Mill City 4/19/26 Mill City 4/19/26

2 Samuel 11

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Transcript

There's something about us that enjoys scandal, that enjoys getting to see some. Some drama, some chaos. We're working our way through the book of Second Samuel, and we've made it to chapter 11. And some of you maybe knew this story was coming. I know there are new believers and new Christians in our church family, and maybe this is the first time you've ever even walked, read any of two Samuel. But we're going to look today at the story of David and Bathsheba. And we're in danger of reading this story, which is filled with scandals, filled with sin, in a. The same way that we would watch, you know, Dateline or I guess one of those true housewife shows or whatever, where we're just at an arm's distance from it, we're looking down on it, we're shaking our heads, we're sucking our teeth at it, we're, you know, shame. And then we just move on. And we can miss that. In this story, we see such a clear descent into sin that. That King David is going to so seamlessly, alarmingly walk into terrible sin. And there's a way for us to just watch that and go, wow, that's awful, and not see that we have the same potential. So my hope this morning is that God, in his grace and in his mercy, helps us see that we have the same potential and kindly cuts us short from continuing to follow in David's footsteps. So let's pray to that end, and then we'll read chapter 11 together.

Lord, we ask for your grace and your mercy that we would not read the scriptures like Pharisees who can see other sins clearly but can't see our own. We ask that your. Your spirit would pierce through our armor that we put up to keep you away from us, so that we might walk in repentance and we might walk in new life. We ask for your grace. We ask for your mercy. We ask for you to be active at this time in Jesus name. Amen.

All right, so we're going to walk through this story together. If you'll remember, we did 8 and 10 at the same time a couple of weeks ago. That was before Easter. And then we did chapter nine last week. So chapter 10 is talking about this war that is happening, and it says this in chapter 11.

> In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David sent Joab and his servants with him and all Israel. And they ravaged the Ammonites and besieged Rabbah. But David remained at Jerusalem. It happened, late one afternoon, that David arose from his couch and walked on the roof of the king's house. And from the roof he saw a woman bathing, and the woman was very beautiful. And David sent and inquired about the woman. And one said, "Is not this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" And David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. (2 Samuel 11:1–4, ESV)

The way that's written makes it sound like David is the only male still in Jerusalem. It's written in such a way to try to highlight he's not where he should be now. There are times he's the king, where he could stay back. There are men that stay back. He could there. There are times and ways that he should be governing, that he gets older and they tell him they don't want him to go to battle with him anymore. But the way this is written is intentionally trying to help us see, he's already kind of in an odd place. It'd be normative for him to be gone. That's not what he's doing. So that's how this starts. And it says, and it happened late one afternoon when David arose from his couch. Which couch is couch or bed? Worked the same kind of way. And in this time frame and in places where it's hot, it's not uncommon to get up with the sun. Get a lot done till about lunchtime, till the sun's high in the sky, eat, and then have kind of some downtime where you get in the shade for a little while on the hottest part of the day. Not everybody has that luxury. There's a parable. Jesus tells. And he says that the workers said, we worked through the heat of the day, meaning they were at work during that time. They didn't get to have a break. But it's not uncommon to have a break. But it says it's late afternoon, meaning that he's kind of already gone past that. If it was, they were going to give him credit for, like, you're allowed to kind of have a siesta, given the way that the sun works here. It's like, no, this is late afternoon. And he gets up off his couch. So it's written in this kind of. David's just kind of lounging around listless, doesn't really have. He's not really doing anything. Normally he should be at war. He's not doing that. And late afternoon, he just gets up off his couch. It says, and he was walking on the roof of the king's house that he saw from the roof a woman bathing. And the woman was very beautiful. And that word for beauty there is just a physical word. She's just physically attractive. So he's on his roof, walking around looking, and he sees a woman bathing. He should go back inside and mind his own business. But he doesn't. He sees that she's beautiful and he is interested. We don't know exactly what vantage point he has. He's on the roof. It doesn't tell us that she's on a roof. So just from his vantage point, he's able to see wherever she is bathing. It wouldn't be uncommon to bathe outside if it's hot. But he's in a vantage point from where he's at on the roof of his larger house to be able to see where she is. And David sent and inquired about the woman. So not only does he watch her, but now he's like, I want to find out who this is. And one said, so he sends somebody to go find out. Or he asks, hey, who's this? And one says, is not this Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And we don't know this yet, but later in Second Samuel, we learn that Uriah is one of David's mighty men. He's one of the 30, which means that he has done quite well in battle. Would have been known to David at this point, and is off at war, where David seems like he should be. So it says, that's uriah's wife, verse 4. So David sent messengers and took her, and she came to him, and he lay with her. David Caesar thinks she's attractive, finds out who she is. It doesn't even seem like that step was necessary. Who did they have to say it was for him to. Not just he, I don't know. But they tell him, and it doesn't seem to bother him at all. He goes, okay, go get her. Maybe he was making sure her husband was out of town, I don't know. Brings her to him, he sleeps with her. Now, she had been purifying herself from her uncleanness. That is ritual purity in reference to menstruation. What it's telling you is that she had recently menstruated. That was over. That's why she was bathing. That's very pertinent to the next part. Then she returned to her house and the woman conceived, very clearly not Uriah's child. And she sent and told David, I am pregnant. Now, that's the only thing Bathsheba says in this entire story. She's going to do some things Later. But in this recounting of this interaction, that's the only thing she says. And the text is not written in any sort of way where the light really ever shines on Bathsheba. We don't know her intentions, her motives, we don't know. It is written to where David is sinful. It's written where the light shines on David. He uses his position of power to take advantage of this entire situation. But from the text to say that she owns some guilt, you don't really have the ability to do that in the text. And from the text to say that she didn't sin at all, you don't really have the ability to do that in the text. It doesn't give us anything. It does clearly tell us David is wrong. And he does use his position of power to create a lot of victims in this scenario. And that's where it keeps just following along. So she sends to David, I'm pregnant. He gets that information from her somehow.

So David sent word to Joab, send me Uriah the Hittite. Is he going to confess what, what's his plan here? And Joab sent Uriah to David when Uriah came to him. And he would have sent. It's about 40 miles off where they are. So Uriah gets word while he's out on the military campaign. And he's one of the 30, he's important and good at this. They say, hey, David needs you back at the capitol. Okay, so he goes, When Uriah came to him, David asked how Joab was doing, how the people were doing and how the war was going. And I suspect Uriah thought anyone other than me could have told you this information. We got like 16 year old guys who barely know how to swing a sword. They can run and say sentences like, Joab is good, war is bad, but we're doing okay. Like, I mean, you know, could answer these questions. David just kind of. It almost feels chit chatty. But he just is like, all right, give me a report, tell me how things are going. And then David said to Uriah, go down to your house and wash your feet. Which wash your feet there is like an idiom, it means relax, rest. In some ways he's King David giving him a, a leave, military leave, a little bit of go enjoy yourself, take a little break. And Uriah went out of the king's house and there followed him a present from the king. So he sends with him some kind of gift. Take this to your house, have a little, have a little time off. All Right. Y' all pick up on David's plan. Go to your house. He'll sleep with his wife. He'll go back to war. He'll come back from war. She'll be pregnant. Yay. That's his plan.

But Uriah slept at the door of the king's house with all the servants of his Lord and did not go down to his house. Not uncommon for people to sleep outside, especially at this season where it's warming up and the raining has stopped. So servants just kind of find places to sleep. Uriah goes outside. He says, go to your house, which is apparently close to David's house. And Uriah doesn't. He hangs out with the servants. He sleeps there. When they told David, Uriah did not go down to his house. That's an interesting. It just the servants seem to be kind of aware of what's going on here. It's possible David asked them, hey, did you write? Like, maybe he was fishing? But it seems a little more like the servants at this point know that somebody knows. He asked, who's that lady? Somebody knows that he sent for her. Somebody knows. Now that her husband has shown up, somebody knows. Now they were supposed to take gifts with him, but he didn't. He was like, no, take them down to her. But I'm not like, whatever somebody goes to, David just says, hey, just so you know, Uriah slept by the door just giving you that information. David said to Uriah, So he calls him, have you not come from a journey? Why did you not go to your house? So David calls him back up and is like, hey, they told me you slept outside. Why didn't you go home? I gave you, like, you know, time off. What are you doing?

Uriah said to David,

> As the LORD lives, and as you yourself live, I will not do this thing. (2 Samuel 11:11, ESV)

the Ark and Israel and Judah dwell in booths, and my Lord Joab and the servants of my Lord are camping in the open field. Shall I then go to my house to eat and to drink and to lie with my wife? As you live and as your soul lives, I will not do this thing. So if you didn't like Uriah, you should now. He says, that's crazy. I'm not going to do that. And honestly, y', all, I think he learned this from David. He's a Hittite. He would have been brought in with David. He's learned how to do some of this stuff. And he's like, the Ark is in a tent. We're at war. Everybody I just left is sleeping on the ground. I'm not going home. I can't do that. Like I wouldn't feel that's wrong. And if he doesn't mean to chastise David, he does successfully chastise David. How dare I lounge around on a couch and sleep with my wife? He says, I won't do that. So David, now his plan isn't working. Then David said to Uriah, remain here today also, and tomorrow I'll send you back. So Uriah remained in Jerusalem that day and the next. And David invited him and he ate in his presence and drank so that he made him drunk. So David says, okay, we'll just stay tonight and we'll send you back tomorrow. And then he says, hey, come eat at my table. Intentionally gets him drunk. New game plan. Once he's drunk, he won't be so high and mighty about where the ark is and he'll go back to his house. And in the evening, he went out to lie on his couch, which, just so you all know the text, does this stuff on purpose. You go his couch with the servants of the Lord. But he did not go down to his house. So he goes back out and just camps where he'd been camping. David's plan is completely failed. His desire to cover his sin, his ability to get himself out of this, doesn't seem like it's working.

