WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.040 So for the last time, for a while, we're going to be looking at the life of David and coming 00:00:06.040 --> 00:00:16.719 to this end story, really, of his life and its quite a complex story in some ways. 00:00:16.719 --> 00:00:21.280 But it's interesting, I think, in the society in which we live really struggles with the 00:00:21.280 --> 00:00:25.000 whole idea of death. 00:00:25.000 --> 00:00:28.280 People don't really talk about death very much. 00:00:28.280 --> 00:00:34.520 And it's kind of paradoxical, really, because we watch brutal violence and death all the 00:00:34.520 --> 00:00:39.679 time in films, you know, or Netflix. 00:00:39.679 --> 00:00:44.560 Death by entertainment, by death, or death by entertainment. 00:00:44.560 --> 00:00:46.320 It's a theme of lots and lots of films, isn't it? 00:00:46.320 --> 00:00:51.719 It's either the classic love story or it's a violent kind of story that's got lots of 00:00:51.719 --> 00:00:52.719 death in it. 00:00:52.719 --> 00:00:55.200 Sometimes the two come together. 00:00:55.200 --> 00:01:03.920 And you know, we put on the news every night and it's full of death and it's depressing. 00:01:03.920 --> 00:01:08.159 Maybe that's why people don't watch the news so much. 00:01:08.159 --> 00:01:12.719 But actually, although we're aware of it all the time and we sometimes just invite it into 00:01:12.719 --> 00:01:18.480 our lives by what we watch for entertainment, I think facing up to our mortality is something 00:01:18.480 --> 00:01:21.879 that society in which we live is not very good at. 00:01:21.879 --> 00:01:26.280 Everything about death, questioning death is seen as something that's really morbid. 00:01:26.280 --> 00:01:28.640 We don't really want to do that. 00:01:28.640 --> 00:01:31.199 It's not something we're going to be involved in. 00:01:31.199 --> 00:01:34.920 We can deny the reality of it. 00:01:34.920 --> 00:01:39.319 And I think whether consciously or unconsciously, people have just come to the conclusion that 00:01:39.319 --> 00:01:45.560 death is natural and it's just the end of everything. 00:01:45.560 --> 00:01:52.920 So often I think people haven't given much thought, at least not outwardly in a verbal 00:01:52.920 --> 00:02:00.159 way with others, have not given much thought to what death is and if anything happens after 00:02:00.159 --> 00:02:01.159 it. 00:02:01.159 --> 00:02:08.199 And we'll have given very little thought to the concept of God as the author of life. 00:02:08.199 --> 00:02:15.120 Or the fact that we as Christians, we've just sung about it, that God in Christ comes 00:02:15.120 --> 00:02:20.200 to not only live but to die and it's a death that as Christians, we talk about all the 00:02:20.200 --> 00:02:24.680 time and we sing about it all the time. 00:02:24.680 --> 00:02:28.879 And that's because He rose from it and that's the hugely significant thing for us, isn't 00:02:28.879 --> 00:02:29.879 it? 00:02:29.879 --> 00:02:31.360 Because that changes everything. 00:02:31.360 --> 00:02:35.840 It changes our whole understanding and our whole perspective of life and death that we 00:02:35.840 --> 00:02:40.920 come to because there's this recognition that in Jesus Christ, Paul speaks all the time 00:02:40.919 --> 00:02:46.039 about the resurrection being so significant. 00:02:46.039 --> 00:02:50.079 If Jesus didn't rise from the dead, then His death was a waste of time and our faith 00:02:50.079 --> 00:02:53.679 and our worship and everything that goes with it is also a waste of time. 00:02:53.679 --> 00:02:59.079 And so there's this great recognition that His resurrection changes our whole perspective 00:02:59.079 --> 00:03:04.519 on life because it reminds us that there's life after death, but also more than that, 00:03:04.519 --> 00:03:08.839 there's death after death. 00:03:08.840 --> 00:03:14.120 And in a sense, that's what we always think about or consider when we're considering issues 00:03:14.120 --> 00:03:15.800 of faith. 00:03:15.800 --> 00:03:21.480 And this story is the next, the last record of an old man. 00:03:21.480 --> 00:03:27.680 We looked at an old and cold man last week and this is the last kind of bit we have about 00:03:27.680 --> 00:03:33.039 this old man who is about to breathe his last as we're told in that first verse. 00:03:33.039 --> 00:03:38.879 And also a young man is son Solomon who's on the cusp of life and greatness. 00:03:38.879 --> 00:03:47.120 So if you're old tonight or if you're young tonight, it's okay because the message kind 00:03:47.120 --> 00:03:53.560 of covers all of us from God's living word and we recognize that. 00:03:53.560 --> 00:04:00.759 Sometimes I do feel that the more I understand from God's word, the less I actually understand, 00:04:00.759 --> 00:04:04.399 the less that I fully comprehend. 