David Takes What is Not His to Take - Feb 9, 2014

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SERMON:

History is full of great men and women. Heroes who accomplished great things for their families, their nations, or for the world in general. In grade school we learn to sing the praises of these great people of history.

But later in life we often learn that those heroes are tainted. Pick a hero, and you can probably find a book which details all the flaws in their character. Sometimes the things that are revealed are shocking. When the layers are peeled back, we find our heroes were all too human, and prone to the same sins that we are today.

The same is true of the heroes of faith that we find in the Bible. Noah. Abraham. Moses. David. Peter. Paul. While the Bible speaks highly of these men, the Holy Spirit doesn’t shy away from recording their shameful deeds also. The one thing all our heroes have in common is this—they were sinners who needed a Savior.

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To this point in our study of king David, we’ve sung his praises. We’ve seen how David trusted in the God of the Bible, and how he did great things in service his LORD and country.

But when we peel back the layers on this Biblical hero, we find yet another sinner.

One thing we find when we take a second look over David’s life, is that he was PRONE TO LIES AND DECEPTION.

When David wanted to prove to Jonathan that king Saul was after him, he told Jonathan to tell a lie. Tell the king that I’m not dining at his table because I’ve gone to a special family gathering in Bethlehem. If he’s upset about it, you’ll know that he really wants to catch me and murder me (1 Samuel 20:4-8).

It was a lie.

Later, when David sought refuge from Saul in the city of Gath, he was afraid Gath’s king would see him as a threat. So, David pretended to be insane.

It was deception.

Yes, David used lies and deception when he felt threatened, but that doesn’t change the fact that they were still lies and deception.

And this is what we find in our own lives too, isn’t it? We want to be truthful, but when we feel threatened, our sinful nature leads us to lie and deceive to escape that uncomfortable conversation or difficult situation.

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David was not a violent man by nature, but since he lived in a time of war, he became a skilled warrior. Through his service in Saul’s army, David became an experienced general. He was molded into an instrument of war. And this made him a dangerous man when backed into a corner.

On one occasion, David’s anger got the best of him. David and his men had been keeping away from Saul, and camping in an area where a man named Nabal grazed his flocks. Instead of helping themselves to Nabal’s sheep, David’s men looked out for Nabal’s possessions and servants. They served as a protective hedge around them.

When sheering time came, David thought Nabal might repay the favor with something from the herds. But being a wicked man, Nabal refused David’s request, stating that he didn’t know who David was and certainly wasn’t about to start giving handouts to every servant who ran away from his master.

David was enraged at the insult, and mounted up with his men to go and punish Nabal. On the way, David swore that he would wipe out all of Nabal’s sons in retribution for his ungrateful response.

Thankfully, Nabal’s good wife, Abigail, heard what was happening and led a delegation with gifts to appease David. The massacre never happened. But the fact remained, DAVID WAS A POWERFUL MAN, AND COULD USE DEADLY FORCE IN THE HEAT OF ANGER.

And while you and I might not think to kill someone, we’re prone to the same feelings of resentment toward those who treat us badly. Our tempers flare up and show themselves with harmful words that we regret.

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Overall David was a just king. But HE WAS ALSO PRONE TO FAVORITISM. When two men murdered a rival king and brought the head to David, he quickly administered justice and had the murderers executed. But when his own general, Joab, murdered a man named Abner in cold blood, David did little. Sure, David made the murderer walk in Abner’s burial procession. Sure, David made it clear that Joab’s action was evil and that David himself had no part in the crime. But Joab was not taken to trial and he was not executed. He remained David’s chief general.

Justice was sometimes hard for David to carry out when it hit close to home.

And the same is true for us today. It’s easy for us to denounce wickedness we see in the news, or the wickedness done by people not closely associated with us. But when the people we know and love commit sins, sometimes we just keep quiet and look the other way. We’re afraid to take matters head on, and seek the LORD’s will.

