[0:00] Right, okay. Fine. Very good. Okay. Well, friends, I was wondering, really, today's a kind of free Sunday because we're not in the preaching plan, as it were, today.
[0:19] And so I was thinking, what do we do? Next Sunday begins our Advent series. We've got sort of five Sundays to think about leading up towards Christmas.
[0:32] Who really is this Christmas child? And so I thought it might be good today to look at 2 Samuel 7 because if you were to try and paint the landscape of the Bible over 6,000 years and you'd have mountain peaks and you'd have valleys and this kind of thing, this would be one of the highest mountain peaks in the Bible landscape.
[1:02] This is the point at which God makes a promise to David, to King David. And it's hugely significant.
[1:12] It's so significant that it's related to about 40 other passages throughout the Bible which all refer back to this moment.
[1:24] So it's very, very significant. And just to give you a wee bit of an introduction here, in the previous chapter, in chapter 6, at the end of it, there's a very, very sad moment where David's marriage is at an all-time low.
[1:42] He married the daughter of Saul who was called Michal. And it turns out, in the final instance, that although Michal loved David to start with, by this time of their marriage, she completely despises him.
[2:00] And she turns out to be more the daughter of Saul than the wife of David, really. She resents, and has always resented, the fact that her father was removed from kingship by God because her father, basically, was a proud man who was building an empire for himself and didn't really have the Lord's glory in mind at all.
[2:26] And so he was removed from the kingship. He started well. He started really well. He was a good king. He was a generous king to his people. He was head and shoulders above everybody else, and he gave a great lead, and he defeated a lot of their enemies.
[2:41] So he started really well, but he didn't finish well. And Michal resented the fact that David replaced him as king over Israel.
[2:52] And I rather suspect, too, that she was poisoned by her father's insane jealousy. And those are not extreme words to use about Saul. He was both insane and insanely jealous.
[3:04] And so the end of the previous chapter sees Michal having a major fallout with David. David had been striving for some time to bring the ark that had been captured after the battle on Mount Gilboa.
[3:23] The ark of God had been captured by the Philistines. The Philistines had taken it back and put it in the house of their god and discovered that wasn't a good idea because the god of Israel wasn't about to share anywhere with a false god.
[3:39] And so the Philistines got themselves a whole heap of trouble. It would be impossible to exaggerate the troubles that came on the Philistines through thinking that they could hold captive the god of Israel.
[3:50] And so they got to a point where they just couldn't wait to get rid of the ark. And they needed to find out was Israel's god angry with them or was this just a fluke?
[4:01] What was it? And so what they did was they got a bunch of oxen, female cows, who had calves.
[4:13] And of course a cow's natural tendency would be to look after its calf. And they separated these cows from their calves and they yoked them to a cart and they put the ark of God on this cart and they sent the cows off assuming that if all went well the cows would just come back for the sake of their calves.
[4:36] But if it really was a judgment from Israel's god then the cows would be seen and they would disappear and never be seen again. And the cart would go back where it really belonged.
[4:48] And that's exactly what happened. Because those cattle, irrespective of their young calves that they had to look after, just headed straight back for Israel and took the cart back.
[5:00] But it wasn't as simple as that. Because when David thought, well here we've got the cart, we can, let's get it back to Jerusalem. It's so important for us to have the ark of God among us.
[5:11] they started transporting the ark on a new cart and David thought he was doing well. But when they got to a threshing floor it was a bit uneven.
[5:23] The oxen stumbled a bit and a man put out his hand to steady the ark and he was struck dead for presuming to give God a bit of help.
[5:34] Put it that way. And so, David was beside himself. What do I do now? How can I bring the ark home? It's so important for us to have the ark of God's presence in the midst of the community.
[5:50] And so he prayed about it and he realized that he had done the wrong thing because God had stipulated back in the time of Moses that the Levites must carry the ark on poles on their shoulders.
[6:04] And there was no business of just taking it like a piece of furniture and sticking it on a cart to be transported in a removal to another place. So he got the Levites organized.
[6:15] They put the poles on the cart and they lifted it onto their shoulders and they carried it on with great ceremony. And at this point they're carrying it into Jerusalem and David had dressed himself as a priest.
[6:30] He had dressed down basically rather than kingly robes and all the finery of his status. He had dressed down and he put on an effort to look like a priest. And basically he was in a place of worship.
