[0:00] All right, well, good evening. That was great singing there. If you have your Bibles, if you could turn to 2 Samuel. We're going to the next chapter, 2 Samuel chapter 7. I'm really excited about this.
[0:11] This chapter is one of the most amazing chapters since I started studying. It's like become one of my favorite chapters in the Bible. I almost feel bad stealing it from Pastor. It's just that awesome. But if you have your Bibles, if you want to turn to 2 Samuel, we're going to be chapter 7.
[0:25] And what we're going to see is that sometimes in our life, we want to do something or we have a dream of what we want to do, and God's going to say no.
[0:36] And the question is, tonight, what we're going to look at is how in the world do you respond to that? What is your reaction to that when you have something that you want to do you think is a good thing, but then God looks at you and says, no, I really don't want you to do this.
[0:49] How are you going to respond? What are you going to do about it? How many of you have ever felt, you know, you think back five years ago, you think back to 2011, you said, you know, five years ago, I just didn't picture myself where I'm at right now.
[1:01] You thought by now, you know, hey, maybe I would have had my own company. Maybe I would have been a full-time pastor. You thought now, hey, I would have been out of debt. You thought, well, hey, I should have been married by this time.
[1:12] You know, you have all these things you like that you wanted five years ago, and you look back, five years have come and gone, and you're like, none of that happened. It seemed like you tried, you worked as hard as you could, but it just didn't seem to work out.
[1:24] Somehow, it seems like God told you no. And we're going to see tonight that sometimes our dreams don't line up with God's will. Sometimes what we want isn't what God wants, and we need to be willing to accept that.
[1:38] So the first thing we're going to see in verses 1 through 3 of 2 Samuel chapter 7, the Bible says, So the first thing we see is that David, he has rest.
[2:08] Now, that may not seem that big a deal, but if you read the life story of David, it is a pretty big deal. Because it's almost been 20 years since David killed Goliath, and from that whole time period, he has been running, he's been fighting, he's been hiding for his entire life.
[2:23] Finally, he has some personal arrests, finally he has some national arrests. You know, the Israelites are not fighting any other countries. And you know what he does? He says, hey, I want to do something more for God. He doesn't sit back and say, oh, now it's my time to relax.
[2:35] Now it's my time to enjoy myself. He says, no, hey, I want to do something more for God. This is kind of the way I picture it. I don't know if this is true or not. But I picture David sitting back on a lazy boy chair, eating some grapes.
[2:46] You know, he's like relaxing, having a good time. But then he realizes, you know, hey, I need to do something for God. As a matter of fact, if you remember, a couple weeks ago, a pastor talked about how they brought the Ark of the Covenant up to Jerusalem.
[2:58] He talked about how they brought it on a cart, and there was actually a man killed because they didn't carry the Ark in the right way. And on the way, they stop, and they leave it at this man's house. But then this man is blessed.
[3:09] And David's like, well, you know, I want some blessing, too. So he brings the Ark up to Jerusalem. So finally, he's brought the Ark up to Jerusalem, and he thinks, you know what? I need to build a house for God.
[3:20] Think about it. I'm sitting in here in my fine palace, and you know where the Ark of God's at? It's in a tent. I mean, it was a pretty nice tent. It's called a tabernacle. But at the same time, it was still a tent.
[3:30] And it wasn't like a palace. You know, if you think about this, most of us know that tents aren't very nice. I mean, just think about it. I don't know if you've ever done this. My family's done this, where you say, hey, we're going to have a time where we go tent camping outside.
[3:41] You know, like in our backyard. And so you go out there about 8 o'clock. There's a bonfire. You roast some marshmallows. It's pretty awesome. And then it gets like 10 o'clock, 11 o'clock, 12 o'clock. And you know what? People start going back in the house.
[3:51] They're like, you know, it's not so awesome to sleep in a tent. You're like, I'd rather go back to the house. And so I wake up in the morning, the rest of my family's back in the house, and I'm in a tent. And nobody else stayed out there, you know? And because we all know that a house is way better than a tent.
