one of the things people will see, they'll read the story and they'll miss the name Eliam. They won't take that in. And they'll miss other passages that talk about David's advisor and things of that nature. And what you start realizing is this didn't happen overnight. So a lot of people that say, well, I had an affair or had an adulterous thing going on. It just happened. It just happened. I was walking my own business and I just kind of fell into it. You just happened. I get it, there's like one night stands and stuff like that. I get that. It's like less than 1%. 99% of the problems of affairs, there's a history behind it. A major history behind it that no one sees. So this idea, I just fell into it, is wrong. There's a history behind it. Well, what's the history between David and Bathsheba? First of all, do you see when the guy said, David sent inquire about the woman, someone said, is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam? Now, who's Eliam to David? This guy's trying to remind him, hey, this is Eliam's daughter. Do you know who Eliam is? He's one of David's fighting men. David had an elite group of fighting men, well-trained, and he was part of this group, and he knew Eliam very well. One of his fighters, one of his troops, he knew this guy. And by the way, Bathsheba is his daughter. Don't think for a moment he didn't know who Bathsheba was. This guy was one of David's best friends, fought with David. He knew Bathsheba. Let me add more to this. Ahithophel. You're like, well, who's this guy? Well, Ahithophel is very important. He's one of David's counselors, one of David's trusted advisors. He's an older gentleman, but he advises David. He is the grandfather of Bathsheba. You mean to say that one of David's trusted advisors is the grandfather of the woman he had an affair with? Yeah. You mean to say that David's fighting men, that one of his best guys they fought with, this was his daughter? Yeah. Now ask yourself, is there a history? You better believe there's a history. He knew Bathsheba from long ago. And this has been on David's mind for a long time. And it's been on Bathsheba's mind for a long time. There is a history between the two. Even though they have not done anything, they have been around each other, they have seen each other, and they know full well that they both are attracted to each other because they sense the attraction already. Because when she goes and sleeps with him, she doesn't resist. She doesn't fight and say, oh no, we can't do this. This would break God's heart. We can't be doing things like it. No, no, she goes right for it. There is a history. How does that apply to you and I? Be careful about histories. Be careful about the people you work with, because you can establish a history with them. Well, I've worked with them for 15, 10 years, Brandon. Yeah, yeah, be careful. Well, I went to school, high school with them. I dated them in junior high. Yeah, you know how affairs start? Typically, these people on Facebook find their old girlfriends or boyfriends from junior high or high school, and they start having an affair with the person they were boyfriend and girlfriend with in high school, just to rekindle the old flame, you know? Because I got the battle axe at home, and maybe everything will be great going back to junior high. Isn't that crazy? But that's what people do. That's what happens. And why? Why do they return back to junior high and high school, the people they dated in high school and junior high? Do you know why? I just said it. History. They have a history. People don't tend to go with strangers, they go with history. And Bathsheba and David have a history. She knows him, he knows her. Oh boy. Watch this. Then David sent messengers and took her. Forget it. It's tater chip, let her rip. He's going for it. He didn't stop. He's not stopping. And so now his problem is spilling into the street. He's going to take action on this. And she came to him. And what does it say? She protested vehemently. Don't do this. No, what does it say? And he lay with her. And for she was cleansed from her impurity. It was so easy, it was automatic because all the factors were working. That's how easy it was, no resistance, boom. But notice this, I want you to notice about temptation and how to apply it. Notice why it says, for she was cleansed from her impurity. Why would I even throw that in there? Why would Samuel, writing this, and she just got done with her period. What? Why do I need to know that fact? She just got done with her period. Oh, it's because typically in a cycle, the woman's high arousal state comes right after her period. Oh, are you mean to tell me that Satan is clever enough to figure out the woman's cycle to make this thing, the whole thing come together in a temptation when the woman's at the height of her arousal? You gotta be kidding. Satan plays that game? Yeah, he plays that game. When he goes for you, he goes for the jugular. He will put you in the most vulnerable state right after her period. Oh my goodness, that's not even fair. You're right, he doesn't play fair. The whole thing's set up. Height of arousal, David's ready, automatic, right? And she returned to her house, and the woman conceived. Of course she did. And so she sent and told David, I am with child. Now, again, it's important to know that she can see, but I want you to see something here. It's part of the temptation. So she's in the height of arousal, but from what I understand, that's when the best time the woman gets pregnant in her cycle. There's other times in the cycle that a woman can't get pregnant. So there's certain times when you're trying to have babies, there's certain times when you want to have sexual intercourse to increase your chances of getting pregnant. So you mean Satan set that up too so she possibly had the best chance of getting pregnant? Yes. Why? Why did he do that? Because when Satan tempts you to sin, he wants you to sin with the most damage. See, it'd be one thing if they'd have an affair and a baby didn't come from the thing, okay? But no, no, Satan set it up to where they're going to have a baby. And the baby is going to be a major problem. Because heaven can't hide the baby. What are you going to do? You have a baby coming. Can't hide the pregnancy. What is he going to do? So what Satan's job is, what he tries to do, you and I, is to make you