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It’s true that the Bible calls David a “man after the LORD’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14). But not because of his sins. David was a man after the LORD’s own heart because of his trust in God, and his willingness to be rebuked and corrected by the LORD. David knew he was a great sinner, but he also knew that the LORD had promised to save him through the Messiah that was coming.

In our reading for today we’re going to see David’s faults come out in full force. We’ll also see the LORD’s disapproval and rebuke of his servant. But first, we need to take just a few moments to get caught up on where we are in David’s life.

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King Saul had died. The people had recognized David as the LORD’s chosen king of Israel. The civil war that had erupted after Saul’s death had run its course and came to an end. Now, as commander and chief, David was campaigning against the nations surrounding Israel. And the LORD was once again giving David the victory at every turn.

Philistia, Amalek, Edom, Moab, Ammon—all the surrounding nations were defeated by David and his forces. David even marched as far north as the Euphrates river to secure the land of Israel. To get some perspective, the great Euphrates river was about 340 miles north of Jerusalem. That’s about the width of Washington state. David secured all that land, and that was just to the north!

And while skirmishes sprang up from time to time, the LORD now gave David and Israel a time of relative peace.

It was during this time that David’s thoughts turned to building the LORD at proper temple. A real building instead of a tent where the people could come to worship the LORD. In response to this, the LORD told David that it was not his task to build the LORD’s temple. That task would belong to one of his descendants. And The LORD had also revealed to David that one of his descendants would rule over an ETERNAL kingdom. That ruler would be the Messiah, Jesus Christ. He would one day be born from David’s descendants to rule in the hearts and lives of all who look to him as Savior.

At this time, David not only sought to honor the LORD, he also sought to care for the survivors of Saul’s house. Saul’s son Jonathan had one remaining child. A son by the name of Mephibosheth who had been crippled by an accident in his youth. David summoned this man and declared that from this point forward, the crippled Mephibosheth would eat at David’s table, and live in David’s palace.

Things were finally looking good for David. And stable. The land was secure. The LORD had promised his family great things. And David was occupying his time with kind and gracious activities.

And then comes our text.

2 Samuel 11:1-17, 26-27 (NIV)

11 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 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.”

⁶ So David sent this word to Joab: “Send me Uriah the Hittite.” And Joab sent him to David. ⁷ When Uriah came to him, David asked him how Joab was, how the soldiers were and how the war was going. ⁸ Then David said to Uriah, “Go down to your house and wash your feet.” So Uriah left the palace, and a gift from the king was sent after him. ⁹ But Uriah slept at the entrance to the palace with all his master’s servants and did not go down to his house.

¹⁰ David was told, “Uriah did not go home.” So he asked Uriah, “Haven’t you just come from a military campaign? Why didn’t you go home?”

¹¹ Uriah said to David, “The ark and Israel and Judah are staying in tents, and my commander Joab and my lord’s men are camped in the open country. How could I go to my house to eat and drink and make love to my wife? As surely as you live, I will not do such a thing!”

¹² Then David said to him, “Stay here one more day, and tomorrow I will send you back.” So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. ¹³ At David’s invitation, he ate and drank with him, and David made him drunk. But in the evening Uriah went out to sleep on his mat among his master’s servants; he did not go home.

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.

²⁶ When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. ²⁷ After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.

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First of all, look at verse 1. It says that in the spring, when kings are accustomed to go off to war, David stayed home.

Why? It appears that all the success the LORD had been sending David finally got to his head. HE was the king. HE didn’t need to lead the armies of Israel, Joab could do that. HE could rest at home.

But before long, David was restless. And one evening he wandered aimlessly on the roof of the palace. And from that roof something caught his eye. Someone. A BEAUTIFUL woman. And when he saw her, David’s LUST was kindled.

When David sends to find out about this woman, he learns that she is the wife of one Uriah the Hittite. But that doesn’t stop David. HE’s the king. He sends for her anyway.