[4:05] And so David is like, I have this dream of I want to do something great for God. He says in verse 2, it says, the king says unto Nathan, he says, see now, he says, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within curtains.
[4:18] And so he wants to build God a temple. This seems like a great thing. And you know what it says? It's David has the right attitude here. It's not like he's doing it for himself. It's not like he's doing it to be selfish. But he's just thinking, you know, God needs something great for his ark, and I want to build it for him.
[4:32] And you know what else he does? He asks for godly counsel. He goes to Nathan, who's like a man of God, who's like a prophet. And he goes to Nathan, and he says, you know, he tells him, this is my idea.
[4:43] This is what I want to do. And Nathan says in verse 3, he says, hey, go do all that is in thy heart, for the Lord is with thee. So he even goes, he asks counsel of someone else, and Nathan approves it. He's like, hey, that is a good idea.
[4:54] You are being very smart right there, because you want to do something for God. And Nathan approves the decision. It seems like everything should be good. It seems like this is exactly what God wants.
[5:05] It seems like this is what God's will is. And you know, I would just like to challenge kind of a side point, is that how many of us today are thinking about what else we can do for God? Are we getting comfortable?
[5:16] Are we saying, hey, now I'm kind of in a time of rest, so I just want to enjoy myself? Are we looking for ways that we can go out and start new ministries? There was a man named Luther Rice. And you know what people called him?
[5:26] They called him the dreamer. This guy, he got saved at the age of 22. He felt like God was calling him to preach. It wasn't long before Luther, he wrote to his brother. He says, I have deliberately made up my mind to preach the gospel to the heathen.
[5:41] And he says, I do not know, but it may be Asia. He's saying, you know, I feel like God's called me to be a missionary. He says, this is what God wants for me, and I have a feeling it's probably going to be somewhere in Asia. So what he started doing, he started praying.
[5:52] He started studying his Bible. He started witnessing. He started meeting with other people and telling them about the need overseas. And he joined this group of people called the Brethren. And this group was comprised of Luther Rice.
[6:04] There was Adoniram Judson. There was other people who wanted to get the gospel to the world. And he was even elected president of this group. All these young men, all these college students, they said, if anybody's going to do something for God, if anybody is going to be a missionary for God, it's going to be Luther Rice.
[6:17] Because I know he's going to do something great for him. And Luther Rice, he had this dream. He had this vision of what he wanted to do, God. That's exactly what David had. I think that's a good thing for all of us that we should have in our lives as well.
[6:29] Sometimes we get comfortable. Sometimes we say, hey, I'm happy. I've got a good family. I've got a good job. But are you thinking, hey, is there some ministry that I could get involved in? Is there a way I could be giving more to missions?
[6:39] Is there a way I could be giving more to the church? Are you getting complacent in your Christian life? We need big dreams of what we can do. We need to be always looking for more opportunities to serve God.
[6:50] And that's exactly what David's doing. And that was a very, very good thing. However, it kind of has a problem. If you want to look at verse 4 and 5, it says, so after this happened, we read in verse 4 and 5.
[7:02] It says, And it came to pass that night that the word of the Lord came unto Nathan, saying, Go tell my servant David, Thus saith the Lord, Shalt thou build me a house to dwell in?
[7:14] So Nathan had just told David, he'd say, hey, this is a good idea. But then that very night, something happens. Nathan comes to David and he says, you know what? Or a guy comes to Nathan and says, you know, you didn't speak correctly.
[7:25] He's like, did I ever tell David to build me a house? Was that my will or is that David's will? So the first thing we see is we see that David had a request. He wanted to do something for God. And the second thing we're going to see is God's rejection.
[7:38] So David has something good he wanted to do, but God rejects it. And let's think about this idea for a second. This sounds like a really, really good idea. It seems like it would glorify God. It seems like it would show God, or it seems like it would show people how important God is.
[7:51] If we build a huge temple, that's going to make people realize how great God is. It seems like God would be pleased. And the Bible even calls David a man after God's own heart. And this guy that's after God's own heart, he wants to do this.