00:04:04.399 --> 00:04:08.280 And that's by way of saying in a sense that I don't have all the answers for these old 00:04:08.280 --> 00:04:12.000 testament narratives, just thought I'd put that out there. 00:04:12.000 --> 00:04:18.399 And we're constantly battling and struggling with different elements that we find in the 00:04:18.399 --> 00:04:19.399 Scripture. 00:04:19.399 --> 00:04:24.719 But there are two principles I want to tease out here from this passage, primarily for 00:04:24.719 --> 00:04:26.800 us to think about as Christians. 00:04:26.800 --> 00:04:33.560 I want us to kind of take the whole concept of death by the throat a little bit and look 00:04:33.560 --> 00:04:40.080 at it from God's perspective in the light of what he's saying to David here, for David 00:04:40.080 --> 00:04:46.879 to say to Solomon, his son as he passes the baton over to him. 00:04:46.879 --> 00:04:54.360 And the two things are we're called to live by faith as believers. 00:04:54.360 --> 00:04:58.319 And the second thing is that the best is still to come. 00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:04.680 So we're called to live by faith and this is a passage where David gives a charge, as 00:05:04.680 --> 00:05:06.720 it were, to Solomon the son. 00:05:06.720 --> 00:05:07.720 And it's quite simple. 00:05:07.720 --> 00:05:14.520 It's really a call for him to live as an old testament believer and as God's representative 00:05:14.520 --> 00:05:18.480 as the king of Israel, a life of faith in his God. 00:05:18.480 --> 00:05:23.600 Verses two, if you say, you know, I'm going about the way of the whole earth, be strong, 00:05:23.600 --> 00:05:29.120 show yourself a man, keep the charge of the Lord your God, the command of the Lord your 00:05:29.120 --> 00:05:34.120 God, walking in his ways, keeping his statutes, his commandments, his rules, his testimonies, 00:05:34.120 --> 00:05:38.720 as is written in the law of Moses, that he may prosper in all you do and whatever you 00:05:38.720 --> 00:05:39.720 turn. 00:05:39.720 --> 00:05:46.600 May the Lord establish his word that he spoke concerning me, saying, if your sons pay close 00:05:46.600 --> 00:05:51.680 attention to the way, to walk before me in faithfulness with all their heart and all 00:05:51.680 --> 00:05:55.720 their soul, you shall not lack a man on the throne of Israel. 00:05:55.720 --> 00:06:02.759 So within the context of the shadows of the Old Testament, we have this great call to 00:06:02.759 --> 00:06:05.879 walk a life of faith. 00:06:05.879 --> 00:06:12.840 It's the covenant language of the God who has redeemed his people, Israel, and who has 00:06:12.840 --> 00:06:17.680 put a king on the throne, a king that will point forward to, as we've seen over the last 00:06:17.680 --> 00:06:20.680 number of weeks, the great Messiah. 00:06:20.680 --> 00:06:26.079 And it's a call to trust and obeys that old adage, isn't it? 00:06:26.079 --> 00:06:27.879 Trust and obey. 00:06:27.879 --> 00:06:31.400 And that's David as God's charge to Solomon. 00:06:31.400 --> 00:06:36.360 And it's to be in the light of grace. 00:06:36.360 --> 00:06:41.519 It's not a way of earning favor with God and trying to get into God's good books, but rather 00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:46.079 it's a recognition that God has already redeemed them as a people. 00:06:46.079 --> 00:06:47.680 He is already their Lord. 00:06:47.680 --> 00:06:50.560 You know, the charge of the Lord your God. 00:06:50.560 --> 00:06:52.399 They were a rescued people. 00:06:52.399 --> 00:06:54.079 They were a redeemed people. 00:06:54.079 --> 00:06:56.519 They didn't deserve mercy, but they'd been shown mercy. 00:06:56.519 --> 00:07:01.800 They were God's chosen people for whom He'd poured out His great love and His mercy. 00:07:01.800 --> 00:07:07.040 And they were called to respond to Him in faith and in love because of what He'd done. 00:07:07.040 --> 00:07:09.319 Now Solomon would have known that. 00:07:09.319 --> 00:07:11.800 Solomon grew up in a home where that was evident. 00:07:11.800 --> 00:07:15.240 It was a really mixed up home. 00:07:15.240 --> 00:07:20.840 It was all kinds of things going on in that home, but he did know about grace. 00:07:20.840 --> 00:07:22.720 He did know about forgiveness. 