And the result is that she becomes pregnant. But her husband has been away to war for some time, and there will be no mistaking who the father of this child is when he returns. And so David turns to LIES AND DECEPTION.

His idea is simple. Get Uriah back home for a time. A little break from serving in the army. Then it’ll look like the child born to Bathsheba is Uriah’s child.

But David’s plan doesn’t work. Uriah won’t go home when his fellow soldiers don’t have the same opportunity. Uriah is like David in his youth, honorable and heroic.

So David tries to help his plan along by getting Uriah drunk. Surely then he will go home to his wife.

But again, even under the influence, Uriah won’t go.

And so David turns to LIES, DECEPTION, AND MURDER. He sends a message to his commander Joab to place Uriah in the front lines and to draw back from him in the battle so he’ll die. And this message, to David’s even greater shame, he sends in the very hand of Uriah. He unknowingly carries his own death warrant.

And to pile sin upon sin, with Uriah dead, David takes his widow Bathsheba to be his own wife. No remorse here. NO JUSTICE FROM KING DAVID. Just self-serving sin. He covers it all up, and moves on like nothing ever happened.

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At this point we wonder, what in the world is David thinking?! How could he do this?! And all we need to do, to answer this question, is look in our own lives. How many times have we done what we knew was WRONG, simply because we WANTED to. Simply because we are sinners, one and all.

The people sitting beside us might not know our secret sins. They might even think highly of us as their fellow Christians. If asked about us they might tell a story or two about the kind favors we’ve done for them, or for others.

But if God were to peel back the layers in our lives and publish them out in a book—then all would see the truth about how good we really are. It wouldn’t even take that much would it. God could just write out our secret thoughts through the course of a single day, and people around us would never again look at us in the same way.

The point is simple. David was a sinner, and so are we. And for our sins against him, the just God should remove his love and blessings from our lives forever.

But that’s not what the just God did to David. And that’s not what he does to us. Instead, we find that the just and holy LORD is also the pitying, merciful, and loving God.

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I think we all know how this story plays out. The LORD sends his prophet Nathan to rebuke David for his sins. Nathan tells David a story about a poor man who had only a little ewe lamb whom he cared for like a child. But a rich and wicked neighbor took that little lamb and slaughtered it to provide a meal for a guest in his home.

When David hears the story, he is angry, and declares that the rich man deserves to die. That he aught to pay the poor man back four times over for doing such a wicked thing, and having no pity.

And then Nathan tells David, “You are the man!” (2 Samuel 12:7 NIV).

David had committed adultery. David had lied and deceived. David had murdered and covered it up. But when the LORD presented David with his own wickedness, David was sorry. He was sorry for all he had done, most of all, that through these actions—he had sinned against the LORD.

This is true repentance. David wasn’t just sorry got caught. David was grieved that he had sinned against the LORD.

And so the gracious and loving LORD forgave David. Nathan told him, “The LORD has taken away your sin. You are not going to die” (2 Samuel 12:13 NIV).

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This is the way the LORD deals with sin. David would have to bear the consequences of this sin in his life. His child would die. And the LORD told David that now the sword would never depart from his family because David had despised the LORD by his actions. But before the LORD, David was truly forgiven. He would not be struck dead. Nor would he be cast away from the LORD’s presence for eternity. The LORD took David’s sin away.

It would be years from this day when Jesus would stagger up the hill of Calvary. It would be decades from this day when nails would be driven through Christ’s hands and feet. It would be centuries from this day when hell would descend on the crucified Son of God for the sins of all mankind. But it would be done. And David’s sins, and ours, would be paid for when the sinless Son of God suffered for them in our place. And in view of the payment Christ would one day make on behalf of David and all sinners, the LORD took David’s sin away. He forgave him.

