Learning From David About Sin

Introduction

Good morning. If you will, open your Bibles with me to 2 Samuel chapter 11. 2 Samuel chapter 11. When you read through the Bible and you encounter various heroes of faith, you think of Abraham and David and maybe Moses and perhaps countless others. And perhaps at times you read through and you read their examples of faithfulness to God, the wings to which they would go to be pleasing to him. Abraham, of course, went out not knowing where he was going. And you have the great chapter of faith in Hebrews chapter 11, where you see Abel and Abraham and Noah and Abraham and Sarah and Isaac and Moses. And you read about all these great heroes of faith, and you just say, I can’t do that. I don’t have that kind of faith.

I couldn’t go out not knowing where I was going. I don’t like having to go out where I know I have to go, at least around Orlando. And so you think about what the type of faith these men and women had, and you say, that’s above me. I can’t reach there. And then we read the good news of the New Testament, and we see that the gospel is for all. Isn’t that what Romans chapter 1 and verse 16 says? For I’m not ashamed of the gospel of God, for as the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. So surely we can respond to God. But I think also, if you read the Bible, and you do read about Abraham and Moses and David and Peter and Paul.

You read the scriptures and you see that, yes, these were heroes of faith. They at many times and in many ways showed God great faithfulness. But they also transgressed God’s law. They transgressed God’s will. These men and women who are heroes of faith were like us. That is to say, that they were men. They were women. And Romans 3 23 says, For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And we read in 2 Samuel chapter 11 of what we might deem a spectacular show of that by David when we see the incident of David and Bathsheba and Uriah. But this morning, while I do want to focus on the fact that David did sin, that David did do wrong and what he did.

And we’ll read some of those excerpts in a minute. But I also want to learn from David a lot about it. What was the sin? Why did he sin? How did he handle the sin? And how did sin manifest in his life? Because that honesty that comes and says, I don’t have the faith of Abraham, I don’t have the faith of Moses and David, says, I fall short of the glory of God. Even though I’m a Christian, even though I have been baptized, having my sins washed away, over time I have chosen to reject God. Maybe it was just in a moment. And I decided that what I wanted was worth it. And afterwards I felt deeply to my core that that was wrong, that it was not worth my soul, and that I violated God’s law, and I prayed and begged for forgiveness of my Maker, and the only one who can forgive.

But the truth is that we do sin. And so sometimes we have varying reactions. Sometimes we say, Well, it’s not that bad. We say, well, I don’t have to deal with it. Or sometimes we’re distraught, and that’s when we are on our knees and we’re praying. But I want to know what does the Bible teach about how we should think about and respond to sin. I think David shows us a lot, and it’s not just as cut and dry as David sinned, David repented, poof, there you go. We read David about him in 2 Samuel chapter 11 and 12. Note the faith that was maintained. Yes, the sin. Yes, the confession, but also all that went about it. So I want to learn a few things about David’s sin.

1. Nobody Is Too Good to Sin

But first of all, I want to see what’s obvious is that nobody is too good to sin. Will you pick up the reading with me in verse 2? It happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch and was walking on the roof of the king’s house, that he saw from the roof a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman, and one said, Is this not Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. Now she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness. Then she returned to her house, and the woman conceived, and she sent and told David, I am pregnant.

So David said one to Joab, send me Uriah the Hittite, and Joab sent Uriah to David. And when Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing, and how the people were doing, and how the war was going. And then David said to Uriah, go down to your house and wash your feet. And Uriah went out of the king’s house, and there followed him a present from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of the king’s house with all the servants of his Lord, and did not go down to his house. When they told David Uriah did not go down to his house, David said to Uriah, have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house? Uriah said to David, The ark in Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are camping in the open field.

Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing. Then David said to Uriah, Remain here today also, and tomorrow I will send you back. So, as we think about what’s happened here, David has lusted for Bathsheba and sent for her, sent for her, and she came to him, and they committed the act of adultery. And in that in that act, we see in verse 5 that she conceived and was pregnant. And so now David has a massive problem on two fronts. And I want you to follow the sin in the story before, during, and after the sin, on two planes. That is spiritual, that is the relationship of David in this particular study this morning in God, and the physical consequences of the sin.

Because you see, we’ve already seen both tracks, haven’t we? What’s the first one? From a physical perspective. King David has gone. He has called for this woman who he saw bathing on the roof, who was very attractive, and he lay with her. And problem physical number one is what? She conceived. Why is that such a problem? Because it was not his wife. Hence the adultery of this act. And so now something has to be done because Uriah is Bathsheba’s husband. And so now the whole nation of Israel is going to know what King David has done. So David can’t have that happen. So David finds Uriah, and he has him sent, and he says, I know what I can do here. I can get Uriah to go sleep with his wife.