00:07:22.720 --> 00:07:29.639 He was aware of the covenant and the covenant truths, and he understood what was being said 00:07:29.639 --> 00:07:36.840 to him here, to follow in the way of his fathers and to recognize as God of grace the blessings 00:07:36.840 --> 00:07:45.199 that came from following God and from serving God and from living in reliance on God. 00:07:45.199 --> 00:07:50.079 And that's a call that, whether we're very old or whether we're very young or we're 00:07:50.079 --> 00:07:57.639 somewhere in between, we're always called to live by faith as Christians in the light 00:07:57.639 --> 00:07:59.519 of His grace. 00:07:59.519 --> 00:08:06.120 It's never a call to live a ritualistic life of box ticking. 00:08:06.120 --> 00:08:12.639 It's never a way of living to try and earn our way before Him, but we're called to constantly 00:08:12.639 --> 00:08:18.399 recognize and remember His grace and live in the light of that and follow Him as a result 00:08:18.399 --> 00:08:19.639 of that. 00:08:19.639 --> 00:08:22.719 We can get weary doing that. 00:08:22.719 --> 00:08:26.719 We can find the struggles and battles of life difficult. 00:08:26.719 --> 00:08:32.399 We can even be tempted to turn back from Him, but we've been rescued and we're called to 00:08:32.399 --> 00:08:33.639 live by faith. 00:08:33.639 --> 00:08:41.279 And this life that is spoken of here that is kind of obviously developed in the New Testament 00:08:41.279 --> 00:08:44.759 as we see that in different places. 00:08:44.759 --> 00:08:47.959 It's a strong life. 00:08:47.959 --> 00:08:49.399 Be strong, He says. 00:08:49.399 --> 00:08:52.240 Show yourself to be a man. 00:08:52.240 --> 00:09:00.039 And this is the reality of what we're called to do is as we walk in obedience to the living 00:09:00.039 --> 00:09:06.519 God as Christians, as we follow Him, it's a strong life. 00:09:06.519 --> 00:09:13.799 It's what makes us people, it's what makes us uniquely what we were created to be when 00:09:13.799 --> 00:09:14.799 we follow Him. 00:09:14.799 --> 00:09:18.480 You know, Mark 10, love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with 00:09:18.480 --> 00:09:20.319 all your mind, with all your strength. 00:09:20.319 --> 00:09:22.399 Love your neighbor as yourself. 00:09:22.399 --> 00:09:26.039 There's no commandant greater than these as we live, and I'll say a little bit more about 00:09:26.039 --> 00:09:32.879 that in a minute, we find great strength, His incomparably great power for us to believe 00:09:32.879 --> 00:09:37.720 that that power is the same as His mighty strength He exerted when He raised Christ from the 00:09:37.720 --> 00:09:38.720 dead. 00:09:38.720 --> 00:09:43.919 So the raising of Christ from the dead to life is the same strength that enables us to 00:09:43.919 --> 00:09:47.360 live this way and to be strong. 00:09:47.360 --> 00:09:53.720 And that life is a life of ongoing repentance, humility and change. 00:09:53.720 --> 00:10:04.279 So when you face the searing heat of temptation or of opposition or of difficult circumstances, 00:10:04.279 --> 00:10:06.560 what is it that comes out? 00:10:06.560 --> 00:10:09.360 What is it in our life of faith that comes out? 00:10:09.360 --> 00:10:15.759 Is it bitterness, thorns and thistles and an evidence of a heart that's far from the 00:10:15.759 --> 00:10:16.759 living God? 00:10:16.759 --> 00:10:20.440 Or is it fruitfulness? 00:10:20.440 --> 00:10:25.760 When the heat comes, is it fruitfulness? 00:10:25.760 --> 00:10:30.000 Because that is an evidence of where our roots lie, where we're gaining our strength, you 00:10:30.000 --> 00:10:38.160 know, from that great Jeremiah 17 picture, and it reveals that we can bear fruit whatever 00:10:38.160 --> 00:10:39.160 we're going through. 00:10:39.160 --> 00:10:45.480 That's the strength that comes from following God and living this way as Solomon is commanded 00:10:45.480 --> 00:10:46.480 to do. 00:10:46.480 --> 00:10:48.720 It's an abundant life that's spoken of here. 00:10:48.720 --> 00:10:53.840 It's great that he speaks about if you live and follow Him with all your heart and with 00:10:53.840 --> 00:10:54.840 all your soul. 00:10:54.840 --> 00:10:57.040 It's a great picture right in the middle of the Old Testament. 00:10:57.040 --> 00:11:02.320 It's the same great picture that we're given by Jesus and Mark. 00:11:02.320 --> 00:11:09.720 As Christ gave everything, heart and soul, so we're able also to give everything in our 00:11:09.720 --> 00:11:10.720 lives. 00:11:10.720 --> 00:11:16.000 And that, I'll come back to that again. 00:11:16.000 --> 00:11:27.919 But it's a counterintuitive life where prosperity will come in the most unexpected ways. 00:11:27.919 --> 00:11:36.799 But it always comes as we recognize the privilege of following and obeying the living God. 00:11:36.799 --> 00:11:42.679 And what we recognize about that, and I think it comes through here as well, is it always 00:11:42.679 --> 00:11:46.559 involves death, so we're getting back to the death subject again. 