[6:45] Really. He was lost in wonder, love and praise and he was dancing with all his might before the Lord. And Michael looked at him coming into the city dancing like this.
[6:57] And she despised him in her heart and she thought, look at this, he hasn't even got the sense to behave like a king. You know? And so she was angry and of course she was even more angry because all the young women were all over David.
[7:11] He was the pinup at the time. And so he had the praise of all these servant girls and his wife despised them. And this is the point at which we reach to the end of chapter 6 and we come to hear we're told that Michael died childless.
[7:32] She was so bitter in her heart that whatever was going on in her body was reflecting the state of her spirit and she died absolutely childless which meant of course there was no heir from the house of Saul to be part of the descendancy of David.
[7:54] And at verse 1 of chapter 7 we read this. We're going to read the whole chapter. Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from his surrounding enemies the king said to Nathan the prophet see now I dwell in a house of cedar but the ark of God dwells in a tent.
[8:16] and Nathan said to the king go do all that is in your heart for the Lord is with you. But that same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan go and tell my servant David this says the Lord would you build me a house to dwell in?
[8:41] I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day but I have been moving about in a tent for my dwelling in all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel did I speak a word with any of the judges of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel saying why have you not built me a house of cedar?
[9:06] Now therefore thus you shall say to my servant David thus says the Lord of hosts I took you from the pasture from following the sheep that you should be prince over my people Israel and I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you and I will make you make for you a great name like the name of the great ones of the earth and I will appoint a place for my people Israel and I will plant them so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more and violent men shall afflict them no more as formerly from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel and I will give you rest from all your enemies moreover declares the Lord to you that the Lord will make you a house when your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers
[10:08] I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body and I will establish his kingdom he shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son when he commits iniquity I will discipline him with the rod of men with the stripes of the sons of men but my steadfast love will not depart from him as I took it from Saul whom I put away from before you and your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me your throne shall be established forever in accordance with all these words and in accordance with all this vision Nathan spoke to David then king David went in and sat before the lord and said who am I oh lord god and what is my house that you have brought me thus far and yet this was a small thing in your eyes oh lord god you have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come and this is instruction for mankind oh lord god and what more can
[11:26] David say to you for you know your servant oh lord god because of your promise and according to your own heart you have brought about all this greatness to make your servant know it therefore you are great oh lord god for there is none like you and there is no god besides you according to all that we have heard with our ears and who is like your people Israel the one nation on earth whom god went to redeem to be his people making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things by driving out before your people whom you redeemed for yourself from Egypt a nation and its gods and you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever and you oh lord became their god and now oh lord god confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house and do as you have spoken and your name will be magnified forever saying the lord of hosts is god over Israel and the house of your servant
[12:33] David will be established before you for you oh lord of hosts the god of Israel have made this revelation to your servant saying i will build you a house therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you and now oh lord god you are god and your words are true and you have promised this good thing to your servant now therefore may it please you to bless the house of your servant so that it may continue forever before you for you oh lord god have spoken and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever and this is the word of the lord and we praise god here and what's what's happening here is this is this is a moment in history of immense surprise for a worshipping warrior it's a moment of immense surprise for a worshipping warrior because you see this is what David is first and foremost you can find lots of people who will say that
[13:50] David did terrible things and indeed if you go on just a few chapters beyond this one you'll find the sordid carry on of David and Bathsheba and that was definitely not to David's credit and it brought disaster upon his family and indeed all of David's dynasty all the family line they were all flawed people they all failed in major ways in the service of the lord and they were a mixture of good kings and bad kings but there was never any sense in which God changed his mind about the promises that he had made to David this covenant here stands as a great mountain peak on the biblical landscape because God made promises here that he held fast to and firm to and confirmed eventually in the most dramatic possible way so we're going to look at some of this just now what we're looking at in that little clip about the previous chapter was a conflict between humility and pride
