The Devil's Playbook | Week 6 | Pat McCalla

The big idea

Sin makes us stupid — it never comes clean about where it's taking us, it always progresses, and it always hurts other people.

Even a man after God's own heart can be led step by step into devastating sin, but the good news is Jesus already won the war over sin. We are not mistakers who can fix ourselves — we are sinners who need a Savior, and because of what Jesus did on the cross, every sin, past, present, and future, is forgiven.

Point 1 of 7

Pastor Pat sets up David as a war hero, worship leader, and man after God's own heart of twenty years, then shows that in 2 Samuel 11 he stayed home from battle instead of leading his men. This first small compromise, not some dramatic sin, is where the slide begins.

Point 2 of 7

Walking through verses 2-4, Pastor Pat names each next mistake: David watches Bathsheba bathing (compared to clicking through porn), sends someone to find out who she is (curiosity about what should be left alone), then sends for her and sleeps with her. Each step feels small in the moment but builds on the last.

Point 3 of 7

When Bathsheba tells David she is pregnant, he tries to manipulate her husband Uriah into sleeping with her to hide the child's paternity, then gets him drunk when that fails. Pastor Pat highlights from 2 Samuel 23 that Uriah was one of David's mighty men who had fought shoulder to shoulder with him for twenty years, making David's betrayal even more damning.

Point 4 of 7

David sends Uriah back to the front with a letter ordering Joab to arrange his death on the battlefield, and when word comes back that Uriah is dead, David's only response is not to be discouraged and to fight harder. Pastor Pat reacts with visceral anger at how far David has fallen from the man everyone once cheered for.

Point 5 of 7

Pastor Pat draws out three truths about all sin, not just David's: it never tips its hand about where it will lead, it never stays the same but always moves forward like erosion under a sinkhole, and it always eventually bleeds out to hurt people around us.

Point 6 of 7

Pastor Pat explains that calling ourselves mistakers rather than sinners lets us think we can fix ourselves, when only a Savior can deal with sin. He contrasts this with his own years of avoiding God after failing, until Romans 8:1 convinced him there is no condemnation for those in Christ.

Point 7 of 7

Reading through Revelation 19, Pastor Pat describes the warrior King on the white horse whose eyes are flames of fire, who wears many crowns, whose robe is dipped in His own blood, and who is called King of all kings and Lord of all lords. Because Jesus already said It is finished, the battle over sin is already won.

Take it into your week

Pastor Pat's charge is to stop minimizing sin and stop minimizing Jesus.