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So what do we take away from this dark chapter of David’s life? For one, we learn that when God blesses sinners, we often respond by wanting MORE. By nature, we are never satisfied with the goodness that we have. Even those who trust in the LORD struggle with being content.

Secondly we learn to BE ON GUARD when the LORD blesses us with security and power. For our sinful instinct is to reach beyond what is right and abuse the security and power that the LORD gives us.  

Thirdly we learn that DAVID WAS A SINNER, TEMPTED TO SIN IN THE SAME WAYS WE ARE. Sins of deception, violence, and favoritism. He favored himself. And sadly we often do the same. We sneer and gossip over the sins of others, and dismissing our own wickedness.

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As Christians who know the story of Christ, and the gospel of free forgiveness we are prone to abuse this gospel. Let me explain. Since we know that God’s forgiveness comes to us as a free gift sometimes pretend like this dismisses us from bearing the consequences of our sinful choices in this life.

I’m forgiven by God, so why doesn’t everyone just forget about what I did?! They’re judging me. Can’t they just trust me again?

We ARE completely forgiven in Christ. But we also  need to repair the relationships our sins damage. Undo the gossip. Speak the words of apology. Rebuild the roads of trust that our sins have demolished. Repair the damage to Christ’s reputation that our poor choices have inflicted. And these things take time, and the Holy Spirit’s power.

Through Christ’s gift of forgiveness our relationship with God is repaired instantly. But our relationships with other people take more time to heal. Resenting this fact doesn’t make it any less true. In the gospel of Christ we are called to live in the land of peace and forgiveness, and also, to rebuild what we have torn down by our sins. That may be hard, but the Holy Spirit who brought us to faith is powerful, and he will lead us in the right direction and give us the strength to repair what we have broken.

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You and I may not categorize ourselves with the great men and women of history. Men and women who are recorded in the history books, and in the holy Scriptures. But we do have one thing in common with them—we are all sinners who desperately need the pity, mercy, and loving forgiveness of the eternal God. And in Christ, that is what we have.

PRAYER: Father in heaven, we have sinned against you in countless ways. Our particular sins may not be known by those around us in great detail, but you know them. Lead us to live our lives in daily repentance. Daily coming to your throne of unflinching justice, to seek your unending forgiveness. As we lay our sins before you with downcast faces, reach down with your tender and powerful touch and lift our chins up. Lift them up to see your Son, and our Savior, and fill us with your peace. Amen.

Lust and the Damage Sin Causes - Jul 26, 2009

Sorry about the earlier "mistake post" that went out earlier. Please disregard that one. The post below has all the right links and text, etc. (I hope).

To LISTEN to this week's sermon online click here. To DOWNLOAD an MP3, first right click here then choose "save link as" or "save target as".

To download a PDF of Pastor Paul Naumann's helpful paper (referenced in the sermon), "Addressing the Temptation of Internet Pornography" first right click here then choose "save link as" or "save target as"

Sermon:

This week we’re continuing our study of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. One of the things that Jesus was doing in the Sermon on the Mount was explaining the commandments of God. He was filling up the commandments with meaning like we might fill a cup with water.

Last week we heard Jesus talk about the fifth commandment, “You shall not murder”. The Pharisees and the teachers of the Law taught that this commandment meant don’t take anyone’s life. Jesus says that it means more. It means don’t hate anyone. Don’t be full of anger. Don’t call anyone hurtful names because you’re angry with them. In God’s eyes, sinful anger IS murder.

This week Jesus moves on to the sixth commandment, “You shall not commit adultery”. And He’s going to do the same thing with this commandment. He’s going to explain it. He’s going to fill it up with meaning.

Jesus going to express three thoughts here: 1) You know that adultery is wrong. But lust is the same thing. 2) Take whatever action is necessary in order to separate yourself from what causes you to sin. 3) Only God can free you completely from what causes sin, because the source of sin is internal.
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You can open up your Bibles to Matthew 5, verse 27. It’s also printed in your bulletin as the sermon text. Preaching to the crowds on the side of the mountain, Jesus says,

“27“You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery.’28But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” (Matthew 5:27-28 NIV).