00:11:46.559 --> 00:11:51.879 To live this life of obedience and faith as Solomon was called to here, it always involves 00:11:51.879 --> 00:11:52.879 death. 00:11:52.879 --> 00:11:58.399 Now Solomon was well-acquaint with the sacrificial system in the Old Testament. 00:11:58.399 --> 00:12:05.879 He was well-acquaint that it was through the sacrifice of, temporary sacrifice of animals, 00:12:05.879 --> 00:12:11.759 shed blood, the day of atonement, a life for a life, that that all pointed forward to something 00:12:11.759 --> 00:12:15.439 greater that was going to happen, but that without the shedding of blood there could be 00:12:15.439 --> 00:12:17.080 no forgiveness of sins. 00:12:17.080 --> 00:12:23.639 And so death was kind of built into everything that they understood about life and about 00:12:23.639 --> 00:12:29.279 forgiveness, the death of a substitute, the lamb, the bull, the goat, whatever it was. 00:12:29.279 --> 00:12:38.159 All pointing forward, as we can see it now to the God Himself, the real strong man, okay, 00:12:38.159 --> 00:12:39.879 the real man of faith. 00:12:39.879 --> 00:12:45.720 The only real man who ever lived as it were, the greater Son of David, who himself went 00:12:45.720 --> 00:12:51.799 into the Holy of Holies and faced up, as we saw earlier with the kids, to the divine wrath 00:12:51.799 --> 00:12:59.519 and the divine justice as God Himself to be the one who would give Himself in death as 00:12:59.519 --> 00:13:02.159 a substitute for us. 00:13:02.159 --> 00:13:06.279 And that's the great message, isn't it, of the gospel. 00:13:06.279 --> 00:13:12.120 The punishment that we deserve is the one that He receives and takes upon Himself. 00:13:12.120 --> 00:13:19.360 And the death of a substitute, crucial and critical to all our understanding of what 00:13:19.360 --> 00:13:25.000 it is to be a Christian, what it is to live the life of faith, a great Savior. 00:13:25.000 --> 00:13:33.559 And the recognition of being separate from Him is a terrible reality. 00:13:33.559 --> 00:13:37.119 The separation that comes from death. 00:13:37.119 --> 00:13:44.119 So it always involves the death of a substitute, but it also always involves, and Corey spoke 00:13:44.119 --> 00:13:52.439 about this last Sunday morning, really, when he was talking about the importance of fleeing 00:13:52.439 --> 00:13:54.559 and fighting. 00:13:54.559 --> 00:14:01.639 It's the death of sin in our hearts and the death of sin in the kingdom. 00:14:01.639 --> 00:14:07.199 And that's always part of our calling, is to recognize that if we're to walk this way 00:14:07.199 --> 00:14:14.399 of obedience and of wholeheartedness and of strength, it means that we have got a battle 00:14:14.399 --> 00:14:19.639 and a struggle and a fight to put to death the sin that's in our own hearts. 00:14:19.639 --> 00:14:24.399 Now I think sadly David on many occasions failed to do that. 00:14:24.399 --> 00:14:31.840 And in some ways there's possibly a tacit acknowledgement of that in some of the more 00:14:31.840 --> 00:14:40.439 kind of brutal things he seems to say at the end about dealing with people from his past 00:14:40.439 --> 00:14:45.840 who had engaged in evil activity in the kingdom. 00:14:45.840 --> 00:14:51.799 Maybe he should have, as God's representative and as the King, dealt with that better in 00:14:51.799 --> 00:14:52.799 his own life. 00:14:52.799 --> 00:14:56.879 Of course we know his own personal life. 00:14:56.879 --> 00:15:02.279 He rejected often the way of obedience and truth, even though he returned to the God 00:15:02.279 --> 00:15:06.120 of his father's for forgiveness. 00:15:06.120 --> 00:15:12.599 And it's the second section here is pretty tough where he basically says about three 00:15:12.599 --> 00:15:14.159 different people. 00:15:14.159 --> 00:15:20.879 Solomon, make sure that they don't go down to death in their old age. 00:15:20.879 --> 00:15:22.759 Make sure they're dealt with. 00:15:22.759 --> 00:15:29.600 And it seems a bit revengeful and that he's settling scores. 00:15:29.600 --> 00:15:35.679 And some will take that as being the interpretation of these passages. 00:15:35.679 --> 00:15:40.080 But I think it's deeper than that in the sense that in the Old Testament we recognize that 00:15:40.080 --> 00:15:42.720 God was establishing his kingdom. 00:15:42.720 --> 00:15:44.840 It was a physical kingdom. 00:15:44.840 --> 00:15:45.840 It was God's kingdom. 