sin with the most damage that you could cause. Have you noticed this? This is interesting. I'll just give you an illustration of this. I talk to a lot of couples that are married and can't have kids. Struggling to have kids, fighting this whole thing, fighting it for years and years and years, struggling to have kids. And they're praying and doing everything they can possibly do to have kids. Go to the public schools, the teenagers look at each other and they get pregnant. Why is that? Have you ever noticed that? We got people who are married, can't have kids, but these teenagers hook up, and the first time they have sex, they get pregnant. Am I missing something? Is there something to this? Yes, there is, because Satan is causing the most damage when he tempts them to do certain things. That's the illustration. That's what he'll do to you and I. Be wary of that. But that being the case, then, I'm with child, is a consequence of this bad act. And you know the passage, the wages of sin is what? Death. How is death gonna happen? Well, I can tell you this, it's gonna happen in the cover-up. We gotta cover up the baby. Because Uriah's been on the front lines. He hasn't been home. So how'd she get pregnant? Well, he brings him home and he won't have sex with his own wife. And he says, all right, we got to do something about this guy. So he's like a mob boss. We got to wipe this guy out, man. He's got to take this guy in the back and dig a hole out in the desert and put him in the desert. So what does he do? He puts Uriah on the front line, which is almost a guarantee of his imminent death by an arrow or something like that, a javelin. And so they put Uriah on the front line and her husband gets killed. And David thinks, aha, I've made it. I've covered up my sin. And then he marries her, but the problem is the baby's coming. And then God knows, and so he gets called out. So you've already had one death. Wages of sin is death. One guy, the husband, dies of being put on the front line, and then God's not going to let him get away with it, and guess what? A second death occurs. And what's the second death? The baby dies. Wages of sin is death. So anytime we cross those lines, what comes from it is death. It's the death principle. And that's what happened in David's life. Let's leave you with two applications before we go. First application is this. If you're in an immediate context in a situation and you can tell that you are not handling this correctly, the first thing you need to do is get out of Dodge. Okay. Now, let me show you what Paul told the Corinth church about this. He said this in 1 Corinthians 6.18, flee sexual immorality. Now here's the interesting thing. It doesn't ever say in scripture, flee stealing. It never says that. It doesn't say flee covetousness. It doesn't say flee whatever. It will only say to run from the temptation of sexual immorality. Do you know why? Why is this the only sin you are told to run from in the immediate context? Because it's trying to tell you that you and I, regardless if we're single, married, have a good marriage or have a bad marriage, are all susceptible to this and being put in that situation you have more likelihood to fall in that area as a human being. So God says get away from it! So if you can get out of the position, get out of it. If you're at work and you see an unnatural attraction to someone that's not your mate, get out of there. Remove yourself. Can't go to that thing. Can't go to here. Can't move there. Because there's a cougar, there's a tiger out there looking for me, right? You have to get away from the tiger. Just like Joseph did. Do you remember Joseph? Joseph handled this brilliantly. Potiphar's wife keeps hitting on him day after day after day, and he finally says, I can't take it anymore. Boom, he's gone. He bolts, right? He leaves. He's a perfect example of that passage. Now that's what you do in the immediate context, right? In the period of time that you're being tempted. But what do you do long term? What do you do long term? Well, long-term, you stay away from that, but you start working on your roots. And you have to see your life as a tree, that you have this tree that everyone sees, and you have branches that people see, and your behavior is in the branches, okay? But the problem that you and I have is that the real problem is at the root level, which no one sees and you don't see sometimes. So the key in all of this is I gotta go to the roots. So if I can cut off branches all day long, let's say you have a pornography addiction, and you can't stop looking at pornography. Well, we can take all the computers away from you, we can take all the electronics away, or all the stuff that you would be able to view those things at, and that's one way, but that's just cutting off branches. Because I cut that branch off, but then I have a deeper, ruder problem, and I never get to the root, I just keep cutting off branches. So what the Lord wants us to do is get to the root level of where the problem is. And the root level is believing in lies. That's the root level. We don't believe him for the truth, we would rather believe him for lies. And that's where the problem is. So how do I start, Brandon? We'll start with your behavior. If you have a problem, In sexual immoral issues, whatever that might be, pornography, I'm attracted to other women, I'm attracted to other guys, I have an insatiable attitude towards sex, and people will say, well, I just have a hard sex drive that won't stop. Well, no, no, your problem is something different. It's internal. It's not your testosterone levels, it's your internal problems. You have an emotional problem, you have a bonding problem. But that's only at the root level. So work from the behavior, work backwards to, how do I feel? Then work back from that, how do I think? And then your thinking will tell you what you believe. That's the four steps you have to take to get to where you believe. And what you'll realize once you get in there into the root level in your soul is that you and I believe lies. That's the problem. And Satan has deceived us and he hides the lies under the dirt so you don't see them. And he uses that to get a foothold in your life to control you in this area. With that being said, The takeaway then is to eventually get to the root problem because that's how you protect yourself. Let's pray.