In the morning, David wrote a letter to Joab and sent it by the hand of Uriah. In the letter he wrote, set Uriah in the forefront of the hardest fighting and then draw back from him that he may be struck down and die. So David says, thanks for coming, Uriah. It was good seeing you hand this to Joab when you get back over there. And Uriah delivers his own execution order faithfully. And Joab was besieging the city. They've surrounded Rabba, just waiting them out. And he assigned Uriah to the place where he knew where there were valiant men. And the men of the city came out and fought with Joab and some of the servants of David. Among the people fell. Uriah the Hittite died also, or also died. Then Joab sent and told David all the news about the fighting. And he instructed the messenger,

> When you have finished telling all the news about the fighting to the king, then if the king's anger rises and if he says to you, "Why did you go so near the city to fight? Did you not know that they would shoot from the wall?" and if the king says to you, "Why did you go so near the wall?" then you shall say, "Your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also." (2 Samuel 11:21–24, ESV)

Which gives us a little, little view into Joab has fought with David for a long time, knows David, it's his uncle. And he's like, I kind of know how David responds when you make stupid military decisions. He's taught us this stuff. He was referencing a story that's in the Old Testament. He says, so when you tell him, hey, Joab did something stupid, which was run up next to the wall of a city that we have surrounded. And he says, why is Joab stupid? Doesn't he know that that's where you get shot? Can't someone just drop something on your head? What are you doing? Then you'll say, uriah's dead. So the messenger went and came and told David all that Joab had sent him to tell. The messenger said to David, the men gained an advantage over us and came out against us in the field, but we drove them back to the entrance of the gate. Then the archer shot at your servants from the wall. Some of the king's servants are dead, and your servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. So messenger doesn't wait for David. He just says, this is what happened. David said to the messenger, thus shall you say to Joab, do not let this matter displease you, for the sword devours now one and then another, now one and now another. Strengthen your attack against the city and overthrow it and encourage you. So if you're the messenger, you might be inclined to think David saying, hey, don't feel bad about this military mistake you made. But Joab would understand that David is saying, hey, don't feel bad about this murder I made you complicit in. People die in war. Sword was going to get somebody sometime. Don't think a lot about Uriah or the other guys that died because you had to kill Uriah. Go encourage him.

> When the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she lamented over her husband. And when the mourning was past, David sent and brought her to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD. (2 Samuel 11:26–27, ESV)

It is possible that even him taking her to be his wife is a. Is a way for him to seem like he's just being kind to a widow of a Hittite who was in his army. He's going to make sure she's taken care of. If you're David, you've done it. Took a while, but you got yourself out of this fix. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord, which is a rare statement in first and Second Samuel. It's pretty rare in all of Scripture for it to be that clear. There are times in 1st and 2nd Samuel where a man of God has come and given some kind of declaration. There's times in 1st and 2nd Samuel where God spoke directly to Samuel. There's been a whole lot of stuff in first and Second Samuel where we read it and just went, what's God think about that? And it did not tell us this. It very clear. God is displeased with this. Which, yeah, none of us are surprised by that, but we are surprised by what David has done.

Do you not feel kind of sick reading that story? That's the slimiest thing. I mean, it's like every turn. You ever been four books into a book series and they start changing the character. You're seven seasons into a show and this character just starts doing stuff, and you're like yelling at your tv, they wouldn't do that. That's what this feels like. David. David wouldn't do that. David, he wouldn't do that, would he? When David's introduced to us, Samuel says to Saul, this is in 1st Samuel 21. Nope, it's not. This is in 1st Samuel 13. He says to Saul, this is Samuel says to Saul,

> But now your kingdom shall not continue. The LORD has sought out a man after his own heart, and the LORD has commanded him to be prince over his people... (1 Samuel 13:14, ESV)

Because you haven't kept what the Lord commanded. There's another place where he says he's gone to get a man who's better than you. And what we want so deeply is for there to just be good people who do good things and don't do this. David's hand picked to be the one who's after God's own heart. And he goes and does this. And y', all, he does it so easily. It just boom, boom, boom, boom. My. My older son, when he was 4, I always tell people it was like having a feral cat living in my house. He was certain if he just used enough effort, he could be in charge of our entire household. And there would be times where we would just. Something would happen and then boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. We would just be decision descendants, decision. And my wife would say, you need to learn how to de escalate. And I'm like, I don't de escalate. That's his job. I will end up at the top of this thing. But there would be times where we'd. I'd have him and I would say to him, he'd be sitting on his. I'd get him to his room. We're finally at sorting things out. We've gotten past some of the stuff where we just burst through. Every. Every little mark I put on the ground said, don't cross it. And I would say, do you want to know how we got here? Can we stop? Can we go back and see how we got here? And I feel like we have to do that with David right now. We have to say, how did. How did we get. How did we get here? Well, it started with David not really doing what he was supposed to be doing. That's where it started. And is he wrong? That's hard to say. I mean, would it be better? Sure. Should he have gone? Yeah, you could probably make that argument. But it starts off in this real squishy area where that if you showed up and you were like, how dare you? On your couch. He's like, first of all, I'm the king. I've been at war forever. Joab's great. I'm in a season right now where I just need some rest. Like, I've just had so much going on. And there are some legitimate times where those things are kind of true, right? That. That happens. But. But it's like it's cloud cover for I not really doing what I'm supposed to be doing. There are sins. We often we think about sin. We think of sins that we commit. You go do a thing. But, you know, there are sins of things that you omit, good things that you ought to do that you just don't do. But those are harder to get pinned down on. You got to really run a pattern of those. Someone's like, you weren't generous. Then you're like, I mean, you know, you got all this. It's like, all right, well, we're going to watch you for six months. We're going to watch you for two years. We're going to see if that can. Like, that's the zone he's in where it's like. It's hard to immediately show up and say you're not doing the things you ought to do. And sometimes that's clear and sometimes it's not. And that's where he starts. And so often that's where we start. It's hard. It's hard to go from doing exactly what you're supposed to do. Walking in obedience with the Lord, and let's commit murder that's just. This is a hard jump. Premeditated murder. Like, let's just. Premeditated murder that you had a lot of time to think about. But he's still got to get out there. It's got to happen. Like, he just hanging out, waiting to see, how'd my murder go. That's a hard jump. What we go to first usually is just kind of not doing the things we're supposed to be doing. So it's like, well, I'm not really reading the Bible, but I've had a lot going on. I'm not. I hadn't been around group. I'm a little bit out of the loop, but, like, I'm trying. And usually when our group meets, I stay at home and feel a little bit bad about it. So that counts. And it's like, you're not really. You know, I should be trying to pursue my spouse. I should be kind of doing this, But I'm not. I don't. You know, I just have. And it's. That's where it's. It's just easier to begin there. And sometimes legitimately, we begin with some amount of. It's hard to get things going, but that's where we start.

Then he moves to an internal sin. He looks at her, sees that she's beautiful.

> You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor's. (Exodus 20:17, ESV)

It ends with. Or anything that is your neighbors. You can't look at somebody else's stuff and want it. That's really interesting to be in the Ten Commandments. And it stands out in the Ten Commandments because the other ones are like, don't steal, don't murder. This one says, don't do this thing inside of your heart. That's easier to do, though, and it's easier to justify. Have you ever said, well, I hadn't really done anything. Just thinking about it. I hadn't really done the thing. That's not me. This is where we start. We often start with things, this covetousness. But it's this. This. I shouldn't have to put up with this. You should be really on guard when you start telling yourself there are things that you shouldn't have to do. I shouldn't have to do this. I shouldn't have to put up with this. Other people's wives, they don't do this. If I was just married to her, if I was just married to him, if I just had that job, if I just had this house, it's easier for everybody else. I'm in this spot. This is specific. And you start craving. You start doing stuff inside. That's where it starts. And then that's harder to catch, too. It's easier for you to excuse because I'm still obeying. I'm behaving. Even though you're not. You're do. This is one of the Ten Commandments. But it's harder for people to say to you, hey, I think you're off here. Hadn't shown up yet. Jesus says in Matthew 5,

> But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:28, ESV)

that we begin. Sins begin internally so often before they. They ever show up externally. Which means that when you have external sin, it's not enough to just go, hey, let's. Let's stop the thing. You have to start saying, but what's going on in my heart that I was even willing to get there. It's not just about curbing your behavior. It's about also looking and saying, what's going on with me that I wanted that so badly that I was willing to sin to get it. So that's where he goes. He goes from not really doing what he's supposed to do in a very kind of gray, squishy kind of area, even though it's written in a way to be like, hey, he should have been doing this other stuff. Then he's obviously sinning internally. Then he acts on it. He commits adultery, uses his position of power, uses a position of authority. Whether she was afraid of that or drawn to that, we don't know. We just know he used it. He commits adultery. Then it just starts going, he's committed adultery. Now he's. So he's brought her in on this. And then he's got to bring in his. His servants in on it. Then he's got to bring in. Uriah's got to get here, and Uriah's not going to do anything. So he's got to get Uriah drunk. So that brings him in on a little bit. And then he's got to bring in Joab to make him complicit in murder. And then he's got to tell Joab, hey, don't worry about that. He's got to commit a murder, he's got to kill other people, other sons and brothers didn't come home because Uriah had to die. It's just. And Uriah also the important one we were trying to kill. And it doesn't ever even seem like he stops and thinks about it. He just goes, that's terrifying. Paul refers to this as searing your conscience, which is where you make it to where you won't listen to your conscience for unbelievers or to the Holy Spirit for believers who's trying to get you to stop. You get really good at moment by moment. And it starts back here. It doesn't just start over here, it starts back here where you get to where you just that still quiet voice, that nagging annoyance that says, you shouldn't do this, you should do something else. You just get to where you tune it out, you become numb to it and you just take every little step in that direction because you don't just jump from one to the other, you go every step along the way and you get to where you can't hear the spirit. If you had chronic foot pain and you were seeing doctor about it and then you went to the doctor and he said, how are your feet doing? And you said, great, they're doing great. I can't feel anything from my hips down. No pain whatsoever. Y' all laughed because you know the doctor would say, that's not better, that's worse. This is progressing, it's not getting worse. And y' all, as a pastor, far too often have I sat with someone and I've said, hey, this says this is sin. And they said, I don't feel bad about it, I prayed about it. And the Lord didn't tell me to stop. He already told you, he already told you to stop. Yeah, but like when I asked him, I didn't hear anything, I didn't feel anything. That's worse. The disease has progressed further. That's not better, that's terrifying. Because we're on our way towards being able to commit heinous sin, high handed, rebellious sin, and not notice and not feel it. That's worse. We've reached a later stage in the disease. And it started off with too much time on your phone, which is hard to nail down and accuse you of. But then it gets worse and we go every step of the way in searing our conscience so that we can't hear the voice of the Lord anymore. And so that when people in our church, family around us saying, hey, this is off, you're wrong, this we don't hear them.