And then David asked him, Have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go down to your house? Uriah, work with me a little bit here, please. And what was the answer? Well, of course, as you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing. Uriah, unaware of the type of cover-up that David was attempting, was an honorable man, and he showed it here, at least in this sense. And so David has to proceed with his plan, and we find that in verse 14. In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. And the letter he wrote, set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting, and then draw back from him that he may be struck down and die.

And as Joab was besieging the city, he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew there were valiant men, and the men of the city came out and fought with Joab, and some of the servants of David and the people fell. Uriah the Hittite also died. King David was now, if you’re keeping track, an adulterous murderer, to say the least. What’s so strong about this is not just that a king would see a woman and take her for his own and that he would try to cover it up. That seems like something that men would do. It’s not even that he would arrange for Uriah to die in an act of what is murder. The blood of Uriah was clearly on David’s soul by telling his men to send Uriah up, and then the rest fall back behind to be sure that he fell in battle.

No, that’s not the strong point of the story. The interesting part of this is when we think about David. Who was David? What’s the saying that we know from the book of Acts and even from earlier chapters in the Old Testament? David was a man after God’s own heart. How is it that a man after God’s own heart would be an adulterous murderer? Right? We think about sin, and I think about my sin, and I know that I started this by saying, Oh, we struggle with saying we can’t be that faithful, or maybe we realize that we all sinned, but I’m not a murderer, right? I don’t take the blood of somebody else. I don’t take their life. That’s not me. That’s really bad. See, the problem is, not that we just don’t even think that we can do good, but sometimes we swing to the other end of the spectrum and we think that we’re too good for that type of sin.

I don’t think any of us would come here this morning and say, you know what, I don’t have a problem with sin. If you didn’t, you probably don’t need the Lord’s forgiveness. But because of passages like Romans chapter 3 and verse 23, and a bit of common sense, we know that we will fall short of the glory of God. We will transgress God’s law. So how is it that David found himself in such an instance? Well, look back at verse 1 of chapter 11, because I don’t want to skip over this idea. In verse 1 of chapter 11, in the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him in all Israel, and they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah, but David remained at Jerusalem.

Did you see that first part of verse 1? Where were the kings normally at this time of year? Out to battle. At the end of verse 1, where is David? He remained in Jerusalem. No one is too good to sin. I don’t mean to say that David was taking his spiritual life and putting it on the line by staying in Jerusalem. I don’t mean to make it that sort of dichotomy. But allow me to suggest that when we think that something is too good or too wicked for us, that’s when we’re going to fall down on our faces.

2. God Will Forgive Anyone Who Repents

But likewise, if we think that we are too good for this sin or that, be ready. Because pride comes before the fall. When you think about what David did, you have to understand this was a man after God’s own heart, who was a murderous adulterer. But consider with me the second point, and these two start out a bit obvious, but consider how they would apply that God will forgive anyone who repents. Because you see, David was going to be faced with this, even though his brilliant cover-up attempt didn’t work with Uriah, he did have him put out of the way. But make no mistake, I could have made a separate point that God is not fooled. God sees what we do, he sees when I transgress his law.

You see, in 2 Samuel chapter 12, as he continues on, and after Uriah is dead, and David has taken Bathsheba to be his now wife, in verse 1, and the Lord sent Nathan to David, he came to him and said to him, There were two men in a certain city, the one rich and the other poor. The rich man had very many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing but one little oolamb, which he had bought. And he brought it up and grew it up with him and with his children. It used to eat of his morsel and drink from his cup and lie down in his arms. And it was like a daughter to him. Now there came a traveler to the rich man, and he was unwilling to take one of his own flock or herd to prepare for the guests who had come to him, but he took the poor man’s lamb and prepared it for the man who had come to him.

Then David’s anger was greatly kindled against this man. And he said to Nathan, As the Lord lives, the man who has done this deserves to die, and he shall restore the lamb fourfold, because he did this thing, and because he had no pity, here’s David furious. He said, This man demands to die deserves to die. And that’s how we look at men who sin. We say, that’s not right. They deserve death. But when we read David’s story, there’s something interesting about David’s diagnosis of the problem here, isn’t it? His punishment. Because see, when David tells them, this man deserves to die, what he didn’t realize is what would happen next. What David didn’t realize is that Nathan, as a prophet sent by the Lord, would say what’s found in verse 7.