00:15:45.840 --> 00:15:52.240 It was to be a kingdom that stood for justice and right and worship of the living God. 00:15:52.240 --> 00:15:57.879 And it stood against those who would seek to destroy it from within or to destroy it 00:15:57.879 --> 00:16:04.360 from outside because there was a rebellion against the living God and a desire for him 00:16:04.360 --> 00:16:06.320 to be overthrown. 00:16:06.320 --> 00:16:10.360 And we know in the case of each of these three characters that they had acted in really ungodly 00:16:10.360 --> 00:16:16.200 ways and had acted against the kingdom and would many ways if they were continued to have 00:16:16.200 --> 00:16:19.639 influence would destabilize God's kingdom. 00:16:19.639 --> 00:16:31.639 And they were judged at this time and Solomon was to instigate that judgment on them. 00:16:31.639 --> 00:16:36.240 And there's a recognition that they're always in the Old Testament is that there's this 00:16:36.240 --> 00:16:42.480 dark spiritual undercurrent of opposition and a desire to destroy God and to destroy 00:16:42.480 --> 00:16:44.759 our God's kingdom. 00:16:44.759 --> 00:16:52.600 Now we are called today in a different way to be ruthless against sin and to be ruthless 00:16:52.600 --> 00:16:56.200 against idolatry and self-reliance. 00:16:56.200 --> 00:17:00.639 There's a, I think it's very clearly stated in many ways in Colossians. 00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:08.279 I'm just going to read a few verses from Colossians chapter 5, chapter 3 and verses 5 to 10. 00:17:08.279 --> 00:17:12.160 Put to death therefore, so it's the same kind of strong language for us as Christians. 00:17:12.160 --> 00:17:16.759 Put to death therefore what is earthly in your sexual immorality and purity, passion, 00:17:16.759 --> 00:17:21.279 evil desires, covetousness, which is idolatry on account of these things that wrath of God 00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:22.519 is coming. 00:17:22.519 --> 00:17:26.960 And these you too once walked when you were living with them, but now you must put them 00:17:26.960 --> 00:17:32.320 away, anger, wrath, malice, slander, obscene talk from your mouth. 00:17:32.320 --> 00:17:36.360 Don't lie to one another seeing that you've put off the old self with its practices and 00:17:36.359 --> 00:17:42.879 have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its Creator. 00:17:42.879 --> 00:17:48.079 And so we've got that kind of very clear New Testament battle that we're to face against 00:17:48.079 --> 00:17:55.559 disobedience and against sin and we're to live this life of strength and wholeheartedness 00:17:55.559 --> 00:17:57.519 before the living God. 00:17:57.519 --> 00:18:02.599 So there's this death that's involved in the death of a substitute in Jesus, the death 00:18:02.599 --> 00:18:09.480 of sin in their own hearts, and also ultimately the death of all who oppose God. 00:18:09.480 --> 00:18:13.919 Matthew 13 says, as the weeds are pooled up and burned in the fire, so will it be at the 00:18:13.919 --> 00:18:14.919 end of the age? 00:18:14.919 --> 00:18:18.119 The Son of Man will send out His angels, they will weed out His kingdom, everything that 00:18:18.119 --> 00:18:20.959 causes sin and all who do evil. 00:18:20.960 --> 00:18:35.000 That reality of spiritual death, the reality of us having to deal with what Jesus was willing 00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:39.759 to take on the cross and did take for all who put their trust in Him. 00:18:39.759 --> 00:18:45.000 If it's not in Jesus Christ that that is dealt with, we have to deal with that on our own 00:18:45.000 --> 00:18:46.759 shoulders. 00:18:46.759 --> 00:18:53.960 And death therefore is never just the natural end of life, the natural extinction of life, 00:18:53.960 --> 00:18:57.960 it's the end of hope for all who are out of Christ. 00:18:57.960 --> 00:19:03.079 I think that's a struggle for people today who we live with such entitlement, such a 00:19:03.079 --> 00:19:06.480 sense of presumption that this is all that is. 00:19:06.480 --> 00:19:13.240 And we have lost sight, I think, very often, I include myself in this, of the eternal justice 00:19:13.240 --> 00:19:18.240 of God and the great judge of all mankind and the priorities that we should have in 00:19:18.240 --> 00:19:24.920 the light of that, that Jesus didn't die for nothing, that Jesus' death wasn't cheap, 00:19:24.920 --> 00:19:29.680 that Jesus is God and the flesh who came with all His love and with all His grace and with 00:19:29.680 --> 00:19:35.200 all His commitment to take and to deal with what we couldn't deal with on our own and 00:19:35.200 --> 00:19:38.039 His kingdom is coming. 