3 Kings: Ten Messy Lessons from David’s Mess
3 Kings: Ten Messy Lessons from David’s Mess
2 Samuel 11 & 12
July 13th, 2025
Three good questions to ask in regard to the God of the Bible.
“Why does God choose messy people?
“Why does God show us so much of that mess?”
“Why doesn’t people’s mess undermine God’s reputation and derail His purposes?”
Three good answers in regard to the God of the Bible.
God doesn’t choose messy people, He chooses ordinary people. It just turns out that ordinary people are messy and He already knows that.
God doesn’t hide people’s mess because the Bible it isn’t a story about people, it’s a story about Him.
God chooses to write His story in conjunction with ordinary people to highlight His power and grace. Our mess doesn’t derail God’s purposes because He isn’t dependent on us, we are dependent on Him.
2 Samuel 11:1 (NIV) In the spring, at the time when kings go off to war, David sent Joab out with the king’s men and the whole Israelite army. They destroyed the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained in Jerusalem.
2 Samuel 11:2-5 (NIV) 2 One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, “She is Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite.” 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her. (Now she was purifying herself from her monthly uncleanness.) Then she went back home. 5 The woman conceived and sent word to David, saying, “I am pregnant.”
Messy Lesson #1
Be where you are supposed to be when you are supposed to be there.
Messy Lesson #2
The more power and authority you carry the more trouble you can cause.
Messy Lesson #3
Cover ups are costly.
2 Samuel 11:14-17 (NIV) 14 In the morning David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it with Uriah. 15 In it he wrote, “Put Uriah out in front where the fighting is fiercest. Then withdraw from him so he will be struck down and die.” 16 So while Joab had the city under siege, he put Uriah at a place where he knew the strongest defenders were. 17 When the men of the city came out and fought against Joab, some of the men in David’s army fell; moreover, Uriah the Hittite died.
Messy Lesson #4
God doesn’t miss anything. Thank God!
Messy Lesson #5.
The only way to clean up your mess is to confess your mess.
2 Samuel 12:13 13 Then David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
Messy Lesson #6
God redeems all repentances.
2 Samuel 12:21-25 (NIV) 21 His attendants asked him, “Why are you acting this way? While the child was alive, you fasted and wept, but now that the child is dead, you get up and eat! 22 He answered, “While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept. I thought, ‘Who knows? The Lord may be gracious to me and let the child live.’ 23 But now that he is dead, why should I go on fasting? 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 he went to her and made love to her. She gave birth to a son, and they named him Solomon. The Lord loved him; 25 and because the Lord loved him, he sent word through Nathan the prophet to name him Jedidiah.
Messy Lesson #7
Redemption takes away the sin but often leaves a limp.
No one is exempt from temptation or failure or sin and yet there isn’t anyone or any circumstance God can’t redeem when we and it are submitted to Him.
Messy Lesson #8
Don’t hide your limp. Your limp testifies to God’s redemptive power and grace.
Psalm 51 (NIV)
Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassion blot out my transgressions. 2 Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. 3 For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me. 4 Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight; so, you are right in your verdict and justified when you judge. 5 Surely, I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me. 6 Yet you desired faithfulness even in the womb; you taught me wisdom in that secret place. 7 Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow. 8 Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice. 9 Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity. 10 Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. 11 Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me. 12 Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me. 13 Then I will teach transgressors your ways, so that sinners will turn back to you. 14 Deliver me from the guilt of bloodshed, O God, you who are God my Savior, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness. 15 Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. 16 You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. 17 My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. 18 May it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem. 19 Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous, in burnt offerings offered whole; then bulls will be offered on your altar.
Messy Lesson #9
You can live with a limp because God’s hesed is never ending.
Messy Lesson #10
Learn the first lesson the first time.
Be watchful. Messy seasons can come out of nowhere.
Confess your mess. God will redeem it.
Keep limping forward. God can do amazing things through leaders with a limp!