1.
Please
pray with me. May the words of my mouth
and the meditation of our hearts be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock,
and our Redeemer. Amen. The message from God’s Word is taken from 2
Samuel 12:13-25 (READ TEXT), it’s entitled, “I’m
Forgiven. Now What? Pray.” Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
2.
I’m
forgiven. Now what? Christians sometimes ask this question. Maybe you’ve asked
it too. The story of David and Bathsheba
strikes us as so intense and relevant that it remains a favorite to this day.
We can identify with David, both when God told him through the prophet Nathan “you are the man” who sinned, and also
when Nathan brought him the word of forgiveness from the Lord. Unfortunately,
we often stop following the story at that point, even though it goes on in the
Bible. David was forgiven. Now what? What happens next?
3.
If the
story of David provides us a clue to our own Christians lives, and it does, what
happens next is prayer. We don’t pray
in order to win God’s forgiveness. Instead, one of the reasons why we pray is
that we already have his forgiveness. In prayer, faith cries out to God. This
faith is called into being by God’s forgiving Word. We also pray because we run
up against many hard things in this world. These things remind us how very much
we need the Lord.
4.
David was
running into a very hard thing. Although he was forgiven, the Lord said that
David’s son was going to die. This was the son conceived in David’s scorn of
God, when he committed adultery with another man’s wife and then murdered her
husband. Now this child would die. In earlier sermons, we’ve noted that
forgiveness from God doesn’t necessarily remove negative consequences springing
from sin in this world. A criminal may receive God’s forgiveness, but still
have to serve out his jail sentence, for example. God forgave Moses and others
in the “exodus generation” for
sinning against him in the wilderness, but he told them all the same that they
would not enter the Promised Land. Just so, David’s son became gravely ill. The
Lord had decreed that this child would die.
5.
Next came
prayer. For a week “David fasted and went
in and lay all night on the ground” (2 Samuel 12:16). He wouldn’t get up,
nor would he eat. He was praying for his sick son, pleading for the boy’s life.
It is good for us, too, to “form the
habit of daily commending ourselves to God [Psalm 31:5], with soul and body,
wife, children, servants, and all that we have, against every need that may
arise.” In faith, David was turning right away to the One who really could
help.
6.
You and I
can learn something here. When we run into hard things in life, we often tell
friends, co-workers, family members, neighbors, and all sorts of other people
about them. Finally, after telling everyone else, it might occur to us to
mention these matters to the Lord. In other words, we turn to God out of desperation (“I’ve tried everything
else!”) or resignation (“I guess
prayer couldn’t hurt!”). Either way, in such prayer faith is not crying out.
No, unbelief is whimpering along. We don’t go to God promptly with our needs
because we don’t trust him as we should.
7.
“I know there are certain things
God has promised,” someone
might say. “I should definitely pray for
those blessings.” But sooner or
later, all Christians find themselves praying about other things, don’t we? To
those prayers we should add, ‘Thy will be
done.’ Right?” Yes, that’s right. In the text, David was engaged in what
might be called “heroic prayer.” He
was going out on a limb in prayer. He wasn’t talking to God about some subject
on which God himself had been silent. David was prevailing upon God to relent
over something he had already declared. The king was pleading for the Lord to
spare his son’s life.
8.
Of course,
God had been prevailed upon before, as when Abraham had prayed that Sodom and
Gomorrah be spared if as few as ten righteous people were found there. David
knew this account. It was probably on his mind as he begged the Lord to let his
son live. This time, however, God wasn’t
going to relent. He said “no” to
David’s prayers. The child died. What impact was this death going to have upon
David? How would it have affected you?
Would David lash out in anger at the God who had killed his son? Would
he be driven to despair, doubting whether God had truly forgiven him since his
child now lay dead? Or would David become mentally unbalanced? His servants
especially worried about that last prospect. They saw the king’s reaction to
the news that the baby was sick. How, they were wondering, can we break it to
him that the child has died? Well, they didn’t have to break it to him. David
guessed why they were whispering among themselves. Then he did something
remarkable. He got up off the ground, washed up, changed clothes, went to the
tabernacle to worship, and made his way home for a nice meal.
9.
This turn
of events resulted in confusion for the servants. Maybe they had been tempted
to think that David had shirking his royal duties for the past few days,
getting none of his kingly work done as he fasted and groveled on the ground.
But now that the child had died, not only was David not going through the
customary rituals of mourning; he was acting like he was actually happy. Of
course, the servants did not know the contents of David’s prayers.
10.