You are the man. You can imagine David’s response at a time like this. Perhaps you do remember, if there’s ever been a time where you realize you were wrong in an action, or perhaps you accused someone of something, and you found out the situation behind them, and that pit in your stomach all of a sudden is full. Perhaps that’s even an exponentially lower part of how David felt. But nonetheless, we have experienced that. And you see the message continues. Thus says the Lord the God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master’s house and your master’s wives into your arms, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah.

And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. Why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites. 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. Thus says the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against you out of your own house, and I will take your wives before your eyes, and give them to your neighbor, and he shall lie with your wives in the sight of his son.

For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel and before the Son. You remember we’re tracking the physical and the spiritual? Guess what? God was not fooled. God saw the murder. He saw the adultery, and God’s relationship with David was in peril because of it. God knew what David had done. Nathan, the prophet of the Lord, approaches the king, and he says, You are the man. The man who, as David says in verse 5, deserves to die. I think we would have no problem saying that a murderer deserves intense punishment now, depending on the person you are and the background you have. You may vary on whether that’s capital punishment or a lifetime in prison or a certain amount of time in prison, or you name the punishment.

But the truth is that we know that sin deserves death. We also are very comfortable telling others that their sin condemns them, that they need to be punished for what they have done. And yet, here is the beauty of the Lord’s message through Nathan the prophet, because he turns around David’s anger and it’s pointed right back at him. David himself condemned his actions. You see, in verse 13, though, that even though we would all agree that this was worthy of death, David said to Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said to David, The Lord also has put away your sin. You shall not die. What? What? We read this whole passage. David is a murderous adulterer. Nathan comes before him in this great dramatic scene, tells him what to say.

David is outraged. He says, You deserve to die. The Lord says, I have given you everything. I would have given you more, and yet you sinned against me. You murdered Uriah. You are with a woman who does not belong to you. And David says, I have sinned. And Nathan tells him, He’d been forgiven. What? In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, in verses 9 through 11, perhaps we see a New Testament example of this type of confusion to the human way of reasoning. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, beginning in verse 9, we see another group of people that we don’t tend to have a lot of sympathy for. In 1 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 9 through 11, although if we read it carefully, we’d find that we’re probably among this group.

In 1 Corinthians chapter 6, beginning in verse 9, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God. But you see it in verse 11, and such were some of you. And such were. Who made up the Corinthian church? Formerly people who were sexually immoral, idolaters, adulterers, men who practice homosexuality, thieves, greedy, drunkards, revilers, swindlers. This was the church at Corinth. But it wasn’t anymore because that’s what they were in the past part of their lives. But what is the good news? But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of Jesus Christ, your Lord.

That’s the good news, brothers and sisters, that God will forgive anyone who truly repents. What a blessing to serve that kind of God. We look at David and see an outrage, and perhaps we look at our life and also feel outraged. We feel we can’t come before God, but we know God will forgive because we’ve seen it time and again, and he has promised that he will. If I don’t trust that, that’s a faith problem in me, not a problem with my God. If David can be forgiven, though, I need to take heart that while I may not be better than him, I am a sinner just like he was at that moment. And if he can be forgiven by God, and God has promised me that I can be forgiven, that just like these Corinthians, just like many other characters, whether they be heroes of faith or foils in the scriptural narrative, that they can be forgiven if they would seek God’s forgiveness.

3. True Repentance Is a Heartfelt Attitude

What a powerful blessing that is to know that God will forgive anyone who repents. David is a great example of this story. If you’re struggling with sin and you’re harboring in your heart, get it out. This lesson is not to say everyone sins, so it’s okay, just pick up and move forward. No, sin deserves death. Jesus died on the cross for our sin. Sin is not okay. But the truth is that God knows, God understood, that there would be people, his creation, who would violate his law. And yes, even after becoming a Christian. Praise be to God that the provision of salvation and forgiveness is available to his creation. When we see third point, though, as we see repentance, we see from David what repentance is truly wrapped up in.

What is true repentance? How does it manifest itself? It’s all wrapped in a heartfelt attitude. Will you look with me at Psalm chapter 51? Consider with me in Psalm chapter 51, and you see David, perhaps here with this Psalm after his sin with Bathsheba, when Nathan has confronted him, see the repentance in David and ask yourself what I have to ask myself, which is is this me when I sin? Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love, according to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions, wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight.

So that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth and the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness. Let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with the willing spirit.