[8:04] A prophet of God approves it. And you know what God even says? God even says, hey, David, that was a good desire that you had. And the Bible says in 1 Kings 8.18, And the Lord said unto David, my father, this is Solomon talking, he said, The Lord said unto David, my father, whereas it was in thine heart to build a house unto my name, thou did it as well that was in thy heart.
[8:21] 1 Kings 8.18 tells us that God even says, hey, David, that was a good desire you had in your heart. That was a good thing to build a temple for me. David had a pure heart.
[8:32] He wasn't doing it for selfish reasons. He wasn't doing it for the wrong reasons. But you know what? God still told him no. That's the hardest. I would say in our lives, that's probably the hardest thing for any parent to realize this.
[8:49] You know, it's not that hard to tell your kid, okay, you can eat some food now. You can go outside. You can do all these things. But like to tell them no, like most people don't want to be told no because they want to do what they want to do.
[9:01] As a matter of fact, I remember about probably about three or four years ago, my sister and I, we bought, or we, yeah, we bought. We bought these two little puppies. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to train them so well.
[9:12] I'm like, they're going to be like the best dogs in the world. And so it started off really well. I started teaching them, you know, like you throw a ball and you tell them, hey, go fetch. And they go get it and they bring it back. And it's pretty awesome. It's pretty easy.
[9:22] And then you like have a treat and you like tell them to come to you. You can teach them to come and they would come. But the one thing that I was never able to teach these dogs was how, when I said no, to stop. When I told them no, not to do something.
[9:35] Because you tell them to come over here, they run over you, they jump all over you. And then you'd be like, no, no, no, don't do that. But you know what? They just, they don't like that. And I think for, in our lives, most of us, it's not that hard if we're, if God's like, hey, you know, if there's this ministry and we're doing it.
[9:48] And God's like, yeah, you should, you know, you should be doing that. And that's not that hard for us to accept. But what's hard for us to accept if we want to do something and God tells us no. And like, we're like, why in the world, God, would you tell us no?
[10:01] But, so God tells him no. And the first thing we can kind of see from this is that God's man can be wrong. Because what did Nathan do? He told him, hey, this is, this is what God wants. I agree with you 100%.
[10:12] This is what God wants you to do. But he was dead wrong. You know, I think about the story that Travis Snow tells about how he went over to Ireland. There's missionaries there. And they said, hey, there's no way you can do ministry in this country.
[10:25] There's no way you can plant a church. And these were men of God. They were telling him, they were giving him advice. And they're saying, you can't do this. And you know what? He said, Travis tells us that, hey, you know, he felt terrible about it.
[10:38] But he just kind of knew that that's what God wanted him to do. And since it was what God wanted him to do, he was going to do it no matter what other people said. Yes, I think that we should listen to godly counsel.
[10:48] But at the end of the day, we need to realize that God is ultimate authority. And it's only by his command that we should do things. These verses indicate that Nathan had not talked to God. So when David speaks to Nathan for the first time, it never says that Nathan asks God, you know, hey, is this a good thing?
[11:03] Is this what you want? Nathan was just like, yeah, this is a good idea. This is something you should do. I think many times in our lives we do this. We think, hey, I got an idea. So I'm going to ask somebody, some spiritual leader in my life. I'm going to ask my pastor.
[11:15] And he agrees with it and says, yes, this is a great idea. And we say, oh, then it must be God's will. But you know what we can see here? We can see that the man of God sometimes can be wrong. The same thing we see is that what seems like a good thing to us may not be the thing that God wants us to do.
[11:30] Just because we want to do something good, it may not be what God wants us to do. God did not want David to build a temple. We say that David wasn't being selfish, but God simply wanted to use another man.
[11:44] In 1 Chronicles 22, 7 and 8, it says, and David said to Solomon, he says, My son, as it for me, it was in my mind to build a house unto the name of the Lord my God. So David had this idea to build a house.
[11:56] But the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly and hast made great wars. Thou shalt not build a house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight.