James 1:14 and 15 puts it this way:

> But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin, and sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death. (James 1:14–15, ESV)

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. That's where we start. Starts internal. We're lured and enticed by our own desire. Now, if you're inclined to think, I can't do that because I'm not like that. Can you not see David? Are you not surprised that he did this? This is David. This is David who was unwilling to raise his hand against Saul. This is David who we watched with extreme patience, who was anointed to just wait for the Lord. This is David who we just read and celebrated how kind and good he was to Mephibosheth. This is David who wrote half the Psalms. But you can't. I can't. You ever hear someone come out and they say, I'm sorry that I did that. It was outside of my character. I acted outside of my character. Every time I hear that, I think, they didn't. This is perfectly inside of our character. You say, I don't know why. I don't know why I said that. That's not me. Yeah, it is. It's perfectly inside of who you are. That's what's terrifying. And the confidence level to say, I can't sin because of who I am, first of all, is purely insane, given the way the text talks about it. But it's also just. It doesn't work like that. So we're lured and enticed by our own desires. And then it says this, then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin. So before Bathsheba conceived, sin was conceived by desire. In David's heart, desire conceived and has given birth to sin.

This is why the Bible constantly says things like, keep a close watch on your steps, keep a close watch on your feet, keep a close watch on your heart, keep a close watch on your words, guard your path, keep a close watch on your life and doctrine. Don't let your feet wander. Because it. This is why Jesus says, daily we pray,

> And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. (Matthew 6:13, ESV)

because any of us can start this walk. Sin, when it's fully grown, brings forth death. It's just what sin does. It's just how it works. The wages of sin is death. It is destructive, it will kill you, and it will lead you to eternal death. Siegfried and Roy had a magic show for years in Las Vegas. One of their main things was they had big cats. And Roy was famous for light. He would, like, sleep in the bed with his tigers and stuff. And then in 2002, one of the tigers bit him in the neck and dragged him off stage during a show, causing severe injuries, including a severed spine, partial paralysis, and a stroke. And everyone who heard that story said, yeah, it was a tiger. He's like, no, I raised it from a baby. Yeah, it was a tiger that you raised from a baby. We were friends. You were friends with a tiger? He did a tiger thing that tigers do, like a tiger. He didn't stop being a tiger because you slept in a bed with it. We're surprised it took this long. Most of the other people who do this are already dead. That's what this says about sin. And some of you right now are saying, no, this sin is cute and under my control. No, I've known this sin for a long time. No, this sin can't get me. It's sin and it brings forth death, and that's all it ever does. It doesn't bring joy. It doesn't bring life. It doesn't bring hope. It brings death, and that's all it ever does because it's sin. And that's all it can do. It doesn't bring joy. It doesn't bring life. It doesn't bring hope. It brings death, and that's all it ever does because it's sin. And to tell yourself, this one's my pet. This one is fine. Jesus, you can mess with the other things, but not this. I hope God in his grace knocks your whole house down to take that away from you, because if it gets full grown, it kills you. That's all it ever does. Now, the question for us this morning is where am I on this walk? Where have I begun to drift? Where have I begun to make compromises? Where. Where are you? Are you just right now not really doing some of the things that you ought to be doing? Not really pursuing, not really fighting, not really praying, not really. Where. Where are you at? Is it just in your heart? I'm just thinking about it. I didn't say that to him. I just thought about it. I'm just daydreaming. Doesn't hurt to look. You can order and still read the menu. Whatever kind of nonsense phrases we have. Have you already started texting them? You already started eating your lunches with them? Have you been telling yourself, this place doesn't really pay me enough? So you've. Is that all you're saying right now? Or have you already started taking things? Well, it's just time right now. Okay? But we're on the walk. We're just friends right now. Okay, but we're on the walk. It's just porn. It's not hurting anybody, but it's years of it. And it gives birth to death. And if God will help you see your sin, and you say, well, what do I do with it? Because most of our plans look like David's hide. Obscure. Put it on somebody else. Make sure I don't have to pay for it. Figure out my way out of it. I can't say this to people. You'll tell yourself that I can't tell anybody this. Can I tell you right now that it is better to confess than to die? Lord help you if you keep your sin until you meet Jesus. Take it to him now. That's the answer. What do I do with this sin? What do I do while I'm up to my neck in it? What do I do if I'm drowning in it? What if I do if I've already walked the whole line?

Romans 5 says this about Jesus:

> For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. (Romans 5:6, ESV)

Who did he die for? Who did he die for? The ungodly. So if you say I'm too far gone, I'm too far in it, that's exactly who he died for. Murderers, adulterers, thieves. That's who he died for. The ungodly. Those who do not deserve it, Those who have gone too far in. We have a story here where a king commits sin and then makes sure that someone who's innocent pays for it. But the story that we get invited into is a king who never committed sin who's willing to pay for ours. That's the hope of the gospel. So I don't know where you are on the line. And I'll tell you that it doesn't matter. You can go to Christ and you can repent and you can be forgiven and you can be given life. I can't guarantee you you'll keep your marriage. I can't guarantee you that you'll keep your job. I can't guarantee you won't go to jail. I can't guarantee you you'll keep those friends. I can't. But I can guarantee you that Jesus is better and that the trade is worth it and that sin leads to death. I can guarantee all of those things. And I can guarantee that taking your sin to Christ is your best chance for those things being restored and redeemed and worked out. But I can also tell you that we had someone walk over here this morning and stand right here and say, I was in the middle of nothing in a desert, choosing sin, and I've chosen Jesus and it's better. And even if her life didn't get better, it's eternally better.

George is going to come back up and we're going to take a moment to just try to listen, because some of you have worked really hard to stop listening. And we can get really good at it. There was a time when David listened. We just read this whole story. He's not listening. You're not going to listen. We want to take a moment where you ask the spirit, where, where am I? And if you're right now going, I think I'm doing pretty good, then ask, have I started anything? Do I have any habits that are going to grow? Am I 2 degrees off? Let's pray.

Lord, I ask you would open us up, that you'd help us see our sin, Lord, where we've gotten good at hiding. Let us run to you, Lord, where we've hardened our hearts and our ears to not hear you. Breakthrough, Lord, for the person that you're speaking to right now and you've been telling them you've been pressing on it, you've been, don't let them run. We ask this in Jesus name. Wherever you are, ask the Lord and then act on it. If you need to confess to someone in your group, if you need to confess to your spouse, if you need to grab somebody and pray, if you need help, respond. Don't harden your heart, don't turn away, don't take further steps and getting to where you don't listen to Jesus.

Mill City 4/12/26 Mill City 4/12/26

2 Samuel 9

Group Guide

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Transcript

Come on, if you will, grab your Bibles and go to Second Samuel, chapter nine. We're going to be reading all of Second Samuel chapter nine together this morning. That's on page 149 in one of the blue Bibles. So if you want to grab one of those from the seat in front of you, would love for you to turn there. It's good to hold a Bible. It's good to hold it open and read together. We have already walked through 2nd Samuel 8 and 10. We're working through the whole book of 2nd Samuel. We took a little break right around Easter, but we've already looked at 8, chapters 8 and chapters 10, because they were dealing with the military victories of David that he was successful, because God was blessing him, defending the nation of Israel and enlarging the territory of Israel as they were attacked and as they defended, they would claim new lands. And so we looked at that. But in the middle of that recounting of the victories of David, there's this story that we're going to look at in chapter nine. And it. In chapter eight, it just finished by saying that David ruled with equity and justice, that he's a good king. And then it's going to give this little story. And in some ways that typifies that, that shows us that. And I think this is one of the beautiful highlights of David's kingship. So we're going to study it together this morning, and through it, we're going to try to set our minds on Christ and how he's a good king and how this story reflects to us some of the beauty of what he is like and how good he is. So chapter nine, verse one. This is David at kind of the height of his power. In some ways. He's been victorious. He's established the kingdom. It's firmly in his hand. And I think this gives us a little glimpse into what he's like because it says this.

> And David said, "Is there still anyone left of the house of Saul, that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake?" (2 Samuel 9:1, ESV)

So if you'll remember, Saul was the first king of Israel and Jonathan was his son. And when David killed Goliath, it says that Jonathan, the souls of Jonathan and David were knit together, and they loved one another and they were friends and cared for one another. And Jonathan helped David escape Saul, his father, when Saul was going to kill him. And they made covenantal promises to each other that David promised that he would be good to him in his kingdom and he'd be good to his family. And David even promised Saul that he would not, if he became king, kill all of Saul's family. And so David, in this moment of power, when he's got some victories under his belt and things have settled, he's got his own city, he's got the. The ark brought to the city, he's got the tabernacle, a tent set up for the ark. I went in the tabernacle. It was in a different place. I was about to misspeak there. David stops and says, can't I find somebody to keep this promise to Jonathan? Is there not anybody where I can show kindness to? And if you would think about kings, if they're constantly at war, the sorts of things that they might be inclined to do when they had a moment of break, when they had a moment down where they might be inclined to make themselves greater, enlarge their palaces, rest. And we get this moment where David, in the moment of stillness, goes, can't I keep this promise? Is there not someone that I can show kindness to for Jonathan's sake? Verse 2. Now, there was a servant of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba. And they called him to David. And the king said to him, are you Zeba? And he said, I am your servant. Which is just a humble way to say yes. Now, if you're Zeba and you're a servant of Saul, and David, who Saul was at war against, has now become king. There was a war between the house of Saul and David for several years because of Saul, and then with Ishma Sheth, and then they come to your house and they say, hey, David wants to see you. I'm going to go ahead and guess that you're not ecstatic at that news, that this was probably kind of stressful for Ziba. If they came to you and just said, hey, the president needs to talk to you, you'd have a lot of questions. Why? What for? And they're like, we got to get there quick. We brought a helicopter. Me. Are you. Check the name again. Why do I need to see the president? And even if you thought there was not a good chance that he was going to execute you on the White House lawn, you'd still be nervous. Well, Ziba is in a situation where he's a part of the house of Saul. It's like, this might not be going to go well. And he's brought before the king. And the king said, is there not still someone of the house of Saul that I may show the kindness of God to him? So David's Intent is to bless someone in the house of Saul, to show the kindness of God to them. And Zeba said to the king, there is still a son of Jonathan. He is crippled in his feet. Now that's an interesting, might even argue, troubling response. He, he doesn't say who in Ziba's mind. The thing that's important is he's crippled in his feet. And if you're someone who deals with a disability, specifically physical ones, that it's possible for you to feel like this is kind of how it works, that that's what's seen and known about you to the point of it swallows your identity either for other people or for yourself, that that's how you're marked, that's how you're labeled. That's how you're understood to the point of even being able to lose yourself in it. Now, we know that this son of Jonathan, his name is Mephibosheth. And we know that because of the introduction that were given to him in chapter four. But it, and it's a tragic introduction. So I want to show that it's a chapter four. You can go one page over in the blue Bible, Chapter four, verse four, says

