Keep Your SUDs in the Bucket (Bonus)

This is a bonus lesson of a five part series about experiencing forgiveness and restoration.

Down through the past five weeks we have studied David and how one seemingly unimportant decision (SUD) resulted in Neglect of Kingly Duties, Adultery, Murder, and Lies.

David committed all of these and received forgiveness and restoration.

We finished last week with the death of David and Bathsheba’s baby.  

The consequences for David’s sin did not end with the death of the baby.

     Tamar, David’s daughter would be raped by her half-brother Amnon.

     Absalom, Tamar’s full brother would hunt down and kill Amnon.

     Absalom would later try to take over the thrown and be killed in the battle.

David would live through all of this turmoil and watch his family fall apart.

Just a Seemingly Unimportant Decision (SUD) that brought consequences

              

God does give us liberty to make our own choices but not to choose the consequences.

David could not hide his sin forever and neither can we.

David did pay for his sin.  David also grew closer to God and wrote the following.

Psalms 23:1-6 NASB

(1)  A Psalm of David. The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want.

(2)  He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.

(3)  He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake.

(4)  Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.

(5)  You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.

(6)  Surely goodness and loving kindness will follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever.

When your SUD’s get out of the bucket the best thing to do is to go ahead and confess that they are your SUD’s and ask God for forgiveness.

Down through this week examine the SUD’s you have made.

Keep Your Suds in the Bucket

Keep Your SUDs in the Bucket (Lesson five)

This is lesson five of a five part series about experiencing forgiveness and restoration.

Noah, Abraham, Moses, Solomon and Peter all have something in common.

They all made seemingly unimportant decisions or SUDs, which ended up allowing sin into their lives. 

If you have been a Christian for any length of time, you probably can go ahead and add your name to the list, because you have not kept your SUD’s in the bucket.

2 Samuel 12:15 -16 & 22-24 NASB

(15)  So Nathan went to his house.  Then the LORD struck the child that Uriah's widow bore to David, so that he was very sick.

(16)  David therefore inquired of God for the child; and David fasted and went and lay all night on the ground.

(22)  He said, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, 'Who knows, the LORD may be gracious to me, that the child may live.'

(23)  "But now he has died; why should I fast?  Can I bring him back again? I will go to him, but he will not return to me."

(24)  Then David comforted his wife Bathsheba, and went in to her and lay with her; and she gave birth to a son, and he named him Solomon. Now the LORD loved him

(From last week) God says that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive our sins.  This doesn’t mean that we can just plan and do things and then run to God.  David’s SUD was staying home when he should have been doing God’s work.  The result was horrible and we will see later that even though David’s sin was forgiven he would still suffer from the consequences of his SUDS.

This week is later.  Since David had disobeyed God and had given his enemies reason to blaspheme God.  God would take the child that was conceived with Bathsheba. 

See even though there is forgiveness for sin, there is also consequences for the decisions we make.  However, let us never forget that we serve a merciful God.  God gave David and Bathsheba another child and his name was Solomon. 

Solomon would build God’s Temple and rule Israel with wisdom. 

EVEN THOUGH  our Seemingly unimportant decisions or SUDs

Can bring Sin into our lives we can rest assured that God will deal with us with all justice and mercy.  

It is always better to …

Keep Your Suds in the Bucket

Keep Your SUDs in the Bucket (Lesson four)

This is lesson four of a five part series about experiencing forgiveness and restoration.

Noah, Abraham, Moses, Solomon and Peter all have something in common.

They all made seemingly unimportant decisions or SUDs, which ended up allowing sin into their lives. 

If you have been a Christian for any length of time, you probably can go ahead and add your name to the list, because you have not kept your SUD’s in the bucket.

2 Samuel 12:9-14 NASB

(9)  'Why have you despised the word of the LORD by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the sons of Ammon.

(10)  'Now therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised Me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.'

(11)  "Thus says the LORD, 'Behold, I will raise up evil against you from your own household; I will even take your wives before your eyes and give them to your companion, and he will lie with your wives in broad daylight.

(12)  'Indeed you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel, and under the sun.'"

(13)  Then David said to Nathan, "I have sinned against the LORD." And Nathan said to David, "The LORD also has taken away your sin; you shall not die.

(14)  "However, because by this deed you have given occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also that is born to you shall surely die."

Wow!  This all started with David staying home instead of going to battle.  You talk about a seemingly unimportant decision (SUD) that leads to sin.  David took Bathsheba, had Uriah killed, and tried to cover everything up.  

Let’s take a look at verse 13.  God sent Nathan to expose what David had done in secret.  Confession is the only solution when sin comes into our lives.  Here we see that David confesses his sin and asks God for forgiveness.  

God says that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive our sins.  This doesn’t mean that we can just plan and do things and then run to God.  David’s SUD was staying home when he should have been doing God’s work.  The result was horrible and we will see later that even though David’s sin was forgiven he would still suffer from the consequences of his SUDS.

Seemingly unimportant decisions or SUDs

Keep Your Suds in the Bucket

Keep Your SUDs in the Bucket (Lesson three)

This is lesson three of a five part series about experiencing forgiveness and restoration.

Noah, Abraham, Moses, Solomon and Peter all have something in common.

They all made seemingly unimportant decisions or SUDs, which ended up allowing sin into their lives. 

If you have been a Christian for any length of time, you probably can go ahead and add your name to the list, because you have not kept your SUD’s in the bucket.

2 Samuel 11:14-17 NASB

(14)  Now in the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah.

(15)  He had written in the letter, saying, "Place Uriah in the front line of the fiercest battle and withdraw from him, so that he may be struck down and die."

(16)  So it was as Joab kept watch on the city, that he put Uriah at the place where he knew there were valiant men.

(17)  The men of the city went out and fought against Joab, and some of the people among David's servants fell; and Uriah the Hittite also died.

Covering sin is destructive.  David had taken Bathsheba and she was pregnant.  It is at this point David devised a plan.  He said, “Hey I’ll just bring Uriah home and let him spend the night with her, no one will ever know”.

Do we try to transfer our sins?

David never dreamed Uriah would be so loyal.  He must have thought, enough of this I will just send him to front lines and have him killed in battle.

Sin can cause us to destroy others.

And don’t forget this all started with …

Seemingly unimportant decisions or SUDs

Keep Your Suds in the Bucket