LIVING WITH YOU VDP’S - PART II -“The Temptation Test”

Text: II Sam. 11

Today’s VDP’s are not David’s Very Difficult Persons – they are going to be his Very Dangerous Persons. They will represent the one thing that will keep us from getting to the next level. The story of David and Bathsheba sounds like a “Spice” romance novel story

It sounds like a racy story but it’s a Bible story and it’s here to teach us a valuable lesson.

The name for this novel  -“The Temptation Test”

Tragic incidents often occur as the unexpected outcome of a sequence of poor choices and stupid mistakes. Follow chapter by chapter and we’ll discover the outcome of David’s “temptation test”

Chapter One – “Pride Comes Before A _____________”

-          “But David remained in Jerusalem” (11:1).

-          “Pride comes before destruction” (Prov. 16:18)

Chapter Two – “You Deserve a _______________ _________________”

^{-         David never did better than he did in adversity and weakness.}

^{-         David never did worse than he did in prosper and power.}

^{-         Comfort and prosperity have never enriched the world as much as adversity has.”(Billy Graham)}

Chapter Three – “The _________________ Principle”

-          “I made a covenant with my eyes not to look with lust upon a young woman.” (Job 31:1, NLT).

-          Do you know the only thing keeping David from “sending” for Bathsheba was his own resolve not to do it.

-          Power = Resolve not to do it.

Chapter Four – “Calamity”

^{What David does with Bathsheba was not unforgivable, but it was costly.}

Chapter Five – “Bitter ________________”

-          (See 2 Sam. 16:5-14 and I Kings 2:8-9)

-          Where David refused to become like Saul - He became just like Shemei in his old age.

You will never get to the next level unless you learn to navigate past your VDP’s – “Very Difficult and Very Dangerous Persons”