And you see, verse 13, then I will treat transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. Do you see verse 1 and 2? I think that’s us. I think that’s pretty easy. We pray to God. Our mindset is we need mercy from God. We have sinned. We know what we’ve done, and we have to repent. We have to confess that sin. But it’s not just that. It’s not just David going to bed at night saying, Oh God, please forgive me of my sins today. Help me to not sin tomorrow. There’s more to it than that because David’s service to God had more to it than that.

David’s faith was stronger than that. You want to know why David was a man after God’s own heart? Look at the words in verse 3 and 4. I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. What was David’s perspective on his sin, verse 4? Against you, you only have I sinned. I’ve done evil in your sight. Why be forgiven? What is he appealing to? Well, he appeals for the mercy of God in his steadfast love and his abundant mercy in verse 1. But at the end of verse 4, why the forgiveness? Because he understands who God is, that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Do you see as he continues in verse 7, courage me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.

Create in me a clean heart, verse 10. Cast not me away from your presence, verse 11. But do you see what he does? He isn’t just completely consumed with this sin, which he is. He isn’t just entirely relying upon the God for forgiveness, which he is. But as we move forward into verse 13, what will he do with this? Then I will teach transgressors your ways. He wasn’t just going to be sorry for the sin. He was going to turn. He was going to adequately and in a markedly improved way serve God. What a change from this adulterous, murdering man. That is true repentance. It was heartfelt. Can you feel David just on his absolute knees, whether literally or metaphorically in the story, just pouring out his heart to God?

But I have to question is my faith like that? Do I care enough about God to feel that I have truly wronged him and that I don’t just deserve forgiveness, but that God has promised it because he is faithful, because of his love, that he will forgive. Because that’s a life changer. If we don’t approach it that way, first of all, we might be a little too easy about our sin. You know, I just say, well, well, everyone does it. If David did it and Abraham did it, you know, it’s fine with me. Or maybe we’ll do something even more dangerous, and we’ll play the lookaro standard of holiness, right? You know what that is. That’s when you look around and you say, David murdered, I just lied.

I think I’m going to be okay. That’s kind of not very funny, but a somewhat humorous way of looking at that. But consider, do we sometimes do that? With our sin? Rather than having a heartfelt repentance. Do we sometimes look at others and say, you know what? You know, I’m doing pretty bad, but I’m doing a lot better than even that family who sits in the pew next to me. Now they’re looking around right now. When you think about that, and you look at the scriptures, what’s the problem? Well, the problem is clear and glaring, isn’t it? Our standard of holiness is not one another. Our standard of holiness is God Himself. Our standard of holiness is Jesus the Christ. And the problem with that standard when it comes to me comparing myself to others is now I will always lose that comparison because Jesus was perfect.

4. Sin Still Has Consequences

God’s holiness is unstained. It is perfect. If that’s my standard, I realize when I’ve fallen short, no matter what the sin is, no matter what other people think of my sin or what I think of it, I realize it has separated me from my God, and I need to be washed from the stain and the ugliness of my sin. And we need to have a heartfelt repentance, and that starts with understanding that it’s necessary. But what I also want to find out in the story as we keep going is that sin still has consequences. Will you look back at verse 13 with me in 2 Samuel chapter 12? In 2 Samuel chapter 12, there was that great moment where we see in verse 13 that the Lord has put away your sin and that David would not die.

That’s great news. Everything’s better, right? Well, in verse 14 continues, nevertheless, because by this deed you have utterly scorned the Lord, the child who is born to you shall die. Then Nathan went to his house. Now, in verses 10 on, there are several examples of what would happen as a follow-up from the sin, but this is the most clear in verse 14. What would happen as a result of David’s sin? The child born would die. Verse 15, then Nathan went to his house, and the Lord afflicted the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and he became sick. David therefore sought God on behalf of the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground. And the elders of his house stood beside him to raise him from the ground, but he would not, nor did he eat food with them.

On the seventh day, the child died. The servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead, for they said, Behold, while the child was yet alive, we spoke to him, and he did not listen to us. How then can we say to him, the child is dead? He may do himself some harm.

But from a right and wrong standpoint, there’s only about one thing that I’ve seen that is almost unanimously accepted. And that is don’t mess with children. Although the abortion laws challenge this, and I think it’s sickening and wrong, and it is murder. But putting that aside, people don’t mess with children. Babies are innocent. They’re wonderful. But what do you see here? David had sinned. David repented. Was David forgiven of his sin and his wrongdoing? Yes. The text says it was so. God said that it was so. And yet you see, just one verse later in verse 14, that the child would die. It wasn’t the child’s fault. And in verse 18, we see on the seventh day the child did, in fact, die. See, the thing about sin is it doesn’t just separate us from God, although that is what is important to know about sin.