> Jonathan the son of Saul had a son who was lame in his feet. He was five years old when the news about Saul and Jonathan came from Jezreel. His nurse took him up and fled, and as she fled in her haste she fell and the child became lame. His name was Mephibosheth. (2 Samuel 4:4, ESV)

So Mephibosheth, when he was five, on the same day, lost his granddad, his dad, his home, and his ability to walk. Now, any one of those things, no matter what your age is, would be extremely difficult to try to process through. But to have them all happen when you're five is an immense, acute amount of suffering. To be displaced, to be a refugee, to lose your father, to lose your grandfather, to lose everything you knew and understood about the world and your place in it, to lose all sense of safety. None of these things are anything that we would want a five year old to have to deal with. And he loses all of it at once and physically carries the reminder in himself from that day forward. In this culture, it was possible that he also carried the stigma of the judgment of God on him, that somehow he had earned this or deserved this or that God had added this to him. And all cultures, including ours, consistently ask, why do these sorts of things Happen? Why do we face this amount of suffering? Why do we have things like this happen? There's an interaction with Jesus and his disciples in John chapter nine where they see a man who's born blind and his disciples ask Jesus who sinned, that this man was born blind, was it him or, or his parents? The reason being, the reasoning being that someone had to sin for him to be cursed this way. Someone had to sin for this to befall him. Obviously it was deserved. That's the assumption. Then the thing they're troubled with is if he had become blind later in life, we wouldn't have the question because he had earned it. But since he was born blind, whose fault is that? Is it his parents fault or did he somehow earn it? But how did he earn it when he was born this way? That's, that's the thought process that they're trying to work out. And we can see that the idea of suffering, and specifically the suffering of someone young, or the suffering of someone born a certain way, or the suffering of, of the kind of the chaos suffering that just seems to happen adds more questions to it. Every once in a while we watch someone and we go, yeah, the reason that happened to you is that you're dumb and you make bad choices. You earned that one. But there are other times where we're going, we don't know how to place this, how does this fit? And that's the question that they're asking. And that honestly is the question that so much of life has to try to answer. Every religion has to try to answer that, every worldview has to try to answer that. So if you believe in karma, you would say that these sort of things, this type of suffering happens because of a previous life. You have a chance to suffer well in this one and then be reincarnated in a, in a better form. If you're Buddhist, you would say that all the material world's an illusion anyway and we're supposed to try to see through it. I was speaking to my neighbor who's Islamic. She said that in our suffering there are specific times where God hears us better in prayers and so we can pray to him and we can ask why. And she said, it's the primary purpose of praying to God in suffering is to ask why. Understanding that the reason you're suffering is God is trying to teach you something. Our Western culture is one of the least prepared to handle suffering in a what's called an imminent frame, which is all that we have is what we can see and taste and touch all we have is science, then there's no purpose in suffering, and the best you can do is get out of it quickly. We at least had at some point previously in generations, we understood that you could grow as a person and develop in character. And we still have a little bit of that, that you could somehow develop as a person so that you could become tough for the world. But now we've mostly shifted into, let's make the world soft for you. And so if anything causes pain or discomfort or suffering, you need to get rid of it, and you need to get rid of it quickly, whatever that means. Get rid of the relationship physically change, however, you can change to the point of surgeries or whatever, but we've got to change the situation so that you don't have to deal with that anymore. And in Christianity, I think we're given better answers and a better hope. We. We know that God's original design did not include any of this. And we know that through sin, suffering has entered the world. We know that it's not all earned. There are some, you know, there's rules in the world, like gravity. But a lot of the suffering that we face is not somehow earned by us or could have been avoided by our good behavior. Jesus, in his response to the disciples when they asked that question, says, neither, but so that the works of God might be displayed in Him. There's another instance In John, chapter 11, where Lazarus dies, and he says that God allowed this to happen for the sake of displaying his glory, that there's something unique that can happen in suffering and through suffering, a unique, peculiar way that God can work to display his goodness, to display his glory, to display his greatness. That only can happen in suffering. There's a unique and peculiar way that he can work in your life only through suffering, that he can't work in other ways or chooses not to. And we know because Jesus joins us in our suffering that there is no suffering that is wasted, that he's not distant from it, but he loves us in it, and that he works redemptively through it, and that we have a hope beyond it. So we don't get all the answers we want. We don't understand why some of these things happen to the degree they happen to you or to this other person, why him, not her? We don't understand those things. We actually don't get that answer. But we do know that Jesus meets us in it, cares for us, sees us, knows us. And we see specifically in this situation with Mephibosheth, a glimpse of how God cares and knows and works. And specifically in this situation with someone who's physically disabled, how he works and relates and ls. So I want to keep reading because I love what happens next. Verse 4. So Zeba just said, he's got a son.

> Then the king said to him, "Where is he?" And Ziba said to the king, "Behold, he is in the house of Machir the son of Ammiel, in Lo-debar." (2 Samuel 9:4, ESV)

The king sent and had him brought from Lo-debar, from the house of Machir the son of Ammiel.

> Then King David sent and had him brought from Lo-debar, from the house of Machir the son of Ammiel. (2 Samuel 9:5, ESV)

If you thought Ziba was uncomfortable, if you agreed with me on that assessment, Mephibosheth has to be quite nervous. If they showed up and said, hey, Mephibosheth, King David's looking for you. Why? Because you're a descendant of Saul. Great, good, normal thing to do is to go round up anybody else who could be a rival to your kingdom. You just wipe them out. And he's like, oh, okay. And they say, no, no, no, no. He wants you to come because he's going to be nice to you. Doesn't that make it worse? Feels more suspicious that way. He's got a gift for you. Sure he does. So I should, like, hug my wife and tell her bye? That's what you're saying? This isn't going to go well, but I don't know how trusting he was. It doesn't tell us. David does respond to him and tell him not to be afraid. So I think there's a. There's an indication that there was some anxiety over the situation. But it says this in verse six.

> And Mephibosheth the son of Jonathan, son of Saul, came to David and fell on his face and paid homage. And David said, "Mephibosheth." And he answered, "Behold, I am your servant." (2 Samuel 9:6, ESV)

And David said to him, do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your grandfather, and you shall eat at my table always.

> And David said to him, "Do not fear, for I will show you kindness for the sake of your father Jonathan, and I will restore to you all the land of Saul your grandfather, and you shall eat at my table always." (2 Samuel 9:7, ESV)

He bowed himself and said, what is your servant, that you should show regard for a dead dog such as I? Then the king called Ziba Saul's servant, and said to him,

> "Behold, I have given to your master's grandson all that belonged to Saul and to all his house. You and your sons and your servants shall till the land for him, and you shall bring in the produce, that your master's grandson may have bread to eat; but Mephibosheth your master's grandson shall eat at my table." (2 Samuel 9:8–10, ESV)

Now Ziba had fifteen sons and twenty servants. Then Ziba said to the king, according to all that my lord the king commands his servant, so will your servant do. So Mephibosheth ate at David's table like one of the king's sons.

> And Mephibosheth had a young son whose name was Mica, and all who lived in Ziba's house became Mephibosheth's servants. And Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate continually at the king's table. Now he was lame in both his feet. (2 Samuel 9:12–13, ESV)