[15:07] David was the humble warrior you remember that when when he he was first discovered in a sense when Israel was up against it with the Philistines and the Philistines had a giant of a man a guy who stood about nine feet tall who intimidated everybody within any distance at all now Saul the king of Israel the first king of Israel was head and shoulders above all his people but he was a midget compared to Goliath and Goliath came out every morning from the battle line and he issued a challenge to the army of Israel and said you know anybody who defeats me will become your slaves but if I defeat you then you become our slaves and of course it was a no win situation for Israel and Saul was sitting in his tent with his armor in the corner he had no use for it because he had no intentions of taking on Goliath so there was no one there and
[16:16] David came to bring food to his brothers because David himself wasn't in the army he was he was just a lad who was shepherding at the time for his father but he must have been quite a lad he must have been a stocky bloke I would think because this was a young man who if a lion took a lamb from the flock he went after the lion he went after the lion and he rescued the lamb and he would strike the lion down and if the lion turned on him he would grab it by its mane and he would cut it and he did this with a lion he did it with a bear and he gave the credit to God he says it's the Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the bear and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of those we'll bring him down this man has defied the armies of the living God and he's as good as dead that was how David saw it he couldn't wear Saul's armour
[17:23] Saul had said hey come on you need armour to go against a guy like this and David said I can't wear this it's too big for me so David went out to face him with nothing but his shepherd's bag of stones and a sling but we're told the most amazing thing that when Goliath came towards him David ran towards the giant everybody else is running the opposite direction trying to stay away from this guy and David runs towards him and he takes a pebble and he puts it in his sling and off it goes and you know the story David topples Goliath and this pebble goes into the giant's head and down he goes David cuts off his head and the Philistines are routed terrified but the wonderful thing about it all is that the living God is given the glory at every moment of
[18:28] David's victories David works on the assumption that it's God who has made all this possible that's why he had no compunction whatsoever about going against the giant where everybody else including the king was terrified to go against this guy because they thought this guy is going to defeat me David went into battle saying well yeah he could defeat me but he's not going to defeat my God that was David's attitude it was always David's attitude the enemy that took on David was taking on David's God so that was a different contest altogether that was how David saw it so that meant also that David was a worshipping warrior he wasn't just a man of war he wasn't just a man of bloodshed he was a man who at every moment that he took a step or lifted a sword was trusting God for the outcome but Saul his predecessor
[19:35] Saul had not been a man of worship he had been a man of self preoccupation even to the point where he erected a monument to himself it was obvious the direction that Saul's kingship was going when he erected a monument to himself and then of course when he was found out in flagrant disobedience and rebellion against God and he was found out by the prophet Samuel even then he wasn't repentant he was only bothered about his image all he wanted was Samuel please just don't go away from me right now I need you at my side so that everything looks okay to the people all he was bothered about was his image and he had been jealous of David from the day that he saw all these young women who were excited about these great military victories all singing the praises of
[20:36] Saul and David but they were singing a song that said Saul has slain his thousands and David has tens of thousands and Saul thought hey what's with this why are they ascribing thousands to me and tens of thousands to him and we're told clearly in scripture that from that day on Saul had a jealous eye on David and that very day there was a spirit came upon him and he happened to have a spear in his hand at the time David was playing a harp on the other side of the tent and he threw this spear and tried to pin David with it and he was unsuccessful David evaded him twice but that was the beginning of persecution by the king of Israel against David and David literally was on the run for the best part of eight years from King Saul before finally
[21:36] Saul himself totally wrecked his own monarchy with his jealousy and his insanity and if it couldn't get any lower it got so low that having banished all the witches from the kingdom he actually went to consult a witch to try and contact Samuel who by now was dead and asked him what was going to happen what was going to be the outcome of the battle the next day and Saul ended up committing suicide on the battlefield because Israel had lost completely they were routed and he knew he was going to be captured and tortured by the Philistines and so he fell on his sword and it was just a disgraceful and sad end to things really and Michal had obviously been infected by her father's jealousy and bitterness against David because we're told clearly that she did love him at the beginning but she certainly didn't love him at the end and here's
[22:44] David's humility up against Michal's pride and self preoccupation versus worship David we're told danced before the Lord that was important to David it was before the Lord that he was dancing he wasn't dancing to impress all the young maidens he was dancing before the Lord he was giving the glory to God that he had finally been able to bring the ark back as God required David had learned a lesson David had learned a lesson that you do things God's way or you don't do them at all you don't put the ark of God like a piece of furniture on a cart you do it as God has prescribed and you let the priestly responsibility bear the ark of God with dignity into the midst of the people on their shoulders and so after all this and