That is the most important facet of our life to know that we need to be unstained by sin, forgiven when we do, so that we can be with God. But can we see that sin still has consequences? Was David forgiven or not? Yes, he was. And yet if he looked at his life just seven days later, he would see that his child died as a result of his sin. Sin still has consequences. Sometimes we think about situations and we find ourselves in dilemmas in life, and we say, why is this happening to me? Why would God let this happen? And there may be things that are completely out of your control. But the truth is, it might just take one night of going and participating in drunkenness and finding yourself driving on the street, and you may end a life.

And that may sound extreme, but it happens every single day. Can you be forgiven of that sin? Yes. Remember 1 Corinthians chapter 6? That was a terrible little group there, wasn’t it? And yet such were some of you. They were washed, sanctified, and justified. You may be forgiven. But that doesn’t make all the consequences of the sin disappear. We need to realize that that’s not on God. That is on us. And we need to not blame God when that throne in the flesh that we have placed there is still there. And you see how David handled it. You’d wonder, would David take God to task? David, who had this great relationship with God, who would be open with him, and you see, the servants were afraid.

What is David going to be like? If we tell him his child dies, he will do himself harm. But note David’s response in verse 19, beginning, but when David saw that his servants were whispering together, David understood that the child was dead, and David said to his servant, Is the child dead? And they said, He is dead. Then David arose from the earth and washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. And he went into the house of the Lord and worshipped. He then went to his own house, and when he asked, they set food before him, and he ate.

5. Our Trust Belongs Solely in God Always

He said, 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. Well, we learned from the story of David in Bathsheba is first and foremost, anyone can sin. No one is too good for it, and no sin is too out there that we won’t fall into it. We also learned that God will forgive anyone who comes to him with true repentant nature. But then also sin keeps its consequences. But do you know what David learned? And David showed that our trust belongs solely in God always.

After all this mess that David caused, and after the child died, as God had decreed. What is David’s reaction? What’s the first thing he does when he gets up? He washed and anointed himself and changed his clothes. In verse 20, see it with me. He went into the house of the Lord and worshiped. It’s a little bit different in the way a lot of us might handle sin, isn’t it? The way we might handle sin would say, Why is this happening to me? I can’t believe God would do that, even though we we know that God has already promised what happens when you do wrong. But David didn’t. David said in verse 22, while the child was still alive, I fasted and wept, for I said, Who knows?

Or the Lord maybe will be gracious to me that the child may live. Do you note that even though David had transgressed God’s law, and yes, he had confessed his sin and showed heartfelt repentance and been forgiven, that when God said the child would die, and the child did die, in the meantime, David kept his trust in God, and afterwards David still trusted and had faith in God. That’s true faith. You want to know why David was a man after God’s own heart? Because David had a faith that saves. David was committed to God. David understood God’s holiness. And he understood God’s awesome power. Even the thick of his sin, even the punishment stage of the physical consequences, David was saying, Who knows? Maybe God will be gracious to me.

Conclusion

Maybe the child can live. The truth is the child did. And the other things in verses 10 through 14 that Nathan shared would happen did come to pass. And so as you’re finishing the tracking of the two sides of the sin, the physical consequences that God promised remained and came. Brothers and sisters, we’d be remiss to say anything other than the spiritual is what matters. And David was forgiven. Praise God that he would love us enough to forgive us, even when we directly violate his law. God doesn’t just love people, though. God doesn’t deal with sin. God reacts harshly to sin. That’s where David’s repentance comes in in Psalm 51. It’s such a powerful reading for us. But we need to know that, yes, God will forgive if we turn to Him.

David had faith.

You see, there’s two ways that we could be this morning. It could be someone who’s never been a Christian. And you know what God has said. Peter in Acts chapter 2 and verse 38 says, repent and be baptized for the forgiveness of your sins. You can choose to do that or you can choose not to. But the choice of following Jesus is set. Will you follow him today? It may be that you were a Christian and like David, you found yourself in the throes of sin. And maybe you don’t want to confess that, or maybe you’re too scared to, but no, God will forgive. Whether you’re a sinner or a Christian who’s struggling to find their way, or a Christian who just wants the prayers of the saints, realize that we are on the same team.

I need your help, and you can use some of mine. Let’s be together. Let’s navigate that narrow way and trust in God who provides eternal life. If we can help you in any way, come forward now as we stand and sing the invitations.