So Mephibosheth lived in Jerusalem, for he ate always at the king's table. Now he was lame in both his feet, which will factor into the story again later as we run back into Mephibosheth. But David has welcomed him, invited him in, and placed him at his table, restored everything he could restore to him. And it's wonderful. And I think sometimes when we read these stories, when you're reading the. The Bible, sometimes you just come across something like this and you're like, okay, what do we do with that? How are we supposed to understand that? And in general, we've been trained to. When you interact with a story, that the story is trying to tell you something about life or about yourself, some sort of moral, some sort of lesson. And then we import that specifically when we come to the Bible, we're going, this is obviously written for some kind of lesson. And. And there are things that are like that. Paul says that in First Corinthians, he says these things were written down for our instruction so that we wouldn't do what they did. So that's an okay thing to do, to read the Scriptures and go, okay, yeah, let's not repeat that. Let's learn from that. Just like if you have an older sibling and they do dumb things, it's good for you to go, yeah, I'm also not going to do that. So we're able to look into this and see this. But that's not the primary way to read the Bible. We're not supposed to just take in lessons, although that's what we've been trained to do. That's. I don't know if you all know this, but every culture, stories help you understand what their ideals are, what they care about, what they value. That's why so many of the stories we tell right now are about throwing off anything that would keep you from being your real, authentic self. That's what a whole lot of our stories are about. Figuring out how to find out the real you and listen to that voice inside and seeing that with your little animal companion or whatever. Like, that's the stuff that we put out there and how your parents are stupid, that's a bonus. Just throw that in there. Don't listen to them. But that's a lot of the stories about freedom, about being alone, about figuring out how to find it all in yourself. We have a lot of those kind of stories. That's not the stories that people used to tell. We actually went and took all of the old fairy tales and turned them into that. But the old fairy tales used to be like, hey, honey, you about to go to sleep? Let me tell you a story. There was a little girl, she's about your age, her mom gave her a chore. She didn't do the chore. And she got eaten night pudding. Those were the stories. There was a mermaid, and her dad told her, don't become a person. And she became one and then suffered forever. Good night. Listen to your dad. Those are the stories. And so we. We understand, we're trying to read sometimes, and we're going, what's the lesson here? But when we come to the text, when we come to the Bible, that's secondary in our understanding. The Bible's primary purpose is to tell us the story of God and his interaction with humans and to display his greatness. This is how Jesus tells us to read the Bible. He looks at the. The Pharisees and he says, you search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have life, but it's they that testify about me. The point of the Scriptures is to point us to Christ first and foremost. So, yes, we can learn lessons and we can say we ought to be like David and we ought to be kind and we ought to be gracious. But if we're looking for ourselves in stories so often, what happens is we end up putting ourselves in the. In the position of the hero. But we're not in the position of the hero. Christ is in the position of the hero. If we're to find ourselves in this story, we're Mephibosheth. We've lost everything and have no ability to get it back. That's us in the scheme of the world. It's all gone. You've been born into an enemy house. You've been born into sin. You've chosen sin and you have no way to come back. You have nothing in yourself that can merit or earn your salvation. You have no hope on your own. But God in Christ has chosen to rescue and to redeem and to welcome each other. Enemies and to bring him into his house. Enemies who could not have accomplished anything on their own. Enemies who. Who by nature and choice have fallen away. Enemies who have rebelled, enemies who do not belong are brought in because he's good. I love that he says, for the sake of Jonathan, because it's for the sake of Christ that we're welcomed in. It's not for our sake. It's not something that you've done. It's not something that you've accomplished. It's not something that you've earned. It's something that has been accomplished by Jesus on our behalf. So if your framework for what you're trying to do, even just being here this morning is, I'm going to get it together. I'm going to fix it. I've messed some things up, but I'm going to get better. I'm going to do what's good. I'm going to do what's right. I'm going to. I'm going to change. And your intent is to do that on your own in such a way that merits you a seat at the king's table. It will never happen. But I've got better news. The king goes out of his way to seek and to save the lost. He goes out of his way to find and to bring in rebels to his house. He goes out of his way to get those who do not belong and in any other system would not be welcome. They're brought in. And I think we say this a lot, so I think you've heard it. I think we've said a lot that you're a sinner, you're broken. We don't usually use this phrase, but we could. You're like Mephibosheth. You're a dead dog. Maybe we should start. I think we say that a lot. I think what can happen sometimes is we can miss. Mephibosheth lays on his face before the king understands his position is absolute worthlessness. He has nothing to bring. And then he gets up and he goes to the table. I don't want you to miss that. Because his position at the table should be one of joy and delight and fellowship and welcome, like a king's son. He shouldn't sit forever and go, oh, my dead. He shouldn't do that. That's not the position he's in. And here's the other thing that I think sometimes happens in our mind. You might go, yes, I understand. I'm saved only by grace. Yes, I understand that Jesus did everything. Yes, yes, yes. And then somehow you work in your mind that you've snuck in the back door. Everybody else is loved and welcome, but somehow you're here on some kind of technicality. It's not how it works. I don't know if y'all can imagine with me the moments when David looked down the table at all of his sons and at Mephibosheth. I don't know if you can imagine the Moments that Mephibosheth moved or spoke or laughed like Jonathan and David's heart leapt. And how much joy and delight there was in David's heart to have him at the table. And as Christ goes to work for you and in you, I want you to know that the King of Ages will sit with us at the table and delight that we're there to the glory of Christ. And every moment that Jesus is at work in you, and he sees a glimpse of him in you, and every moment that he knows that the only way you're welcome is because of the work of the Son of God, that there's joy and delight that he's brought you in, and that his greeting is your name with an exclamation mark. You did not sneak in. You are not unwelcome. He died and shed his precious blood so that you might have a seat at the table, and he did it on purpose for you. John, chapter 10. He says, I, the good shepherd, I know my sheep. I call them by name and I lead them out. If you don't think he knows your name and doesn't delight to welcome you, you have misunderstood the greatness of our God and King, who in Christ welcomes sinners to the praise of his glory and to the light of his goodness. So if you belong to Jesus, I want you to know you don't deserve to be at the table, but I want you to know that you get to be at the table and that he delights to have us there. He's that good. Let's pray.

Lord, thank you for saving sinners. And thank you that we have nothing to offer or to merit or to achieve or to accomplish, but that you searched us out. And due to your great kindness and goodness, you've welcomed us. So, Lord, may we with joy in our hearts, with heads held high, with a smile on our face, live like we're your children because Jesus is the firstborn among many brothers and that we've been welcomed because of your greatness, not ours. May we rest in that and hope in that and give you glory in that. And for anyone in this room, Lord, who's been on the run for you from you, or who thinks that they have to fix it before they can come, may they lay their face on the ground and say, lord, I don't deserve this. And then may, through your grace and your goodness and your blood, may you lift them up and give them a seat at the table, because they don't. But you're good enough, kind enough and loving enough to Bring them in. May they surrender to you in Jesus name. Amen.

We're going to take a moment together before we sing. Daniel's going to come back up and play for us as we take communion together as a church family. And what we're going to do is remind ourselves that we're invited to the table. And that what invited us, what brought us in, is the blood of Christ and the breaking of his body. That the night he was betrayed, he took bread and he broke it and he gave it to his disciples. He said, this is my body broken for you. And he took the cup and he said, this is the blood of the new covenant poured out for forgiveness of sins. And that in Jesus and in his sacrifice, we have forgiveness and we are welcomed. So take a moment wherever you are, if you need to deal with the Lord on something, if you need to repent of something, if you need to talk about something that's great, throne in between you and him, then repent and do that. And then go to the table as someone who's welcomed to the table through the work of Jesus. If you are not a Christian, then communion is not for you. But the gospel is offered to you that you might trust and follow Him. So when you're ready, we'll take communion. There's gluten free at that table back there.

Mill City 3/22/26 Mill City 3/22/26

2 Samuel 8 & 10

Group Guide

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Transcript

Mill City 3/15/26 Mill City 3/15/26

2 Samuel 7

Group Guide

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Transcript

Good morning. My name is Spencer. I'm one of the pastors here. So last week I got to serve in Kid City. Yes. First time in eight years. Which should tell you how desperate they were that I was called in to serve. They were really scraping the bottom of the barrel. But I got to serve and it was neat because I usually get the 10,000 foot view. So I got, as an elder, I help oversee the church and every now and then checking in with Isaac, who's checking with Katie. So I get this bigger picture of you. But it's been eight years since I've actually been in the classroom. So I got to basically just walk up there and I was so blessed to just walk in. And there was a lesson in the book of Job that was dealing with big theological, weighty ideas of suffering that was written so well. It was at a game that was really helpful, which some of you may not know this. We actually, we've written our own curriculum. When we started as a church plant, we could not afford to buy curriculum from Lifeway or anywhere else. It's pretty expensive to buy. So we wrote it over the years and it's been edited and re edited and revisited and it's just really strong stuff. And the whole setup was just cool. To see all the work that goes in to teach our children the gospel. And it just, in a brief period of time, just sit with the kids and help them see who Jesus is in new and better ways is just awesome. So this is my plug this morning. If you're not serving anywhere, we'd love for you to serve in Kid City. We got a need for volunteers. It's a wonderful opportunity to teach children the gospel. We're going to. Just being frank, we're going to have a bigger need for volunteers because it is very possible when we send out this church plant next year that we're going to lose volunteers. Maybe more volunteers than children, I don't know. So we actually need. If you're not serving anywhere, we'd love for you to actually connect with Katie Mertz and get involved in Kid City. If you're like, I just. But I hate children. First off, maybe we should talk because Jesus loves children and maybe you shouldn't have that attitude. But maybe Kid City is not the first step for you. There are other places to serve and I can connect you and. Or any of our elders can connect you to service opportunities. But we're going to have a need to fill more gaps in the coming months and over the next year. So if you've been around for a bit, man, we could use you. So come talk to us. Let me pray for us. And then we're going to jump into Second Samuel, chapter seven.

God, I'm thankful for the opportunity to walk through your word, to continue to see the message of the gospel and the hope that comes out of the Old Testament. God, I pray that you might help us see that so clearly this morning in a way that would make you more wonderful in our minds, that would lead us to faith, that would lead us to repentance, that would lead us to ultimately delighting in you over all things. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

All right, so in Second Samuel seven, here's what we're going to see today. God delivers this blessing, this promise to David. That is wonderful. And we're going to get to see how it's good news for David, but how it's even better news for us. And there's a little bit of layers of whoa. My wife and I were watching the show and in the first episode it's like, oh, this is good. And by the end of the first episode, it's like, oh, man. They've totally changed this. Whoa. And the whole first season was just more plot lines and threads being tied together. I was like, whoa, whoa. By the end of, it's like, well done. This is great. Today we're going to see a glimpse of that right there as we get to see how this story is tied into the greater story.

So jump into verse one.

> Now when the king lived in his house and the LORD had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies,
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> 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."
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> And Nathan said to the king, "Go, do all that is in your heart, for the LORD is with you."
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> But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan, "Go and tell my servant David, 'Thus says the LORD: Would you build me a house to dwell in? For 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 and a tabernacle.
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> Wherever I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word to any of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?"'
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> 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.
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> And I have been with you wherever you went and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and I will make for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth.
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> And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more, and shall badgered no more; and violent men shall afflict them no more, as formerly,
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> from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house.
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> When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
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> He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
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> 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,
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> but my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you.
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> And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.'"

So Nathan has this message that the Lord is giving him, that he's got to deliver to David. That is, listen, in all the years that I've dwelt in this tabernacle, his unique presence, ruling and residing amongst his people has dwelt. He's like, have I ever asked the Judges and the hundreds of years, did I ask the last king? Did I ask anyone to build me a cedar house? So he presses this upon David.