[23:46] David has been given rest from his enemies David has a good idea he thinks to himself you know I'm living in this cedar panelled house cedar was the wood of choice in those days if you wanted to make a big impression you know it was a great colour it was durable it was good to work with and it looked very impressive and so David's living in this cedar panelled house he palace effectively and he says I'm living in these surroundings and the ark of God's in a tent that can't be right and David's talking to the prophet here's the king talking to the prophet listen I want to tell you something there's a principle you can pick out time and again through scripture when the king is talking to the prophet it's very probably the wrong way around because most of the time it's supposed to be the prophet who's talking to the king the king needs to live by the word of God and the prophet is the means the primary means in those days of bringing the word of God to the king but here's
[25:00] David he's got this good idea and let's not be hard on David here because he's a worshipping man he's a man who wants to do the right thing by his God and he's got this good idea doesn't even say what it is he wants to do we're not told specifically that David wants to build a house I doubt very much he did want to build a house because the pagans all talked about the houses of their gods they would build a house they would build temples for their gods I don't think David was thinking in those terms at all I don't think he knew what he wanted to do he just knew there was something not quite right about him living in splendor in the ark of God living in a tent and Nathan the prophet said in response to the king well it's very clear that God is with you so why don't you just go for it Davy lad why don't you just go for it but neither
[26:02] David nor Nathan at this point had actually consulted the Lord and we're told that that very night the Lord intervened and the word of the Lord came to Nathan and Nathan had to take a very different perspective to David a perspective that David hadn't taken into account in fact what he needed was a history lesson to start off you see theology needs history I remember once many years ago at university I was late for a church history class and it was an introductory class and so I arrived late in the classroom and the professor I remember Alec Cain he made much of this of my arriving late and said oh
[27:03] Mr. Andrew has arrived just in time to tell us all why we should study church history and that was me on the spot you see he loved to do that kind of thing and so Mr.
[27:17] Andrew why should we be studying church history and I hadn't thought about it to be honest and I was being more flippant than clever and I just simply said well it keeps theology honest you know and of course class had a bit of a laugh about that and he said well actually that's a better answer than I think Mr.
[27:42] Andrew realizes because our theology needs constantly to be checked against what we believe about God needs to be checked against what we know God has done and who God has proved himself to be so we need history to keep our theology in check and you think about it there isn't a person on the planet who isn't a theologian everybody has a view of God everybody has a theology the big question is are we good theologians or bad theologians do we have an accurate picture of God or do we have a bad one one of the things I certainly discovered in the theological world was that there are far too many people who don't realize that theology is something only God can really do sorry if that sounds like a clever remark but it's true
[28:46] I mean who on earth can study God unless God chooses to reveal himself God isn't an academic pursuit he's not just a textbook you can pick up and analyze you would think it was a totally ridiculous situation if a garden worm was to start writing a book on anthropology and expound on its studies of the human race that would seem like a totally ridiculous scenario well it's just as ridiculous for a human being to start expounding on the attributes and the qualities of God unless God himself chooses to reveal what he's like so theology is something we can only do with God's help and God's permission and here's David getting a wee bit of a history lesson to help his theology go and tell my servant
[29:48] David thus says the Lord would you build me a house to dwell in God is not actually necessarily saying to David here I don't want you to build me a house he's saying I want you to ask if you're the person to do it would you that's where the emphasis falls in this sentence here would you build a house for me to dwell in I haven't lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day but I've been moving about in a tent for my dwelling what's God saying he's saying I'm a traveling God wherever my people are that's where I am I'm not bothered about a house to dwell in you remember when Paul was on Mars Hill in Athens he was speaking to the Greek philosophers and he says God doesn't need anything from us he doesn't dwell in buildings made by human hands as though he had any needs that we could supply that's not what
[30:51] God is like and later on when it comes time for Solomon to actually build the temple and dedicate the temple Solomon says how could how could the world contain you much less this house that I have built so David himself is being reminded here that God is not bothered about the nature of the structure that he's supposed to be in all that God is bothered about is that his presence is with his people and that they know it that there is some symbol there is some visual aid that helps the people remember that God is in the midst that's what really matters and so say to my servant David this says the Lord I took you from pasture from following the sheep that you should be prince over my people