00:19:38.039 --> 00:19:42.640 And that's what we recognize and that's what we believe. 00:19:42.640 --> 00:19:47.480 Whether there's this recognition that involves death, but also that... 00:19:47.480 --> 00:19:50.080 And that's the kind of negative side. 00:19:50.080 --> 00:19:54.640 Also involves abundant life to be the ones who are strong, like Solomon is commanded 00:19:54.640 --> 00:19:59.120 here to give heart and soul, is abundant life. 00:19:59.120 --> 00:20:02.240 He gave everything so that we can have everything. 00:20:02.240 --> 00:20:08.800 And you know therefore, and I know therefore how unsatisfactory it is to be half-hearted 00:20:08.800 --> 00:20:11.640 in our Christian faith. 00:20:11.640 --> 00:20:14.480 You know what it's like to do anything half-heartedly. 00:20:14.480 --> 00:20:16.000 It's not really great. 00:20:16.000 --> 00:20:17.000 It's unsatisfactory. 00:20:17.000 --> 00:20:21.840 You know, if you're trying to keep fit, for example, but you're half-hearted about it 00:20:21.840 --> 00:20:27.360 and you've got a stash of donuts so that you can really enjoy them when you're trying to 00:20:27.360 --> 00:20:36.360 keep fit, it doesn't really work for you to be like that or if you're doing laps of the 00:20:36.360 --> 00:20:41.280 track but you cheat on the numbers because you want to give the impression you're doing 00:20:41.279 --> 00:20:42.279 more than you are. 00:20:42.279 --> 00:20:46.359 But actually we're only kidding ourselves when we do that because our heart isn't in 00:20:46.359 --> 00:20:51.440 it if we're not heart and soul and keeping fit. 00:20:51.440 --> 00:20:55.879 And I'm a really bad golfer. 00:20:55.879 --> 00:21:01.680 I don't really play golf but I was out the other week with Joe, my son, and we had a 00:21:01.680 --> 00:21:02.680 scorecard. 00:21:02.680 --> 00:21:05.680 And you know what it's like if you're kind of half-hearted, you're not great at golf 00:21:05.680 --> 00:21:10.279 anyway and you try to keep a score and you would look at it after you'd finished one 00:21:10.279 --> 00:21:15.920 of your holes and you know, I'll not count the three that I had to slash out of the long 00:21:15.920 --> 00:21:16.920 grass. 00:21:16.920 --> 00:21:20.480 I'll just ignore them and I'll forget the fact that I ate potted on the green. 00:21:20.480 --> 00:21:24.240 And you just kind of really, you know, you narrow it down, you say, well, I actually got 00:21:24.240 --> 00:21:26.639 a seven there, that wasn't so bad. 00:21:26.639 --> 00:21:30.039 When in fact you probably got 16 or 17 strokes on that show. 00:21:30.039 --> 00:21:34.399 And you're doing nothing but kidding yourself, really, aren't you? 00:21:34.399 --> 00:21:38.119 And you're really half-hearted about or want to improve. 00:21:38.119 --> 00:21:40.479 And it's unsatisfactory therefore. 00:21:40.479 --> 00:21:44.239 But it can also be dangerous to be half-hearted, isn't it? 00:21:44.239 --> 00:21:52.279 We were, a number of years ago, Katrina and Ross were in Nepal and we had the opportunity 00:21:52.279 --> 00:21:58.159 going paragliding, which is a marvelous thing to do. 00:21:58.159 --> 00:22:06.639 But you have to basically run off the edge of a cliff with someone with you. 00:22:06.640 --> 00:22:10.520 But you really have to be completely wholehearted in doing it. 00:22:10.520 --> 00:22:15.000 You can't kind of, you really have to be wholehearted. 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:19.080 So you've got to, when he says run, you can't really drag your feet because probably the 00:22:19.080 --> 00:22:21.560 whole thing will collapse and you'll die. 00:22:21.560 --> 00:22:26.120 So when you run, you've got to really run with them and go off the edge of the cliff 00:22:26.120 --> 00:22:28.720 and go for it wholeheartedly. 00:22:28.720 --> 00:22:35.080 Or if you're diving off a springboard, that's the kind, you can't do that half-heartedly 00:22:35.079 --> 00:22:37.559 when you're bouncing up and down to get a good height. 00:22:37.559 --> 00:22:39.679 You can't do that half-heartedly. 00:22:39.679 --> 00:22:43.599 If you do it half-heartedly, you kind of half fall off and your trunks get caught in it. 00:22:43.599 --> 00:22:46.000 And you hang in left, hang in, it's a nightmare. 00:22:46.000 --> 00:22:48.319 You've got to be really committed and wholehearted. 00:22:48.319 --> 00:22:54.000 And so it is with, it can be dangerous to be half-hearted and really unsatisfactory. 00:22:54.000 --> 00:22:58.159 And I think that's what we often find, isn't it, in our Christian lives? 