[12:07] We see that God says, hey, David, your hands are bloody. I want to use another man to build my temple. And so David had this great idea. He had this good thing. But God wanted to use someone else.
[12:17] You know what we can also see? We can see that this is almost like David's idea and not God's. We see in verse 7 of Samuel 7, it says, In all the places wherein I have walked, all the children of Israel spake I a word with any of the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to feed my people of Israel, saying, Why build you not me a house of cedar?
[12:37] So God's saying, Where did I ever tell you that you need to build me a house? Where did I ever tell you that you needed to build me a temple? He says, I never told you that. But, you know, this kind of gives an indication here that God has never asked for a temple.
[12:50] This was David's dream and not God's. Although it was a good thing, this idea wasn't a God thing. God was going to build a temple, but it was going to be with his man on his own time.
[13:03] And I think that's something we've got to realize. We may want to do something good for God. We may want to do this ministry for God. We may want to have this ambition or goal or an idea of, Hey, this is what I want to do. But sometimes God may be telling us, No.
[13:15] It's not your time. I have someone else to do this. And it's not up to us. And then we see in verses 12 through 16 something pretty crazy. We see that although David had a dream of what he wanted to do for God, we see that God's dreams for David are bigger than his own.
[13:30] Because David's like, Hey, I want to build you this temple. But in these verses right here, verses 12 through 16, we see that God's going to talk about the Davidic covenant. He's going to say, Hey, David, I have something better for you.
[13:41] He tells them, David had a dream of how he could build a temple. But God promises that he will do great things. He tells them that one of David's sons is going to build a temple. He says, Hey, through your descendants, one of y'all will build a temple.
[13:54] And then he says in verse 13, he says that his throne will be established forever. Verse 13, it says, He shall build a house for my name, and I'll establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
[14:05] You know what this is talking about? Now, this is really talking about how through the line of David that Jesus was going to come. Because think about it, you know, David's dead, Solomon's dead, and the only kingdom that's going to last forever is Jesus.
[14:16] And so he's saying, Hey, David, through you, I'm going to use you in a great way. He says, David, I'm going to use you from your descendants. Jesus is going to come, and he's going to establish a kingdom. And because he's going to establish a kingdom, anyone who believes on Christ, anyone who trusts in him can be saved.
[14:32] That's the reason we're here today is because through one of David's descendants, Jesus came. And through us believing on him, we've been saved. Our sins have been washed away. And that's a pretty awesome thing. And you know what?
[14:42] God's saying, Hey, I'm going to do all of this through you, David. You don't realize that I have a huge dream for you. I have a huge plan for you. And this is way bigger than you just building me a temple.
[14:54] Going back to the story about Lisa the Rice, he wanted to do something for God. He wanted to go overseas. And so one day he finally gets his chance. He finally boards the ship. He's sailing to India. And two things happen on his trip over there.
[15:06] The first thing is he gets sick. And the second thing is he converts to a Baptist, which is a pretty awesome thing. But he gets over there, finally to India, and he has a problem. Because Adonai and Justin's there, his wife's there, and he's sick, and they don't have any support.
[15:21] Because basically they became Baptists, so they don't have any more support from the U.S., and so they don't have any money. And so Luther basically encounters a problem. And it's like, basically he had this dream.
[15:32] As a matter of fact, he even broke off an engagement so that he could go to India, so he could go to Asia, so he could go and preach the gospel. And he's heading that direction. He's doing as much as he can, as much as possible.
[15:43] And all of a sudden it seems like God tells him, no, you can't do it. He tells him, hey, you need to go back to the States. You need to go back. And God tells him, no. And I have a feeling that he was probably somewhat discouraged.
[15:55] He was probably somewhat upset. But you know what we can see? What we're going to see is that God's dreams or God's plan for us is always better than our own. What God wants for us is way better than our own.
[16:08] Now, I don't know if you realize this. I don't know if any of you know this story. But probably four or five years ago, my older brother Cannon, you know, he was interested in missions. And so he wanted to go with his missionary.