Jesus says, “Lust = Adultery of the heart, Lust = Fornication of the heart. Lust is bad.”
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The Greek word for “lust” (“Epi-thoo-meh-oh”) is a bit more picturesque than the English word. The “epi” means “toward”. “Thoo-meh-oh” means “to breathe hard”. To breath hard toward. You get the idea.

God is the one who built the response of attraction into the human being. But God says that this kind of strong desire belongs only between a man and a woman who are married.

Popular opinion in Jesus’ day, and in ours, says something different. Our culture teaches us that lust is “naughty”, but healthy in small doses. The Television teaches us that lust is only bad if it’s undesired. You know, the creepy guy who looks at you at the health club. Or the unattractive girl at work that dotes on you more than on anyone else. In other words, the world teaches us that lust is great, but only when you want it.
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When Jesus spoke these words in the Sermon on the Mount, He spoke them in a culture that was very much male dominated. So, He spoke these words to men, about a problem that men have – the wandering, lustful eye.

But, that doesn’t mean that women don’t have issues with lust. Just because Jesus addresses men doesn’t mean that He’s saying, “You women out there in the crowd don’t have to listen to this. Find something else to think about for a few minutes because only men have this problem.”

I’m not a woman. I am a man. I don’t pretend that every man is like me, but I have at least some idea what other guys deal with when it comes to lust. What I certainly DON’T understand fully, is all the things that a WOMAN might experience in connection with this temptation.

So, I asked my wife.

She said that yeah, it’s not always the same. A woman can be physically attracted to a man, but the attraction is more likely to be in other areas.

She kinda smirked at one point in our conversation and said something like, “Yeah, you don’t see a lot of pictures of half-naked men around because most men just aren’t that good looking.” To which I said, “Thanks a lot.”

When a women struggles with lust, it may be different than when a man does. Perhaps she has a husband at home who doesn’t pay as much attention to her as he used to. He used to actually listen to her, now he just glazes over when she’s talking. He used to spend time with her, now it seems like he’s always gone somewhere else. She’s begun to see in other men what she wishes her husband was: Considerate. Thoughtful of her needs. Dedicated to providing for her. Focused on her. Romantic. In a word, more loving towards her. She sees in other men, the husband that she wishes he was. More than that, she looks to see in other men the husband that she wishes he was.

Lust isn’t just desire of a person because of their visible, physical qualities. It is the sinful desire of a person whom God has not given to you.
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When people think of adultery, they usually think about the physical act. But Jesus takes the sin back to the lusting and farther.

If you’re following along in the New King James Version of the Bible, you’ve got a good translation at verse 28. Let’s look again at that verse, Matthew 5, verse 28.

“28But I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matthew 5:28 NKJV).

The flow of thought is this: If a man’s eyes are moving toward a woman for the purpose of looking at her with sinful desire – the sin of adultery has already been done.

A man is sitting at an outdoor café and he sees a woman’s foot pass by. He knows from the kind of shoe that this woman is wearing that she is not likely to be modestly dressed. Even before his eye finds its lustful target, God says, “the sin has been done” –even before the coveting look ever takes place, the sin has been done –in the heart.

Sexual sin is like an infection. Incubated in the heart, it moves out from there to the eyes. To the hands. To the whole body. But Jesus says, “God sees it the whole time, and it’s sin from beginning to end.”
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Now I don’t want you to think that every time you notice someone who is beautiful or handsome, that you’re lusting after them. That’s not true. We can recognize and appreciate physical form and beauty without sinning. But we can also recognize when we’re doing more than “appreciating physical form and beauty”. Here’s barometer for you: if you’re uncomfortable with anyone else seeing you look, chances are, you should stop.