[31:52] Israel David I've done all these things I took you away from following the sheep I made you prince over my people Israel I did all these things and here by the way and here's the surprise I've got a prior plan you've got a plan here and you're thinking yeah we must do something about the ark being in a tent and me being in a panelled house but I had a plan all along and I've got a plan here I want to unfold to you first of all I'm going to make a great name for you you're bothered about my reputation I want to make a great name for you David and that's important because you see God's people down through the ages they still to this day they still look at David as being the ultimate great king that's how they see him
[32:56] I will make for you a great name and I'm going to appoint a place for my people I'm going to plant them I'm going to plant them so firmly that they can't be uprooted anymore and their enemies won't be able to disturb them as they've done previously I'm going to give you rest from all your enemies and you see this I have done this I have done this I have done this I will do this I will do this I will do this this is God asserting himself here and saying you need to understand David this is not about what you're going to do for me this is about what I will do for you now do we hear tones of the gospel here because you see the gospel at its heart this is pointing forward to the establishment of the gospel through Jesus Christ our Lord it's pointing forward to a gospel that basically says to the world don't try to impress
[33:57] God that's religion religion is all about trying to impress God just a couple of years ago here we had we had kids in from a Roman Catholic school in the town around Christmas time and I sat and talked to a couple of the teachers and one of the teachers just happened to say to me it's lovely that you're helping the kids to appreciate religion I said oh I hope we're not doing that and she she gave me a funny look and I said look maybe I should explain what I'm saying here we're not teaching religion to the kids here because Christianity really is not a religion it's a relationship if you ask people in the street what they think religion is religion is making sure that you're doing enough of the good stuff and minimizing the bad stuff so that God will somehow or other be sufficient pleased with you satisfied with your performance or maybe even impressed with you to let you come into heaven when you die that's what most people understand by religion it's like there's a tally sheet and you hope that the good outweighs the bad and that
[35:18] God himself is going to say oh well you did your best and let you in that's religion as most people understand it that's religion as the Roman Catholic Church teaches it but that's not Christianity that's not the gospel I said to these teachers that day I said I said this is not about us trying to impress God or teaching the kids how to impress God this is about teaching the kids why we should be impressed with God and what he has done for us it's not about what we do for him it is absolutely not about what we do for him it's about what he has done for us in sending his son to be the saviour of the world and so God had a prior plan here and David needed to understand that he had all these things he was feeling he wanted to do for the Lord and it was good that
[36:18] David felt that way because he was a worshipping warrior he was a man who ascribed to God the credit for all that he had achieved so he wanted to do good things for God and God is saying no David you don't know the best of it there is so much I'm going to do for you this is not about you doing things for me right now and he says I'm going to build you a house with a totally different meaning not a place to live in but a dynasty a royal family and not only a dynasty but a dynasty that's going to reign forever I'm going to make sure that you've got a throne that will never go out of existence and will never cease to have someone to sit on it do you know the word forever forever if you go through this chapter it's used eight times in this chapter so God is very serious about this forever business when he says forever he means forever and he says your son your offspring he's going to build a house but it's going to be a house for my name not a house for me because
[37:40] David already knew and Solomon knew by the time it came his turn that God doesn't dwell in a house but God is happy to have some kind of structure erected that is related to his name it's a visual cue for people to say right okay here's a house we'll call this God's house God doesn't live here but this is the place where we come to gather and meet together to worship God I will be to him a father and he will be to me a son and so he's saying of Solomon who will come along later on I'm going to discipline him when he needs it and God had to do that with all the kings who descended from David every one of them needed God's discipline so how on earth were people who were disobedient and sometimes rebellious and how were people who were ultimately all going to die how were they going to sustain a throne that was supposed to last forever the answer is this would have to happen through God's
[38:52] Messiah it would have to happen through a king who wouldn't die so only a king who wouldn't die could sustain a throne that would last forever and this is recognized as a messianic passage David doesn't actually call this a covenant here at this point but if you read the 23rd chapter of this same 2 Samuel you'll see David referring there to an eternal covenant that God has made with him but you know what's a really convincing clincher here the angel Gabriel believed that this was a messianic promise this is what Gabriel said to Mary behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall call his name Jesus he will be great and will be called the son of the most high and the