[16:19] And so he wanted to go somewhere in South America. And so he found this one missionary to Argentina. And he emailed him. He's like, hey, would it be possible? Or it was something like, are you praying about having a guy come down?
[16:31] Would it be possible for me to come down and help you out in the ministry down there? And the missionary rolled back and was like, no, no. I don't really want any help. I don't really want anybody to come over here with me. And so Cannon was like, he was like pretty upset.
[16:44] I can't remember he was pretty upset. Because he thought, you know, I think this is God's will. I think this is what God wants me to do. But it just seemed like God said no. And so a couple years later, when Cannon came to the training center, he found out that the missionary email was Jeff Bush.
[16:57] And Jeff had told him, hey, I don't want you in Argentina. Now, I have a feeling if Cannon had gone, Jeff may have had one more missionary in Argentina. But instead, Cannon's going to China. But you know what?
[17:07] I think if you asked Cannon, he would say, you know what? I'm glad that God used that in my life. He's like, I'm glad that God told me no, because if that wasn't the case, I may not come to the training center. I may not have gone to China. I may not be where I'm at right now.
[17:18] And we can see that God always uses, you know, things in our lives to draw us closer to him. So God has a better plan for us. You may be wondering why your dreams haven't been accomplished. You may be wondering why your ambitions didn't work out the way you wanted them.
[17:33] You might be mad because God didn't let you build, like, your own temple. Like, the thing that you wanted. But you see, it's not a question about being wrong. It's not a question of whether you were right or wrong. It's a question of whether you'll accept when God tells you no.
[17:47] Maybe you wanted to be a missionary and God tells you no. Maybe you felt like you should be further along in your career than you are right now, but it just didn't seem to work out. It seems like God says no. But I want you to know that God knows what's best for us.
[17:59] Because David had this dream, but God had much bigger plans for him. And we need to be willing to accept that. But sometimes it dreams from God, and sometimes it's not.
[18:11] God doesn't call everyone to build something. He doesn't call every one of us to do the same exact thing. But you know what he does call us all to do? He does call us all to serve him. And the question is, how will you respond to God's no's in your life?
[18:25] When God tells you no, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to be bitter? Are you going to be upset? Are you going to be mad? So after God's rejection, we see David's response. And this is probably the most important part.
[18:37] This actually, like, I think most of us, we realize when God tells us no. But that's not the problem. The problem is us accepting that. The problem is us having a good attitude about it. The problem is us not getting upset at God.
[18:48] So in verse 18, we see that David, it says in verse 18, it says, Then went King David in and sat before the Lord, and he said, Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house that thou hast brought me hitherto? You know what he does?
[18:59] He goes down, and he goes humbly. We see that he sits down. I don't know if you've ever, like, watched people argue, like, kind of from a distance, like two people, like, sitting down, arguing. And then one of the person gets mad, and he, like, stands up and is like, Hey, I'm right, you know, you're wrong.
[19:14] And whenever we're, like, upset and we're, like, trying to prove ourselves right, we go in with this bad attitude. But David, he goes down, he sits down, and he says, Hey, God, you're God, and whatever you say goes, and I'm going to listen to that.
[19:25] He doesn't go in full of pride, and he doesn't question God. He doesn't ask God why. I think many times in my life, the only reason I ask why God is because he didn't do something that I wanted.
[19:37] If I was really doing what God wanted, I wouldn't be asking why. I would just be saying, What should I do, God? And then he answers. So he answers humbly. He answers gratefully. In verse 21, it tells us, it says, For thy word's sake, and according to thy own heart, hast thou done all these great things, to make thy servant known them.
[19:52] He says, God, you've done something pretty awesome. Think back to where David started. He started off as a shepherd. He started off as, like, a nobody. And you know what God did? He took him from a shepherd, and he brought him and made him a king.
[20:03] So David's like, I'm just grateful for the things that you've done in my life, God. I'm not going to be upset because you said no. I'm just going to be grateful. I'm just going to be thankful for what you have done. And I think I do this a lot in my life.