The world says, it’s okay to look, as long as you don’t touch. “Roving eyes, hands in the pocket”, that’s how one young man put it. It’s okay to fantasize, just don’t act on your fantasies. But that’s NOT what God says. And it’s NOT what human research shows either.

Studies show that when people get into looking at images that they shouldn’t, those images lead to harder images. Then to darker ones. Then to fantasizing. Then to acting out those fantasies in real life.

Do not mess with lust.

If you have a problem with pornography or lust, tell someone you can trust. Confide in someone. If you can’t talk to your pastor, please, talk to one of your brothers or sisters in Christ.

It’s been said that if a pastor isn’t dealing with pornography problems in his congregation, it’s not because they aren’t there, it’s because he doesn’t know about them. Talk to me. Talk to someone. There is help for this temptation. And with Christ forgiveness waits and all things are possible.

If you go online to our church website, www.redemptionclc.com, and go to the “Church” tab, you’ll find a link to this week’s sermon. At the beginning that sermon you’ll find instructions on how to download information on how to combat internet pornography in your life. It’s there. Our website. Church tab. This sermon. Link at the beginning.
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One of the reasons why lust is so dangerous is that it damages and destroys relationships. Sometimes lust prevents relationships from ever getting started. Sometimes it destroys dating relationships. Sometimes lust damages and destroys marriages. The sin of lust also destroys the faith relationship between a person and God.

The apostle Paul talks about this in his first letter to the Corinthian congregation. You can follow along if you turn to 1 Corinthians 6, verse 9.

“9Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11 NIV).

Sin completely destroyed the relationship that Adam and Eve had with God in the beginning. But God, said, “I still love you, and I’ll fix this. I will send my own Son to suffer the punishment that YOU deserve. I’ll restore our relationship by taking your sins away.”

Jesus did just that. He suffered for our sins of adultery. Our sins of lust. He suffered for sexual sins He never even thought of doing. Our record of sexual sin, whatever it has been, is forgiven and washed away in a flood of God’s mercy through Jesus’ cross.

As followers of Jesus we know this. We know the Good News of sins forgiven through Jesus. But we need to be told again and again. These sins are hard to escape, and their guilt lingers too. In Christ, there is forgiveness. Full forgiveness. Complete forgiveness.

What we don’t want to do is pick our sins back up off the ground and run with them, that’s like pouring acid on our restored relationship with God. Eventually, the acid of sin will eat through faith and separates us from God again. Sin is damaging and dangerous. Always has been, always will be. That’s why Jesus says what He does in verses 29-30.

I’m at Matthew 5, verse 29. The last verses of our sermon text. Here Jesus says,

“29If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. 30And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell” (Matthew 5:29-30 NIV).

Jesus is saying that sin is so dangerous that we should take whatever action is necessary in order to get ourselves free from the things that cause us to sin. If the sinfulness is REALLY in your RIGHT EYE, get rid of it. If the evil is REALLY in your RIGHT HAND, by all means cut it off!

Recently I read about a guy who actually did this. Cut his own hand off. Not for the purpose of avoiding sin, but for the purpose of saving his own life.
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Aron Ralston was hiking in Utah in 2003. He was in a narrow canyon when a falling boulder pinned his arm to the canyon wall. For six days he was trapped until finally he used a dull multi-tool to cut the lower part of his right arm off.

Aron cut his arm off because his life was on the line. Jesus says to do the same. Your life is on the line. Identify the sources of sin in your life and cut them away!

Now, when God tells us this, our response is shock and unbelief, “What? You want me to do what?” Then our reaction is disappointment, “Maybe I don’t really want to cut that something out of my life.”

We say, “Jesus, I just want to keep going where I go, and doing what I do, and keep on coming back to you for forgiveness on Sunday.” And Jesus says “Yeah, you can keep coming to me for forgiveness. But I don’t want you to keep going where you know you’re going to find temptation.” I want you to cut those places out.”