[39:57] Lord God wait for it the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever and of his kingdom there will be no end Gabriel clearly understood this covenant with David to be an everlasting covenant that would result in the Messiah whom we know to be Jesus of Nazareth Jesus the Christ so in accordance with all these words and in accordance with all this vision Nathan shared what God had said to him and then David goes into prayer he goes and he sits before the Lord and sitting before the Lord was an act of worship in those days that was how you came into God's presence you sat down and you waited quietly and then you can almost hear him say as he said in Psalm 8 because it was David who wrote Psalm 8 what is man that you are mindful of him or the son of man that you care for him he made him a little lower than the angels and crowned him with glory and honor and here he's saying something very similar who am
[41:13] I oh Lord God and what is my house that you have brought me thus far and yet this was such a small thing in your eyes oh Lord you've spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come and then he says wait to hear this and this is instruction for mankind oh Lord God this is instruction for mankind so David has already twigged he's already caught the understanding that this covenant God has just announced to him is going to have implications for the whole of mankind not just for David and his family not just for Israel but for the whole of mankind let's read this again this what you've done for me he says with such a small thing in your eyes oh Lord God you've spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come and this is instruction for mankind oh Lord for the whole world everybody's embraced by this covenant that God has made with David and what more can
[42:31] David say to you for you know your servant oh Lord God because of your promise and according to your own heart you've brought about all this greatness to make your servant know it therefore you are great oh Lord what's David saying here he's saying Lord you have made me great you've made me an A list person in my community I'm admired I'm almost worshipped he's got all these women falling at his feet he's got girls the John Paul George and Ringo thing you know with the screaming women and people fawning over him and getting excited and getting hysterical because David's come you know he was a celebrity figure and he's saying God why you've given me all this greatness but then he goes on to say therefore you are great oh God what has
[43:37] David realized he's realized that the one who makes you great is greater still the one who makes you great is greater still and this is our God David is saying my greatness is down to the one who makes great I found myself with a moment of sadness when I read that because I thought about great Britain you see it was God who put the great in great Britain we didn't do that with our own prowess this nation was raised up righteousness exalts a nation and what is righteousness the answer to that question is a person not a thing God the
[44:37] Lord is our righteousness righteousness exalts a nation you put you let God be at the center of the national life and the nation will be lifted up because righteousness exalts a nation but sin has no place for God and sin drags a nation down it degrades a nation and that's what we're witnessing right now and it is no longer and has not been appropriate for years now to speak of Great Britain Britain is not great anymore but all that could change God God lifts up governments and he brings them down he lifts them up and he brings them down and God could very very easily give us a government that honors him and I wonder if the people of
[45:44] God are at their prayers early and late and long I wonder if we're given to prayer as much as we ought to be and that's not measured by how many of us turn out at seven o'clock on a Monday morning for a prayer meeting that's not how we measure it we measure it in our own hearts before the Lord are we putting aside time in our busy weekly schedule are we so pressurized by everything that's going on that we don't have time to set aside to just seek the Lord on behalf of this nation that certainly doesn't know how to seek God for itself because the one who is made great owes their greatness to someone greater still my brothers and sisters
[46:45] David here is saying who is like your people on earth I've just lost my place here sorry yeah who is like your people the one nation on earth whom God went to redeem to be his people making himself a name and doing for them great and awesome things you see what David has understood that because God is unique he makes his people unique unique because God is unique he makes his people unique and a church that looks like a mirror image of society is never going to represent a unique God I want to say that again because I think that's a solemn thought for all of us to have a church that looks like a mirror image of society is never going to represent a unique
[47:54] God we can agree with society all we like about modern fashions and ideologies and gender issues and all the rest of it and we can agree with society on all of these things but we're not going to change God if he doesn't agree with society then he's unique and he stands apart from society and he's looking for a people who stand apart from society so that we're not part of the problem but part of the answer that we're pointing the way that we're salt and light and David here has understood that Israel has been made a unique people by a unique God and what needs to happen today and I think needs to happen urgently is that we begin to see the emergence of a Christian church that is unique and can't be mistaken for the rest of society you look at Daniel in Babylon you could never mistake
[49:02] Daniel for a Babylonian could you his three friends who faced the fiery furnace you could never mistake them for Babylonians they were God's people first and foremost through and through they were absolutely unique now folks there's a cost for that there's a price tag on that kind of faithfulness and loyalty but a unique God can only be represented by a unique people and so David says what needs to happen here is that your name is magnified forever the Lord of hosts is God over Israel that's the word that people need to see they need to be able to see in the church that the Lord of hosts the commander of heaven's armies is the God of the church of Jesus Christ the commander of heaven's armies they need to see that people need to see that we have a unique God and that's why we're a unique people for you