And then it shifts a bit. 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 for you a great name, like the name of the great ones of the earth. So it shifts and he's like, remember when you were a mere shepherd boy? Remember how I chose you and I took you and I made you prince of Israel, your king. Remember all of this, how I cut off your enemies, how I established your role in your reign. Guess what? I'm going to make your name great. Greater than almost all the names that have come before or will come after. And this is where kind of the layers of whoa begin. It's like, wait a second. What's happening here? That he's giving to David what we're about to see is one of the most important promises in the Scriptures, but I would also argue is one of the most important promises in all of human history. And that's what God is about to deliver to David.

> And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more, and violent men shall afflict them no more,
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> and from the time that I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies.
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> Moreover, the LORD declares to you that the LORD will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom.
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> He shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.

So what the Lord just promised David is that he'd give him three things. A house, a kingdom, and an eternal throne. As we're going to see this, this is an eternal house, an eternal kingdom, and an eternal throne. So David comes and he says, I want to build you a house, Lord. And God takes the words and flips them and says, no, no, no, I'm going to build you a house. And what he's getting at is that I'm going to build you a dynasty. David, your house is going to continue to rule and reign. Your kingdom is going to continue to rule and reign. Your throne will be eternal. This is a massive promise that David is receiving, that his children and his children's children and his children's children's children are going to continue to reign. David gets this wonderful promise.

And then he continues this promise. And speaking of his descendants, he says,

> 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.
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> But my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you.
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> And your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.

In accordance with all these words and in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David. So David gets, or Nathan gets this vision from the Lord at night, and he takes it to David. And at the last part of this he says, you, son David will be on the throne, and he will be like a son to me. I'm going to have a unique relationship with your line. However, built into this promise is some warning that if he strays, that if he commits iniquity, which is sin, that God will bring discipline. But even as the Lord disciplines him with the rod of men, even as he disciplines him, his love will not fade. It will remain with him because it will remain with David. So David will have an eternal house, an eternal kingdom, and an eternal throne.

Nathan takes that message and delivers it to David, which had to be overwhelming. Have you ever been in a situation where someone did something so wonderful for you, so kind to you, so amazing, you just didn't have the words to even convey thanks? My wife and I were watching the show, and this Secret Service agent, he takes a bullet for the President. And the President comes and visits him in the hospital, and they have this exchange where the President looks at him and says, saying thank you kind of feels insufficient. And the agent kind of quips back and says, well, I mean, saying, I'm just doing my job feels kind of lame. And I appreciate that exchange for the writing, but also the reality that it's like, yeah, if someone takes a bullet for you, how do you begin to convey thanks? David has received something so overwhelming, so wonderful, this promise that his sons and his grandsons and his great grandsons are going to sit on the throne and rule and reign unendingly. It's like, how do you begin to even respond to that? Thank you kind of feels insufficient. David's going to do his best. And this best prayer, a prayer of thanksgiving, and that's the rest of this chapter is this prayer of thanksgiving that David gives in response to this promise.

> Then King David went in and sat before the LORD and said, "Who am I, O LORD God, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?
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> And this was yet a small thing in your eyes, O LORD God. You have spoken also of your servant's house for a great while to come, and you have regarded me as though I were a man of the highest rank, O LORD God.
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> What more can David say to you for you know your servant, O LORD God. For your promise's sake, and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness, to make known all that is in your heart.
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> Therefore you are great, O 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.
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> 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?
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> And you established for yourself your people Israel to be your people forever. And you, O LORD, became their God.
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> Now, O LORD, confirm forever the word that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house, and do as you have spoken.
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> And your name will be magnified forever, saying, 'The LORD of hosts is God over Israel; and the house of your servant David will be established before you.'
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> For you, O LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, have made this revelation to your servant, saying, 'I will build you a house.'
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> Therefore your servant has found courage to pray this prayer to you. And now, O LORD God, you are God, and your words are true, and you have promised this good thing to your servant.
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> Now therefore, may it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may continue before you forever. For you, O LORD God, have spoken, and with your blessing shall the house of your servant be blessed forever."

That's the end of his prayer. That's the end of this chapter. David has promised an eternal house, an eternal kingdom and an eternal throne. And as I said earlier, this is one of the most significant promises in all of history. And we're going to see why as we walk through this. Though the word doesn't literally show up in this chapter, all the ingredients that are necessary for this are here. This is a covenant. This is a covenant that God makes with David. That's why the Psalmist in Psalm 89, Psalm 89 is all about recounting this covenant.

> You have said, "I have made a covenant with my chosen one; I have sworn to David my servant,
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> 'I will establish your offspring forever, and build your throne for all generations.'"

This is often called the Davidic covenant. The Davidic covenant, that's David, the covenant God makes with David. And if you want to understand the Old Testament, the way to really understand how it all ties together is the history of the Old Testament is told through covenants. There are significant covenants that God makes that help define what the rest of the scriptures. So you can go to Genesis chapter nine and you can see the covenant that God makes with Noah and creation. And that is God's one way promise that he will not destroy the earth with water again. And that is the Noachic covenant, the covenant with Noah. Then you get to Genesis chapter 15 and then we get to see the Abrahamic covenant. This is the covenant, the promise. That's what a covenant is, a promise that God makes with Abraham. And when you look at those two covenants, what you see is that those are what are called unconditional covenants, meaning they are one way promises from God to the party he's agreeing with. So they're unconditional. So for Abraham, God makes this unconditional promise to Abraham that he is going to make a great nation out of Abraham, that he is going to bless Abraham with this big group of descendants. And that becomes the special people of God, the people of Israel. And that's an unconditional promise, meaning that Abraham does nothing, God does everything. Then you continue to read the Old Testament. And that covenant remains. God is blessing and forming a great nation through the descendants of Abraham. Then you get to the book of Exodus, and this is what we saw a few years ago when we walked through Exodus. You get to Exodus 19 through 24 and then the rest of the Old Testament law. And then comes a new covenant. And this is the Mosaic covenant, the covenant with Moses. But this covenant is different. It's not like the Abrahamic covenant, because this was what's called a conditional covenant. So we'll say a bilateral agreement. And what happens at the formation of the people of Israel with the Mosaic covenant is that when God gives the Ten Commandments and the whole Old Testament law that flows out of the Ten Commandments, this is what the Lord says. If you do these Ten Commandments and you abide by the law, it will go well for you in the promised land. But if you disobey the Ten Commandments and you don't follow the rest of the Old Testament law, it will not go well for you in the promised land. In fact, you will get curses and that's the agreement. God will bless them if they follow the law. But if they do not follow the law, they will receive curses and people will come in. As you read the Book of Judges, people are not following the Lord and enemies come in and they bring judgment. And that's the Mosaic covenant.

Now, these major covenants are still in play. They're like threads being pulled together through the Old Testament. And that gets pulled into this chapter right here. Because this is the last really major covenant of the Old Testament. And this is the Davidic covenant. Now, I'll be honest, this covenant is the source of a lot of debate over how to think about it. Because there is something extremely unconditional one way promise from God in all caps. And that is you're going to receive David, an eternal house with an eternal kingdom and an eternal throne, your descendants, one after the other, unconditional. This is going to happen. All caps, okay? And then in somewhat fine print right next to that, it says, however. And then we get some seemingly conditional language, because when you read it, it says, 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 before you. And really, that even goes back to what was said before about the people being in the promised land and the surrounding nations having peace from them. All that's tied together. So he's got this unconditional promise of an eternal house, an eternal kingdom, an eternal throne. But also, if your sons and their sons who sit on the throne act wickedly, they will be disciplined with the rods of men. There will be discipline. So when you read that, it's like, oh, that seems a little bit like the Mosaic covenant. Very similar language to what was said with Moses. So it's debated. Is this unconditional? Is it conditional? And that tension right there is felt through the whole rest of the Old Testament that if you read the whole rest of the Old Testament, you feel it. Because when you follow the story, David's son Solomon takes the throne. And Solomon was. What's built in this promise is a couple of things. First, he is the one that's actually going to build the literal house for the Lord, which is the temple. And what you see from 1 Chronicles, chapter 22, verse 8 is that God didn't want David to build the house because he was a man of war. It says, but the word of the LORD came to me saying, you have shed much blood and have waged great wars. You shall not build a house to my name because you have shed so much blood before me I on the earth. So because David was a man of war, he says, you, it's not for you to build a temple, it'll be for your son. So part of this promise is coming to pass because Solomon is going to build the temple. But remember, it's not just literal, it's not just about the house, it's about his dynasty. So lots of blessing is coming to Solomon. And really, when you look at the full reign between David to Solomon, it's kind of the golden era of the people of God. This is when things go the most right and things go very well throughout Solomon's reign until you get to the end of his reign. And when you get to the end of Solomon's reign, he begins to accumulate lots of wives. And as we said, we said it in our overtime episode a few weeks ago, it's not how God wants us to be. And even worse, he starts accumulating foreign wives. And those foreign wives start driving his heart away from the Lord holy towards foreign gods. And at the end of Solomon's reign, because he does not abide by the law, he receives judgment that his son, the kingdom, is going to be torn from him. So Solomon to Rehoboam, which would be David's grandson, Rehoboam, does some foolish things, and then all of a sudden, the kingdom is torn in two. And now there's a northern kingdom, the kingdom of Israel, which is most of the tribes that were fallen. Saul and then Judah in the south. And there's tension. These two kingdoms don't ever really come together again. But when you follow the kings of Judah, because they're the ones that received the promise, they're the ones in the line of David, there are moments where things are going well and the kings are acting rightly and they're leading the people in worship. But then you get kings that are so pagan and wicked and horrible. You get Manasseh. Read the story of Manasseh. It's wretched, it's awful. Manasseh sacrifices his own son, burns him alive on an altar to a foreign God, and then just all types of abominable practices along with that. He's as pagan, even worse than the pagan kings of the surrounding nations. In the line of David. And judgment is coming. And then there's moments of hope where you get Manasseh's grandson, which is Josiah. And Josiah rallies the people and kicks out the idols and the high places and does all the things and leading the people back to following the law. And it seems good. And then his son strays away. And there's just this tension that's felt throughout the whole rest of the Old Testament of, what's happening here with this promise to David, because things are starting to fall apart until finally God just brings ultimate judgment on Judah. The Babylonian empire comes in, led by King Nebuchadnezzar, and they completely and utterly just decimate and destroy Jerusalem. They destroy the temple, they take the people, they bring them into captivity for 70 years. And there's. In all of this, there's just this longing for this promise of David to see its fruition. That's why it's helpful to look at Psalm 89, which is just this retelling of this moment in 2nd Samuel 7 that helps us feel that tension.