[20:15] Because sometimes I wonder, like, God, why am I not farther down? Or why am I not doing more? Why is not more things happening? And I forget to look at what God has done for me. I forget to look at the fact that he saved me. I forget to look at the fact that, you know, I have a great church.
[20:27] I forget to look at the fact I have a great family. I just forget all the blessings that God has done for me. And I begin to look and say, God, why didn't this thing work out? And what I should be doing is looking at what he has already done for me.
[20:40] And then he answers in praise. In verse 26, David praises God. And the final thing I want you to look at, this is probably the most important thing, is that he, David answers in action. He doesn't, it doesn't talk about this directly in this passage, but we know that David prepared the way for Solomon.
[20:56] So David had this dream. He said, I'm going to build a temple. And God says, nope. And you know what David does? He goes and says, hey, I'm going to do everything possible to help Solomon build this.
[21:06] I'm going to do everything possible to help the next guy do something great for God. In 1 Chronicles 22, 14 through 16, it says, Now behold, in my trouble, I have prepared for the house of the Lord a hundred thousand talents of gold, a thousand talents of silver and of brass and of iron without weight, for it is abundance thereof.
[21:26] Timber also in stone I have prepared, and thou mayest add thereto. Moreover, there are workmen with thee in abundance, hewers and workers of stone and timber, and all manner of cunning men for every manner of the work.
[21:36] Of the gold and silver and brass and the iron there is no number. For arise therefore and be doing, and the Lord is with thee. So look, did you see what David prepared? He prepared this gold, this silver.
[21:47] He prepared everything just so Solomon could build a temple. You know what? I think in my life, or just like at this church, and Robert's probably going to be upset at this, but Robert Canfield, you know what?
[22:00] To me, he's this guy. Because like he, you know, he can't go to the mission field. Him and Kelly are not able to go to the mission field. But you know what he's doing? He's spending all his time, he's spending all his effort, helping somebody else get there.
[22:12] He's spending all his energy, everything he has, helping the next guy. And that's exactly the attitude that we need to have. That's exactly the attitude that David had. You know what? It seems like, right now it seems like God's told Robert, no, you're not going to be able to go.
[22:26] But Robert doesn't get upset. He's not bitter. He's not mad. But he's just using his ability, he's using his energy to help the next person. And we see, and just kind of to finish the story of Luther Rice, he goes back to the U.S., and kind of the same thing happens.
[22:40] He doesn't get upset, he doesn't get bitter. What happens is Luther Rice travels around the U.S., and he raises money, and he sends missionaries. And by the end of his life, he's basically started the Southern Baptist Convention.
[22:51] He's basically done more than anybody would have ever expected. And God really used him. I think at the end of his life, if he looked back, he would have said, God has greatly used me. But you know what?
[23:02] That dream he had, yeah, God had told him no. But you know what he did? He responded in the right way. And he said, hey, I may not be able to go, but I'm going to do everything possible to help my brother. I'm going to do everything possible to help the next man.
[23:15] We see that today, that God does not call everyone to build temples. As a matter of fact, sometimes he's going to use someone else to do something that you thought was your goal or your dream. When God says no, he has a better way.
[23:27] We've got to realize that God knows best. David had a dream of doing something big, but God had a much larger dream of what he wanted to do for David. Some of us might be living with broken dreams, but are we going to take that and turn around and use it to help the next guy?
[23:41] Are we going to say, hey, I may not be able to do it, but I can help the next guy? There was a preacher that once said, he says, hey, the world has too many people that won't plant trees unless they're going to eat the apple.
[23:52] So basically, if I can't get some result from what I do, then I'm not going to do it. But it says the church needs more people who are planning and praying with future needs of the church in mind. There are many things we would like to do, but can't.
[24:04] But you know what all of us can do? We can all be a part of laying the groundwork. Maybe it's God said no to a dream of your life, and you're bitter. God does not want us to live that way. He wants us to keep serving him and continually seek how we can help the next guy.
[24:18] All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. All right. First thinglie. Thank you. All right.