1 Chronicles 21:1-12 – Dearth, Disease, Defeat – Bible study

1Chron 21:1-12 Dearth, Disease, Defeat I feel strongly that I should preach this message this morning although I will tell you that I feel uncomfortable preaching it (the reasons for such are not important). Have you ever gotten yourself into a jam where there is no good way out? Sure you have. Have you ever wonder what got you there? I hope you have. If you will pay attention to this text this morning, you will find out. In this text, David got himself into a place where there was no good way out. Lets consider the text from three perspectives. I. \#2\ Refusal To Obey God. A. The person that we are talking about this morning is King David. Most know some thing about him. 1. Most know David loved the Lord. God called him a man after His own heart \#Acts 13:22\. 2. Most know that David did great things for God. a. As a youth, he killed a lion and a bear. b. As a teen, he killed Goliath. c. He wrote many of the Psalms. d. He was Israels greatest and most godly general and king. 3. And most know that David sinned. David lived a remarkable life, but he was not perfect. The Bible records some of his sins. a. He sinned with Bathsheba and Uriah in his late 30s. b. And he sinned in the matter of counting Israel in his late 70s when he did this. B. Lets see what sin is in this story. This is an excellent story to teach us what sin is. What is sin? 1. Sin is getting out of the will of God. a. Davids sin was in numbering the people, but what was wrong with counting people? b. Actually, as far as we know, nothing was. c. Davids sin was probably not the numbering, but either the method David used to number or the motive that he had for numbering he people that was sin. (1) \#Ex 30:11-16\ tells us that the people were to be numbered from 20 and older by giving a half shekel for the upkeep of the tabernacle. (a) There is no record of that kind of offering being taken. (b) Perhaps David disobeyed God in the method. (2) But most believe that David was wrong in his motive. (a) David is now an old man and the figure he wanted to have the people counted to give him something to brag about. (i.e. Look at this great kingdom that I have built!) (b) People need to understand that it is not just our actions that are sins but our attitudes and motives are tooand the latter can be more serious than the former. i. God knows our heart. ii. He sees our thoughts. iii. He knows our reasons, our hopes, and our goalsboth those stated and those kept secret. iv. Thats the reason you can be doing the right thing and still be guilty of sin. v. You can be doing the NO thing and be guilty of sin. 2. So David sinned because he refused to do what God wanted him to do. C. Lets think about the will of God for a moment. 1. It is not hard to know what the will of God for your life and in most situations is. a. People want to make out as though it is hard to know what God wants. (1) It is not. (2) It may be hard to do what God wants you to do because our flesh would rather do what we want to do but it is not hard to know. (3) What is the will of God for you? (a) God wants you to be saved. (b) God wants you to read your Bible and live by it. (c) God wants you to pray, worship, and fellowship Him everyday. b. How can you know what the will of God is? (1) Read the Bible. (2) Listen to the Holy Ghost. (3) Attend a Bible-believing church where you can be mentored. 2. Living in the will of God will make life simpler and easier. a. Living in the will of God, you dont have all the problems, the drama, and the choices that you have outside of it. b. If you dont get anything else out of this text, you should get this! c. Davids life would have been a whole lot more simpler and easier if he had not counted the people! 3. You can live in the will of God if you want. a. You will need salvation. b. You will need dedication. c. And you will need determination. d. With these three things you can live in the will of God as much as I have done it. I speak this for this is all I had when I determined to live in Gods will. (1) I had no Bible heritage. (2) I had no Bible. (3) I had no Christian parents. (4) I had no Christian course. (5) All I had were three things: salvation, dedication, and determination. e. With these three things, God will help you live in His will. (1) He will teach you about His will. (2) He will give your help and aid to live in His will. (3) He will protect you so that you can live in His will. 1Cor 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it. II. \#7-8\ Realization Too Late A. I say all those things but then David did not, did he? 1. What happened to David? Did God fail him? Did God not make a way out for David? 2. \#3\ Yes, God did. It was a man named Joab. B. Joab was Davids general, over all the armies of Israel. 1. He was also a cousin to David. 2. He served beside David for almost 40 years. 3. However, David was also an evil man. The Bible recorded that he murdered three men. (Absalom, Abner, and Uriah) a. Maybe that is why David refused to listen to Joab for two of those murders were against Davids specific commands and one of them was Davids son! b. \#1\ Or maybe it was just the devil got into David. 4. But one thing is certain, Joab was Davids way out. C. Isnt it amazing thing how God puts people in your life to try to help you do right? 1. Maybe it is a parent, a relative, a friend, a preacher, a co-worker, a neighborbut God puts someone in your life. 2. You probably call them annoyances. 3. That is probably what Joab seemed like to David as David commanded Joab to do this thing and Joab kept protesting. 4. Yet, in the end, it was Davids choice and Joab had to hush. 5. So it is with many preachers and Christians. a. Like Joab, they are not perfectbut they are loud! b. Like the annoying gnat or fly that buzzes around, those Christians keep calling sin sin and urging you to turn from it! c. Every once in a while, you really hear what they are saying, but mostly, they just annoy you. 6. So it was with David. He tolerated Joab and did what he wantedstepped out of Gods willuntil it was too late! D. \#7\ Notice when David realized how wrong he was. It was when God started smiting Israel. Yes, David realized. He just realized too late AFTER he got out of the will of God. III. Reward Too High. A. So David sinned; that is, he stepped outside of Gods will. What happened next? 1. He had to deal with the consequences of his sin. 2. \#12\ God sent Gad, the preacher to tell David that he could help chose the wage of his sin. 3. Notice the choices: a. Dearth for 3 years b. Defeat for 3 months c. Disease for 3 days 4. Not very good choices, are they? 5. Someone asks, "Why did God make the choices so bad?" a. Because the wages of sin is always deathalways. b. Friend, we just dont realize how merciful God has been to us thus far! c. If God had given to us what we deserved, our choices would be worse than these! d. By the way, they will be. The wages of sin does not change. It is always the samedeath, sorrow, lose. e. The only thing that has changed is that you have been given more mercy than David was so that you can repent before you have to give an account for you sins. f. But that mercy will run out and it could happen at any moment! g. So God was being gracious to David to let him have some input into his wage for sin. That is not a choice that most people get to make. B. Remember, David did not have to be in this spot. He got there by getting out of the will of God. 1. Once you get out of the will of God, you always have to make choices and the choices are never good! 2. Strange, but a lot of people want to do exactly what David did and they want to have exactly what David got. a. They want to be OUT of the will of God. b. They want MORE choices. c. Once you step out of Gods, you definitely get more choices. (1) They are the same kind of choices David got to make! (2) The problem is that most people dont realize how bad their choices are! (3) God says stay pure. They want more choices. They get them. (a) To we get married or not. (b) Do we tell our parents or just run away. (c) What about our education? (d) What about our futures? (e) Do we keep the baby or not? (4) And on it goes. (5) And it does not matter what the sin is, the choices are always similar! They always sound like dearth, defeat, or disease! C. The question you might be asking is, "What can David do to get a better option?" 1. Nothing! a. Here is the thing about sin. Once you get involved in it, you have to deal with its consequences. b. You have to make some choices and none of them will be good. c. That is why you need to say in Gods will. 2. Then how do you make a decision between the bad options? a. Repent, wholly and completely. b. Seek to be filled with the Holy Ghost or seek the and obey the counsel of someone who is. c. Always chose to fall into Gods hands. Go with what God says and not man. d. Choose the most selfless decision possible. e. Realize that after making one bad decision, it is easier and more natural to make more bad decisions.