00:22:58.159 --> 00:23:01.720 You know, it's unsatisfactory and we feel far from God. 00:23:01.720 --> 00:23:07.360 Often it's because we're just half-hearted and we're not really giving Him everything 00:23:07.360 --> 00:23:10.240 in response to all He's given us. 00:23:10.240 --> 00:23:15.799 And we don't enjoy the abundant life that is promised and is given. 00:23:15.799 --> 00:23:18.920 So there's that reality that we're called to live by faith. 00:23:18.920 --> 00:23:26.600 And very briefly, we're also reminded, maybe implicitly in this passage, if not explicitly, 00:23:26.600 --> 00:23:28.400 that the best is still to come. 00:23:28.400 --> 00:23:36.640 If you remember this book of First Kings, it was written primarily to the Israelites 00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:44.240 who were in exile many years later for their own rebellion and disobedience. 00:23:44.240 --> 00:23:48.160 They lost the promised land and they were enslaved by the Babylonians. 00:23:48.160 --> 00:23:54.560 And this was very probably written by Prophet Jeremiah and given to them as a reminder to 00:23:54.559 --> 00:24:01.480 them of not only what they had lost but also of the great hope that God would fulfill His 00:24:01.480 --> 00:24:03.679 promises, would return them. 00:24:03.679 --> 00:24:09.440 And there was still a Messiah, there was still a people to come. 00:24:09.440 --> 00:24:16.440 And they were in exile, they were under God's discipline as it were, and it seemed grim, 00:24:16.440 --> 00:24:24.240 but there was hope for them, great hope as they considered God's purposes and God's future. 00:24:24.240 --> 00:24:28.680 The covenant promise God, which we've looked at all the way through here is that there's 00:24:28.680 --> 00:24:35.200 the king is still to come, the great, the great or David, the great Messiah Jesus. 00:24:35.200 --> 00:24:38.359 And for us, we're kind of on the other side of that, aren't we? 00:24:38.359 --> 00:24:41.599 But we're waiting for the king to return. 00:24:41.599 --> 00:24:49.160 He has come once in salvation, he will return as the king of kings and judgment. 00:24:49.160 --> 00:24:56.200 And that's a great hope for us as Christians because it reminds us of a perspective we 00:24:56.200 --> 00:24:57.200 often forget. 00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:06.040 Because I think in this life, so often, the best seems to have passed. 00:25:06.040 --> 00:25:15.080 We've enjoyed the best, or maybe the best never was, or we don't know what the best 00:25:15.080 --> 00:25:16.960 might be if you're young. 00:25:16.960 --> 00:25:21.480 But as those of us who are older, it's maybe just memories. 00:25:21.480 --> 00:25:28.680 And even when we do have the best, we somehow somewhere along the line, there's a shadow 00:25:28.680 --> 00:25:30.840 there because we know it's going to end, don't we? 00:25:30.840 --> 00:25:37.480 Even the best of events we know it's going to end, or maybe it's unfulfilled dreams. 00:25:37.480 --> 00:25:44.120 And maybe the standard of, we think of what is the best is connected with youth and with 00:25:44.119 --> 00:25:53.639 vigor and with amazing pleasurable experiences or maybe amazing relationships. 00:25:53.639 --> 00:26:00.839 But in Christ, we always have this great reality and this great truth that the best is still 00:26:00.839 --> 00:26:01.839 to come. 00:26:01.839 --> 00:26:05.959 There's that great, I often quote this verse, don't I, sitting Corinthians, therefore we 00:26:05.959 --> 00:26:06.959 do not lose heart. 00:26:06.959 --> 00:26:12.519 Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we're being renewed day by day. 00:26:12.519 --> 00:26:19.599 So there's something big going on in our lives and the older you get, the better it 00:26:19.599 --> 00:26:21.759 is because we're enjoying it. 00:26:21.759 --> 00:26:25.400 There's a reality that outwardly we're struggling sometimes. 00:26:25.400 --> 00:26:33.960 We're becoming more alive and can become more alive despite our age, despite circumstances, 00:26:33.960 --> 00:26:41.920 despite our health, we can become greater fruit bearers the longer we live. 00:26:41.920 --> 00:26:42.920 Our life is improving. 00:26:42.920 --> 00:26:44.920 That's great, isn't that great? 00:26:44.920 --> 00:26:46.920 Isn't that very hugely counter-cultural? 00:26:46.920 --> 00:26:54.039 And we always struggle with getting older, but there's this great seed of life that is 00:26:54.039 --> 00:26:57.160 growing within us as Christians. 00:26:57.160 --> 00:27:00.160 And even our death is a different death. 