> I will establish his offspring forever and his throne as the days of the heavens.
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> If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments,
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> then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes.
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> But my steadfast love will not depart from him, nor will I be false to my faithfulness.
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> I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips. Once for all I have sworn by my holiness; I will not lie to David.
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> His offspring shall endure forever, his throne as long as the sun before me.

If his children forsake my law and do not walk according to my rules, if they violate my statutes and do not keep my commandments, then I will punish their transgression with the rod and their iniquity with stripes, which is again that Mosaic-type language. But I will not remove from him my steadfast love or be false to my faithfulness. I will not violate my covenant or alter the word that went forth from my lips once for all. I have sworn by my holiness, I will not lie to David. His offspring shall endure forever his throne as long as the sun before me. And there's still that longing hope. But it is going to happen. And that tension is felt as the people are literally in exile. And it's 586 onward. It's just this. What is happening here? How is this possibly going to come to pass? It just feels like there's no kings right now. There's no, how can this possibly happen? I coached my son's baseball team. We started the season two and oh, and we played our third game Thursday. And I just knew that Thursday's game, I tried to prepare our parents for it. I'm like, y'all, this team is good. I knew before the season, this team was stacked to the ceiling. Their infield is efficient. It's a bunch of 8 year olds who just, they played for years and boy, oh boy, we just, it was very apparent the first couple of innings. We're just taking it. It's almost, you know, it's 13 to 5, it's 14 to 5. And it's just like, how in the world can this team rally? We just can't. Like we're just, how are we gonna get back in this? We're just. Doesn't seem like it's possible. There's this hopelessness that's amongst the people of God. Just how in the world can this Davidic promise come to pass while yet still clinging to the promise? Because God makes good on his promises and that's the guiding hope for the rest of the Old Testament, as one commentator puts it. He talks about that this Davidic promise becomes the nucleus around which all the Old Testament prophets are built. So when you read the whole rest of the Bible, just literally go through the Old Testament and you read the rest of the prophets from Isaiah onward, you just see this callback to the Davidic covenant over and over again.

I mean, Isaiah 9, Isaiah 11, Isaiah 16, Isaiah 55, Jeremiah 23, 30, 33, Ezekiel 34, Ezekiel 37, Hosea 3 and Amos 9, Zechariah 12. Like there's all these prophecies of hope that are anchored in this promise to David. And I just, I'm not going to read all of them, but I want you to hear a few of them to see this longing for this to come to pass.

> For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder,
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> and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
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> Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.

That sounds familiar. It's because we read that every December.

> "Behold, the days are coming, declares the LORD, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.
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> In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely. And this is the name by which he will be called: 'The LORD is our righteousness.'"

It's this longing for this promise to David to come to fruition, to come to pass when things will be well again.

> "I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them: he shall feed them and be their shepherd.
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> And I, the LORD, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them. I am the LORD; I have spoken."

You just follow the prophets and you just see that there's this longing for the promise that was made to David to be fulfilled, that somehow his eternal house, eternal kingdom, eternal throne will be established century after century after century. It's not happening. It's not happening. It's looking more bleak. But in the bleakness, hope remains, because over time, the people of God start to call what this figure is going to be in the line of David. They start to call him the Messiah, the Savior, King. And if those Old Testament passages didn't give it away, if the Messiah language doesn't give it away, if the general trajectory of all of our sermons don't give it away, it's Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the Davidic covenant. And that's what makes the Davidic covenant so special that throughout the whole rest of the Old Testament, there's this tension that's felt that God's going to make his promise come to pass, right? God said he would. He said he would. He said he would. And then God comes and he takes on flesh and he dwells amongst us and he fulfills it on the God side of it. But also, Jesus Christ is man, meaning the conditional elements that seem that are in it. Jesus Christ also fulfills. He fulfills all of it. That's why the New Testament begins with the genealogy. Some of you people think, man, what a boring way to start a story to name off a bunch of people. Why? It's because all this covenant promise is coming together with both Abraham and David. It shows he's in the line of David because he's the one, the Messiah who is to come. All the threads come together in a way that's so powerful, so beautiful.

When I was in college, I had to go to these things called cultural enrichment programs, which were boring. Most of them. They just, you go, you had to get a bunch of them, and then you just sat there and like, oh, please make it stop. And then you'd leave. But there were a few of them that were good. And one of them, there's this guy, it's the first time I ever saw this. He grabbed a guitar and he started playing a song and he started playing a rhythm and then he hits the pedal, then he moves on to another instrument, starts playing that, hits the pedal, comes back to the guitar, plays the lead line, hits it, and then he like hits another pedal and then boom, they all come together. And all of a sudden you're listening to all the parts of House of the Rising Sun. And now all of us who are conditioned for boredom in these things, are getting into it. And then he puts more instruments on top and layers and layers and layers. And this one man band, the first time I've ever seen this, puts together this wonderful sound. And that is what the Old Testament is doing. It's putting all these parts together. And then in Jesus Christ it all comes together in this wonderful song. That's what Paul's getting at in Acts 13 when he's making those connections from first and second Samuel into the New Testament.

> Then they asked for a king, and God gave them Saul the son of Kish, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, for forty years. And when he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, of whom he testified and said, 'I have found in David the son of Jesse a man after my heart, who will do all my will.'
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> Of this man's offspring God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, as he promised.

And that thread gets pulled all the way to the end and the final chapter of the Bible and the final words that God gives in his word to his people.

> I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.

It all comes together and this beautiful promise and the question that you leave coming from that is, okay, well then why is that so significant? Why is that the most important promise in all of human history? It is because the whole story of redemption leads to Jesus establishing an eternal house. That's the family of God. That's the church we just sang. The church of Christ was born and the Spirit lit a flame. That's it. That's the fulfillment that as the eternal family of God, we get to be invited into a fellowship that never ends. That goes back to the promise to David. It's an eternal kingdom which is the rule and the reign of Jesus Christ, which we get to participate in as it expands and it moves. The reason that Jeff is in the water this morning declaring what happened years ago, because someone in the kingdom of God declared the good news of Jesus Christ and his ears were opened that he placed his faith in Jesus Christ. It all goes back to the promise of David. It's this eternal throne that when Jesus went to the cross and died for our sins, when he rose from the grave and conquering death, that Jesus Christ ascended to the right hand of God the Father, and that's the establishment, that the work is finished and his eternal reign will reign forever and ever and ever. Amen. And that's what we're invited into through simply believing.

But here's the deal. This is why this is really important. In the south, those of us that are in and around the church, we can deceive ourselves into believing that faith in this is the mere mental agreement to these truths. To cite Jesus died for my sins. To say Jesus rose in the grave. That's why we celebrate Easter, to say he ascended to the right hand of God the Father. You can recite the Nicene Creed a thousand times. Growing up, you could do all types of things to mentally agree with this message. But the heart of this message is not mentally agreeing. What it boils down to is, do you see that Jesus is the king in the line of David? Do you see him as your king? That's what this boils down to. Is he your king? Meaning, does Jesus Christ have supreme rule and reign over every aspect of our lives? That's the question that should be lingering as we look at the celebration of Jesus Christ the King on the line of David.

Because here's what happens in the south is that we have all the words that we can say. We know all the phrases. And the moment that Jesus starts to try to make a claim on parts of our lives that we don't want to yield to him, we say, mm, no. I want to dictate in my kingdom who I can have sex with. I want to dictate in my kingdom how I spend my money. I want to dictate in my kingdom how I use my time. I want to dictate in my kingdom the way I speak in the workplace. I want to dictate in my kingdom how I strategize and move, whether it's through slander or gossip. And then Jesus Christ stands at the right hand of God the Father and declares, I am king. And we say, yes, but not of this. And I want to tell you something. If that is the seated heart position of your life, he isn't king for you and that should terrify you.

But the good news of the gospel is that a you're here to hear the message of a God who loves you so much that he gave up his life for you so that he might become your king and invite you into an everlasting kingdom and a rule and a reign and a throne and a family that is far superior to anything this world has to offer. That as we regularly rehearse that Jesus is better than everything else, it is the rehearsing that we believe that his kingdom is better than everything else. We believe that his kingship is better than everything else. It is the invitation to see him as supreme master of every aspect of our lives.

And as we get ready to close out this morning, that is the question that your soul should reckon with. The band's going to come up and we're going to get to sing. But some of you, you might need to sit and you might need to consider if he's actually king of your life. And you might need to surrender to the King this morning and lay down your life, whatever it is that you're holding your tight fisted your hand onto that you don't want to give up, now's the time to open it up and say, take it, King, it's yours. Some of you have truly trusted in the finished work of Jesus Christ. But there are parts of your life right now that are so hidden that you've tried to make a claim on and I want you to see so clearly. The kingship of Jesus Christ is wonderful. The promises that go back to David are wonderful. And they're offered to you. That you don't have to run back to former ways. You don't have to go back to worse kingdoms and worse rules and worse reigns. That you have a savior that says, do you understand that I'm a good king? I'm a good and wonderful and gracious king. And that when I tell you that that part of your life is worth yielding to me, that I'm actually for your good, I'm not against you. I'm for you. And your faith needs to inform the actions that leave this place today. And you'll have some opportunity this week in community group to do just that. And my hope is that you would let me pray.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for this wonderful message that comes from 2nd Samuel 7 that helps us see that you are the king. You are the promised Messiah. You're the ruler of all things. May we in faith submit to you as our king to see how good and wonderful your kingdom is. May we yield to you in powerful ways. God, we have some repentance that we do in our hearts. We've got some areas of our lives that we've carved out for ourselves that belong to you. And I just pray that you do the work in our hearts to soften, to see it and to yield it. And as we worship and close out today, may the gospel of your kingdom coming to bear in our lives be felt and lived out in a way that makes you look good. In Jesus name, amen.