When we’re unsure that we really want to make a drastic move in our lives to conform to Christ’s way, we need to remember – whatever Jesus tells us to do WILL result in blessing. His way ultimately CANNOT go wrong.
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This past week I pulled up an interview online with that climber, Aron Ralston.

Aron had thought about cutting of his arm off very early in his ordeal. But he try because he knew he wouldn’t be able to cut through bone with the cheap little multi-tool that he had to use. He didn’t realize that he could use a rock to break the bones in his arm, or snap them with leverage until his sixth day in the canyon. And while that sounds absolutely horrific to us, to SNAP the bones in your forearm on purpose and CUT OFF your own arm, the actual experience of it was something quite different for Aron.

Interviewer: “That moment when you finally get that, is so full of both salvation and horror that I can’t even imagine what it was like to go through that.”

Aron Ralston: “Well, and I know that you used the word dreadful to describe the experience of the amputation and I think that’s the way people see it and they have a hard time understanding that for me six days of considering myself a dead man even to the extend that I’d made my farewell messages, my last will and testament on the video tape to my family and my friends, that I’d written R.I.P over my name etched into the wall on the left side of the canyon. The moment when I figured out how I could get free, it was the best idea and the most beautiful experience I will ever have in my life. That it was all euphoria and not a bit of horror. It was having my life back after being dead” (NPR interview by Alex Chadwick first aired on September 13, 2004).

Those are his own words. He says that figuring out how to actually sever his right arm from his body was the “best idea and the most beautiful experience” he’ll ever have.

That’s how we should feel when we figure out how to cut some temptation out of our life. Not horror. Not self-pity. Not anger that Jesus is making us do this, but euphoria. Because what Jesus says always brings blessing. And cutting sin away from our lives means improved quality of life, it means freedom.
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We’re not done with Aron’s story just yet. After he successfully amputated his arm, he wasn’t out of the woods yet. He was out in the country and needed to find medical help fast.

After amputating his right arm, Ralston had to sort out his climbing rope with one hand and rappel down a 60 foot cliff. This he accomplished after nearly dropping his rope. If he would have dropped that rope, he would have bled to death in that canyon.

But even after that, Aron wasn’t safe. He had lost a lot of blood. He began to hike up the trail. I’ll give you his own words.

Aron Ralston: ““I had lost almost a liter and a half of blood at the time that the helicopter found me. At the point when the human body loses about 2 liters of blood is medically speaking when it goes into the state of shock at the level where your organs are shutting down including your heart and you have a heart attack and you die. It essentially gave me a window of about another half an hour. During which I could be rescued. Had I had the epiphany to get out anytime before or after that half an hour window when that helicopter was exactly where it was because otherwise it was going to be headed back for refueling and wouldn’t be in the area, I would have bled to death in the bottom of that canyon. It was certain suicide in my mind and the fact that it worked out is just absolutely direct evidence that there’s something bigger going on” (NPR interview by Alex Chadwick first aired on September 13, 2004).

Aron’s experience matches that of every sinner. Because even if we can amputate some of our sins. Even if we can cut out some of the causes of sin in our lives, we’re still bleeding to death with the clock running. And there’s no way that we’ll be able to hike our way into God’s good favor. All our past sins linger behind us, trialing us like some impossibly long criminal record. We need help from above.

And that’s what Jesus is. He’s the rescue helicopter. He came down from heaven to save us, just at the right time. He doesn’t say, “Cut away a few more sins and I’ll rescue you!” He says, “You’re gonna be alright. I’m here. Your past sins can’t hurt you now. I’ve paid for them. Trust me, I’ve paid for them.”

Ralston was right, there is “something bigger” going on here. SOMEONE bigger. Someone who doesn’t ask us to take on our sins alone. Someone who knows we would never make it. Someone who has already arranged events for our success. Someone who will carry us through to the end. Trust in that someone, and in His Son.

Amen.

The Peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.