00:27:00.160 --> 00:27:03.960 And I think the language of the Scriptures often reminds us of that. 00:27:03.960 --> 00:27:09.960 David, we're told here, rested with his fathers and first Thessalonians, four were told, for 00:27:09.960 --> 00:27:13.440 we believe that Jesus died and rose again, and so we believe that God will bring with 00:27:13.440 --> 00:27:16.079 Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 00:27:16.079 --> 00:27:23.680 That nice, brilliant phrase that reminds us that the sting has been removed from our 00:27:23.680 --> 00:27:26.680 death and that we fall asleep in Jesus. 00:27:26.680 --> 00:27:31.240 It's the one great certainty, isn't it, for us all? 00:27:31.240 --> 00:27:34.319 It's the one great reality. 00:27:34.319 --> 00:27:40.000 But this perspective that as we take our last breath as Christians, it will be a breath 00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:45.439 that is taken in the presence of Jesus, and that we will be going into His company so 00:27:45.439 --> 00:27:50.439 that for us to die will be far greater, is a great comfort. 00:27:50.439 --> 00:27:57.200 And of course, the best is still to come with an unimaginably great eternity that we walk 00:27:57.200 --> 00:28:03.119 into, that we live into, that we will enjoy in all its fullness after Christ's return. 00:28:03.119 --> 00:28:09.959 And I don't fully understand what it means that these Old Testament believers knew that, 00:28:09.959 --> 00:28:14.119 but Hebrews 11 speaks about that and says, they were longing for a better country, a 00:28:14.119 --> 00:28:15.119 heavenly one. 00:28:15.119 --> 00:28:19.119 Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for 00:28:19.119 --> 00:28:20.119 them. 00:28:20.119 --> 00:28:25.079 So in some way, they also understood and knew and recognized that the best was still to 00:28:25.079 --> 00:28:31.519 come, and we far more can do so as we remember Him as the author of life, who will be the 00:28:31.519 --> 00:28:36.799 one that we will share life with, and the one who will wipe away every tear. 00:28:36.799 --> 00:28:41.039 So there's challenges in reading some of these Old Testament passages. 00:28:41.039 --> 00:28:45.559 There's bits that are really difficult to make sense of, but I think the basic principles 00:28:45.559 --> 00:28:51.440 of living a life by faith and recognizing the best is still to come is a great way to finish 00:28:51.440 --> 00:28:53.119 looking at the life of David. 00:28:53.119 --> 00:28:58.000 And the challenge is there for us all, isn't it, about who we serve and how we serve and 00:28:58.000 --> 00:29:00.359 how we live and what our perspective is. 00:29:00.359 --> 00:29:07.039 And this great call, which again was reiterated this morning, and balance as well is about 00:29:07.039 --> 00:29:16.119 our hearts, heart and soul, and recognizing that He, as we rely on Him, He gives us the 00:29:16.119 --> 00:29:22.399 heart to be wholehearted for Him and to serve Him, and therefore to know abundant life and 00:29:22.399 --> 00:29:23.399 blessing. 00:29:23.399 --> 00:29:24.399 Let's pray. 00:29:24.399 --> 00:29:29.599 Father God, we ask and pray that You would teach us Your ways, that we would understand 00:29:29.599 --> 00:29:37.879 Your truth, that we would be wholehearted in what we do for Jesus, not in our own strength, 00:29:37.879 --> 00:29:45.319 but as we rely on the Spirit of God who lives within us, and that we would live by faith 00:29:45.319 --> 00:29:50.679 and live in obedience, that walk of obedience which we often struggle with. 00:29:50.679 --> 00:29:59.079 Forgive us when we fail to obey You because we are grumpy or we're selfish or we think 00:29:59.079 --> 00:30:04.359 we know better or we think it's hard and difficult or we're weary. 00:30:04.359 --> 00:30:10.359 Lord, just help us to come back to You for the desire and for the change of heart and 00:30:10.359 --> 00:30:18.119 for the vision to see that the parameters You give us are there for our blessing, are 00:30:18.119 --> 00:30:25.159 there for our good, are there to make us strong and whole and to be what we were created to 00:30:25.160 --> 00:30:33.840 be, and remind us that sin is the cancer that destroys that vision and makes us insular 00:30:33.840 --> 00:30:41.759 and selfish and self-destructive and sometimes also destructive of others. 00:30:41.759 --> 00:30:48.120 So Lord, we pray for Your wisdom and grace and joy and presence, and that we would help 00:30:48.119 --> 00:30:55.519 one another to live this life of faith and to remind ourselves that the best is still 00:30:55.519 --> 00:30:56.519 to come. 00:30:56.519 --> 00:30:57.519 We ask it in Jesus' name. 00:30:57.519 --> 00:31:22.700 Thank you.