Who Is Sitting on the Throne of Your Life?
Reflections from Sunday’s message at NHC, shared by Pastor Lee.
It is possible to love God and still find ourselves looking elsewhere for security.
Someone strong. Someone impressive. Someone who seems capable of putting our world back together.
That is where Israel’s story met us in church today.
The people came to Samuel, their aging judge, and asked for a king. Samuel’s sons were not following his ways, and the people wanted someone to lead them like the nations around them.
Their request wounded Samuel. But God helped him understand what lay beneath it: they were rejecting God’s rule over them.
Pastor Lee connected this ancient story to the modern American church. How easily we can place our faith in a political leader, expecting a human being to provide the security and deliverance we should seek in God.
Israel wanted a king.
But would a crown be enough?
The King Who Looked the Part
Saul, Israel’s first king, had the appearance people admired. Tall and impressive, he looked like someone who could lead a nation.
David’s arrival challenged that way of seeing.
When Samuel went to anoint the next king, God directed him beyond appearances. People could see stature, strength, and presentation. God could see the heart.
David was anointed before he was publicly celebrated. Before the crown came sheep, lonely fields, and responsibilities that offered little applause.
His public victory over Goliath grew out of years of hidden preparation. Later, he spent years fleeing from Saul before taking the throne.
That part stayed with me.
In a generation that can turn almost every achievement into a photograph, there is still work God does where no one is watching.
The quiet responsibility. The promise kept. The small task completed faithfully.
God sees those places.
David also brought his real self before God. His songs held fear, sorrow, gratitude, anger, and hope. He did not wait until his feelings were tidy before praying.
As Pastor Lee put it:
“A psalm a day keeps anxiety away.”
When the King Stayed Home
Eventually, David became king. He brought the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem. After so much waiting and struggle, his story seemed ready for a beautiful ending.
Then came the rooftop.
Second Samuel 11 opens during the season when kings went to war. David sent others into battle and remained in Jerusalem.
From his rooftop, he saw Bathsheba bathing.
Seeing her was the beginning of a moment in which he could have turned away. Instead, he pursued it. Even after learning she was Uriah’s wife, he sent for her and slept with her.
She became pregnant.
Then desire became deception, and deception became a plan that cost Uriah his life.
Pastor Lee gave us a painful lesson:
Sin depersonalizes people. It turns those made in God’s image into objects.
Bathsheba became someone David wanted. Uriah became someone standing in his way.
That is a searching warning for all of us. When our desires take control, we can stop seeing the humanity of the people affected by our choices.
For a while, David could make the situation appear respectable. Uriah had died in battle. The king had married his widow.
But a story that satisfies the public cannot conceal the truth from God.
And unconfessed sin changes us.
“You Are the Man”
God sent Nathan.
Nathan told David about a rich man who took a poor man’s cherished lamb. David heard the injustice immediately. He was furious and declared that the man deserved to die.
Then Nathan identified David as the guilty man.
Imagine that moment.
The story David had judged was his own.
David could have defended himself. He could have blamed Bathsheba, attacked Nathan, or used his authority to end the conversation.
Instead, he confessed that he had sinned against the Lord.
Unlike Saul’s tendency to offer explanations and shift responsibility, David acknowledged what he had done.
Psalm 51 gives voice to his repentance: a plea for mercy, cleansing, and a heart made new.
He was not asking God to preserve his reputation. He was asking God to cleanse him.
David was forgiven, but the consequences remained. Second Samuel 12 does not hide the suffering that followed.
This helps us understand something about David being a man after God’s own heart. His story includes terrible failure, but it also includes a willingness to bow when God confronted him.
How Do We Keep David’s Story from Becoming Ours?
Pastor Lee offered two practical calls.
First, stay in the battle.
David had remained behind while others carried out the work of war.
The question for us is whether we are still engaged in what God has entrusted to us. Are we serving, growing, loving, and pursuing things that matter to Him?
This does not mean every quiet moment is dangerous or that rest is wrong. It asks us to examine whether we have abandoned our purpose.
As Pastor Lee reminded us, we do not retire from God’s work. Our assignments may change, but faithfulness still matters.
Second, run from temptation. Do not negotiate with it.
David stayed with the moment long enough for it to become a decision.
Pastor Lee’s practical counsel was clear:
- Flee early. Know your weaknesses and respond before temptation gathers strength.
- Recognize your access points. Notice the habits, environments, and private conversations that open doors.
- Replace, rather than merely remove. Fill the space with prayer, Scripture, healthy relationships, and Spirit-led action.
- Move into the light. Temptation grows in secrecy. Confess your struggles to trustworthy people who can pray with you and hold you accountable.
- Leave without debating. Temptation loves a conversation. You do not have to stay and hear its argument.
The goal is to know what we will do when temptation comes.
David’s failure reminds us how much can happen when we remain where we should have walked away.
Grace in a Broken Family
There is tenderness later in the story.
David comforted Bathsheba, and she gave birth to Solomon. Through Nathan, God gave him the name Jedidiah, meaning “loved by the Lord” (2 Samuel 12:24–25). (biblegateway.com)
Their suffering was real. So was God’s love.
God’s grace is bigger than our family’s brokenness.
That truth offers hope to families carrying grief, regret, and consequences they cannot undo. God can still meet people there. His mercy can reach into a home whose story has become painful.
Solomon went on to become the last king of a united Israel, known for wisdom and wealth.
Pastor Lee gave us another memorable line:
“A proverb a day keeps the stupid away.”
Solomon built the temple his father had desired to build. At its dedication, God’s glory filled it, and the people bowed with their faces to the ground in worship (2 Chronicles 7:1–3). (biblegateway.com)
What a moment to witness.
And yet Solomon’s heart later turned toward other gods. First Kings 11 tells us this happened even though the Lord had appeared to him twice. (biblegateway.com)
Sin can creep into a life that has known extraordinary encounters with God.
Yesterday’s experience does not remove today’s need for obedience.
The King We Really Need
Israel wanted a king who would save them.
Saul failed. David failed. Solomon failed.
Each story brings us back to the limits of placing our ultimate trust in human beings.
And each points us toward the King we really need:
King Jesus.
He forgives sinners, restores the broken, gives grace to the guilty, and invites us to follow Him.
His invitation reaches us in the places we would rather hide. We can come with the truth. We can confess what we have done. We can ask for mercy and begin walking in obedience.
I left this message with a question that deserves more than a quick answer:
Who is sitting on the throne of my life?
My desires? My fear? My reputation? A leader I hope will fix everything?
Or Jesus?
Lord, show me where I have resisted Your rule. Give me courage to confess, wisdom to flee temptation, and faithfulness to do the work You have placed before me. Where my choices have wounded others, help me take responsibility. Where my family carries brokenness, meet us with Your mercy. Teach me to follow You as my King. Amen.
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