[50:14] Lord of hosts the God of Israel you have made this revelation to your servants saying I will build you a house that had never occurred to David that God would do anything for him and this is the hardest hardest thing for people to get a hold of in my experience it's one of the hardest things for people even who have been Christians for many years to get a hold of is that our faith is primarily about what God has done for us and not anything to do with what we do for him do you know the one thing that is happening here and I want to finish with this the one thing that's happening here is that God is keeping a promise way back in Genesis 3 he made a promise that he would bring in due course he would bring the seed of the woman to crush the head of the serpent he made a promise to do that and then he reaffirmed that promise to Abraham and he said this is what it's going to look like through your family all the families of the earth will be blessed through your family and now
[51:42] David's beginning to realize that what God is promising to the royal line of David is instruction for mankind that all of mankind is going to be blessed as a result of God's promise to David and then we saw that Gabriel himself the angel who spoke to Mary understood that this was God's intention that David's royal line would produce the Messiah whose throne would be eternal and could not be overturned folks this is dramatic this is high drama here in the midst of the Old Testament God is keeping a promise there are promises all over the Bible and we love to sing standing on the promises don't we but this is the promise not just a promise this is the promise this is the one that matters about the seed of the woman that would crush the head of the serpent that would bring an end to the reign of sin in society and it would bring a kingdom of righteousness and justice and peace when the
[52:57] Lord Jesus Christ comes to reign on the earth that's what all this is pointing forward to and we're seeing the gospel as it were in miniature here where God is saying to David I'm doing something for you David that you could never do for yourself what's that if it's not the gospel Jan Jane Crawford Willie John Anne I'm I have done something for you that you could never do for yourself that's the gospel gospel and so David here is caught up into God's great prior plan that David had never considered for a moment God is building him a house and it's the house that will ultimately produce the Messiah that will bring
[53:58] God's reign to the whole world brothers and sisters we should be celebrating that God is a covenant keeping God he promised Adam and Eve he promised Abraham he promised Moses he promised the prophets he promised King David he fulfilled his promise he brought the Messiah and that reign is irreversible now Jesus reigns on high right now do we really do we really believe that do we believe that Jesus already reigns on high do we believe he's coming back or are we sitting do we actually nurse doubts about some sections of the scripture my brothers and sisters your words are true said David and you have promised this good thing to your servant there is nothing in this book here that's not true there is nothing here we can't rely on now therefore may it please you oh lord to bless the house of your servant so it may continue forever before you for you oh lord god have spoken and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever david had no idea that god was going to do things that david couldn't do are we prepared to let our god do things in our day that we can't do is our god big enough for the challenges of these days can the great be put back in great britain again i don't even know if that's desirable i honestly don't know if it's desirable but one thing i do know is if it could happen we know the one who can make it happen because only the one who is great who can make great and we'll only become great as righteousness exalts the nation again so what's happening with our prayer life folks what's happening with our study of god's word are we devoted are we committed or are we just doing our christian religious thing coming to church week by week it's so easy to just get into a routine let's pray father father you're a covenant keeping god you have never broken a promise you never will father father we think of david who was completely overwhelmed and understood for the first time that you were capable of doing things for him he could never do for himself father we bless you that you gave david a dynasty and that we are here today as members of that dynasty we are a royal priesthood a holy nation a people belonging to god that we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his wonderful light so we are we are royal family here today lord we bless you for that but that brings responsibility upon us father if we are a royal priesthood then we need to be involved with you in the work of the priesthood and as our great high priest ever lives to
[57:59] intercede so we need to be intercessors here lord you've commanded us to lift up our hands for kings and rulers and those in authority do we pray to you for our nation for our leaders lord you know we don't have to tell you anything you know so we pray that you would give us a hunger for you a hunger for more and more time in that prayer closet lord that you would make us dissatisfied and disgusted with lives that are constantly diverted from you and distracted from you help us lord to become those people who like David will just dance before you with all our might and realize that absolutely all we live for really is to worship you and make you known may it be so for your glory father in Jesus name amen private harbor so for
[59:06] Thank you.