Ask
yourself this question: “Have my prayers
ever led me to do things that those around me thought downright strange?” Prayer
to the Lord will do that. In faith,
David had a much better grasp of the situation than his servants had. He had
not lost his marbles. David was neither rebelling against the Lord nor doubting
his forgiveness. The king knew he had gone out on a limb with his prayer, but
he also knew that the Lord wasn’t sawing off that limb. The king was acting as
a forgiven man.
11.
David was
forgiven for the same reason that you or I, or anyone and everyone in the world
is forgiven: on account of Christ. In David’s case, as in ours, “we could never grasp the knowledge of the
Father’s grace and favor except through the Lord Christ. Jesus is a mirror of
the fatherly heart [John 14:9; Colossians 1:15; Hebrews 1:3], outside of whom
we see nothing but an angry and terrible Judge.” David wasn’t viewing
events like the recent death of his son as God’s judgment. He was seeing
everything in light of the coming Christ, his own Son and Lord, the One who
forgives by bearing the punishment for the sins of all men.
12.
Therefore,
David knew he was in so solid with God that he could go out on that limb. He
could pray that the Lord change his mind and cancel a consequence he had
already announced. A child makes this kind of request of his father, knowing
that even if the request isn’t granted, he will not be rebuffed or disowned for
making it. Jesus our Savior gives us the confidence to approach God and call
him “Father.” Since Christ is our
Brother, we’ve been adopted as children of our heavenly Father. Our prayers
rise to the throne of God standing on our Lord Jesus and what he has done for
us by his life, death, and resurrection. On this sixth Sunday of Easter, the
Sunday before Ascension Day, the Church has traditionally emphasized prayer.
13.
David told
his servants what had been going on: “While
the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, ‘Who knows whether
the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’ But now he is dead.
Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will
not return to me” (2 Samuel 12:22–23). Here David was confessing his faith
that the dead child was really alive with the Lord. He said he was looking
forward to being reunited with this son. The king believed in the resurrection
of the body and the life everlasting. No matter what happened in this world,
David knew that his fondest desires in prayer would be more than answered in
eternity.
14.
By the
power of the Holy Spirit working through the Gospel, David took a “no” from God with confidence, hope, even
joy. God said no, yet David didn’t lose his faith. So, it was with St. Paul
when the Lord said he would not remove that pesky thorn from Paul’s flesh. For
beneath this “no” lay something even
better: “My grace is sufficient for you,”
the Lord told Paul. His power was made perfect in Paul’s weakness (2
Corinthians 12:9). We pray because we
know God’s heart toward us in Christ. We know he wants nothing but the best for
us. So, we ask for things in prayer. Praying is asking. God has everything. We need so much, starting with forgiveness of
our sins. The Lord’s Prayer, then,
isn’t teaching Christians to be selfish when it offers one petition after
another. With such prayer we recognize that God is God.
15.
Of course,
in the Lord’s Prayer we ask for
things that we know God wants us to have. As noted earlier, though, in our
prayers we also end up asking for things that God has not specifically promised.
We go out on a limb, maybe praying for a new car, a promotion at work, or an
improvement in health, even though God’s Word doesn’t specifically tell us
whether he wants us to have these things.
16.
Our text
suggests a few lessons about such prayers. First,
don’t hesitate to pray them. Our heavenly Father wants to hear from his
children. Second, if you don’t get
what you were asking for in the way you were asking for it, don’t get angry at
God or conclude that he is angry with you. David didn’t. This leads to a third and final point: like David, focus on what is firm and sure.
Dwell on what God has promised, starting with the forgiveness of sins. When we
go out on a limb and pray about the things that God hasn’t specifically
promised, it’s a good idea to pray for them in keeping with what we know God
wants us to have. If you are praying for a new car, ask that it in no way keep
God’s Name from being made holy in your life. Pray for the promotion, and pray
that it would help God’s kingdom to come more and more to you and to others through
you. Or pray that with better health, God’s will would be done more and more in
your life. Making these connections in our prayers helps us to see things in
much better perspective. It may also help us to see how God’s strength is being
shown in our lives if he says no to the new car, the promotion, or whatever. In
other words, when you go out on a limb in prayer, see that the limb is
well-connected to the Tree of Life.
17.
You’re
forgiven. What happens next? Prayer happens next, as you and I go back again
and again in faith to the Lord Who sent his Son Jesus to save us. We pray not
because of the things we might or might not get, but because of the gifts that
the Lord definitely gives. Amen. Now the
peace of God that passes all understanding guard your hearts and minds in
Christ Jesus until life everlasting.
Amen.
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