Mill City 3/8/26 Mill City 3/8/26

2 Samuel 6

Group Guide

Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.

Transcript

Good morning. My name is Chet. I'm one of the pastors here. If you will grab a Bible and go to Second Samuel, chapter six. We're working our way through the book of Second Samuel. We're going to go through all of chapter six today. Every culture and people throughout human history has had things that they considered sacred, things that they considered hallowed, that they revered. Our culture is unique in this regard because American culture kind of doesn't. We don't have a whole lot that we really revere, not culturally. America itself doesn't give that to you. You may say that you have something that you consider sacred, or this other person has something considered sacred. And we're taught that that's okay for them, but. But we aren't taught that we have to have anything that is sacred. And when it comes to politics and science and school and the things that you kind of enter into in the public sphere, you're basically told, like, hey, keep that to yourself. That's not for this place, for us to have things that we hold as sacred. And I think our culture thinks that they've successfully done that. The problem is that when you remove the pinnacle, if you take God out of that place, something still has to go there. And so what our culture has placed there is humanity. We consider man sacred. Another way to put that would be the sanctity of the self. That's the culture that we live in. Those are the lines you can't cross. Those are the things that are untouchable is your self. What do you believe about what you want for life? What's inside of you? This is why we don't look to God to direct our lives. We look in our hearts, we sing a song. Sometimes animals help. And then we go express ourselves. We go find out what's true about us. And we, you know, export that to the world. And the only real rule is that I can't stop you from being yourself and you can't stop me from being myself. What's right for me is right for me. The only problem is I can't have something that crosses the line into harming you. Carl Truman, in his book the Rise of the Modern Self, he says it this way. He says the only moral criterion, it's the rise and triumph of the modern self. Sorry, I realized I said that wrong. The only moral criterion that can be applied to behavior. So how do we know something is right? How do we know something's good is whether it conduces to the feeling of well, being in the individuals concerned. Does it feel right? Does it make you happy? And if what you're doing makes you happy, then good, as long as you're not making someone else unhappy. That's the place where we have conflict. But we've all agreed that the self is central. The reason I'm saying all of that is because in this text today, we're going to see the conflict in two instances between a self centered, a man centered view of the world and a God centered view of the world. Not only we're going to see it in the text, but if we're, I think, honest while we're working through the text, we're going to feel it in the text, we're going to feel it in ourselves as we go through. There's going to be some places where we realize that because of the culture that we're in, we are in tension with this text. And my hope for you, for all of us today, is that we will leave less self centered and more God centered, that we will have removed ourselves and rightfully see God there. And if you love Jesus, you want that, so you should be on board with what we're trying to accomplish today. And if you are not a Christian, you need that. Even if you don't like the idea, it's actually better. So hopefully that's enough to make you want to read the Bible with me. Let's go. Second Samuel, chapter six, verse one. David is king. He set himself up. Now he's in the city of David. It says,

> Again David gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand.
> And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale-judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the LORD of hosts who is enthroned on the cherubim.

Okay, this is the first time we've learned about the Ark of the Covenant. Read about the Ark of the Covenant for 20 years now. For us, it was last fall sometime. But for those of you who have had a hard time with first and Second Samuel, it may have felt like 20 years ago, I don't know. But we, we were in 1st Samuel at the beginning. If you'll remember where the Ark was, it was in the tabernacle when Samuel was little. And then Hophni and Phinehas decided to use it as like a good luck war totem. And so they took it into battle to secure victory, which is a. An incorrect use of the ark, unless God tells you to use it that way. So God did not honor this. Hoffney and Phinehas die, Eleazar dies. Then the. The ark is taken. The Philistines take it, and they're going to use it as a trophy, which is an incorrect way to use the ark. So it goes really poorly for them, and God begins to curse them. So they start swapping it from town to town, being like, hey, you use the trophy for a while. Let your people die. And then eventually the town say, stop, we're not going to accept it. Send it back. So they put it on a cart and hook it to cows. And they just said, if this really is God at work, the cows will know where to go. They begin to bellow, and they walk uphill immediately back to Israel, and they're like, oh, they knew where to go. This was from God. So they send it back. When it gets to Kirioth Jearim, which is also baal, Judah town with two names, they uncover it, which is an incorrect use of the ark, and many of them die. So they cover it back up. They stick it in Abinadab's house, who is a Levite, and they don't mess with it for 20 years. And I think part of the reason they don't mess with it is I don't think Saul cared about it because it didn't help win. Oh, this is. This would have been longer than 20 years. It's been gone for a long time. It didn't help win. But David cares because it's not just about war. He goes to get it, to bring it back because he's setting up the city that's going to belong to God. He wants the ark there, so they go to get it. Okay, that's what we're doing. It's been in Abinadab's house,

> They set the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill.
> And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart, and Ahio went before the ark, and David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the LORD with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.

So this is how it made it to that town. So they put it on a cart and they're bringing it out. That's how it got here. That's how they're going to leave with it. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab were driving the new cart with the Ark of God. And Ahio went before the ark, and David and all the house of Israel were celebrating before the Lord with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals. So stringed instruments, percussion instruments, instruments. And they're all celebrating loudly. This is a. I mean, a procession excitedly working their way towards Jerusalem. They have the ark. They're going to move it. There's thousands of people here. This is a big deal. And they're celebrating. It's loud, it's festive. And when they came to the threshing floor of Nakin, Uzzah put out his hand to the Ark of God and took hold of it. For the oxen stumbled and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah. And God struck him down there because of his error. And he died there beside the Ark of God. Loud, festive, joyful, marching along. We're going to take it up to Jerusalem. The oxen stumble. Uzzah, who's walking along with the ark, steadies it or catches it and then dies. The text does not tell us whether or not he just fell over dead, like his life just left him, or if there was this was accompanied by some sort of noise or display, whether this was loud or quiet. David is going to call it Perez Uzzah. They rename that place, and that Perez means breach or outburst, which could be referring to God's anger, but could also be referring to what it was like when it happened, or both. Whether he touches it and just falls, or whether he touches it and something happens, the music stops, everyone stops, the procession stops. And suddenly it's like, what. What just happened here? And David has a response that I think is very common and that we see culturally quite often as well. It says this.

> And David was angry because the LORD had broken out against Uzzah. And that place is called Perez-uzza to this day.

David's response is anger. And I think we see that all the time. I think we feel that at times that even if you've read this story before, I think sometimes what happens if you've grown up in the church or you've been around the church for a while, if you've read a lot, you just kind of sometimes move past this stuff. Like you start reading, you know what's going to happen, you just kind of work your way past it. You don't really think about it. But there is something in us that goes, He, he touched the ark to help was going to fall. Doesn't it feel a little like God overreacted? Should he die for that? Now I will say the ark should not have been on a cart. Uzzah and Ahio were Levites. They should have known that you carry the ark. That's in the law. They should have known that Levites carry the ark. They're often referred to as the those who carry the ark, not those who haul the ark on a cart. It's a. It was built in. It had poles. I think it had the poles on it, because otherwise they would have had to have touched it to get it on the cart. They just didn't carry it. They were traveling with it the way the Philistines had traveled with it. David was king. He should have known this. He was supposed to have a copy of the law that he made himself for himself so that he would know the law, so that he would follow the law. But they are not doing what they're supposed to. But there's still something that goes, yeah, but should he die? And I think culturally, we feel that a lot. And you'll hear people say stuff like that about God. They'll say, well, if God's like that, I'm not going to follow him. If that's the way he treats people, if that's the way he is, who does he think he is to act that way? I've seen interviews with famous people where they said, you know, interview. He said, you're a famous atheist. What happens if you die and you see God? He said, I'll start by saying, how dare you? And there's this general tone of who does God think he is? And the reason sometimes we feel that or think that is because we have placed humanity as central. And therefore God has rules he must follow in regard to us. We're first, we're primary. So God can't step over bounds when it is in regard to us. Not he's first, he's primary, and we have rules in regard to him. We. We read this, and we didn't immediately go, don't touch the ark. We went, don't kill Uza. Because there's something that we think is sacred, and it's not God. It's. It should baffle us. It should resonate with you. It should. It should bother you that we think that Uzzah should have more consequences from touching a hot stove than from touching the ark of the covenant of the Lord who sits enthroned above the cherubim, That we think there should be more consequences to simple things in life than to crossing a line to where God in His holiness has made his presence known. So he responds with anger. And I think that's a normal response. I don't think it's the correct one. Then

> And David was afraid of the LORD that day, and he said, "How can the ark of the LORD come to me?"

He responds in the way that I think is the appropriate response. And David was afraid of the Lord that day. And he said, how can the Ark of the Lord come to me? This is when the Bible says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That when you realize he's different than you, bigger than you, more glorious than you, more dangerous than you, you've begun to understand the world. That's why it's the beginning of wisdom. And so David, they now all of everybody's eyes. In everybody's eyes. The Ark of the Covenant is different now. Everybody has backed up and now everyone is treating it with respect and reverence. This isn't the same type of celebration anymore. And David says, how? How can it come to me? We're not taking this to the city of David. If Uzzah is going to die, I'm not. I can't. If he dies for touching it, I probably can't get within 10. He just says, I'm not. So then it says this, which I find humorous and maybe I shouldn't.

> So David was not willing to take the ark of the LORD into the city of David. But David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite.
> And the ark of the LORD remained in the house of Obed-edom the Gittite three months. And the LORD blessed the house of Obed-edom and all that he had.

I just. I wonder how that came about. This thing is dangerous. Hey Obed, we got something for you. You're going to need to store this. Don't touch it. I don't know if Obed was with him. We do find out in First Chronicles he's a Levite. That doesn't seem to apply here or matter. Maybe that's why they picked him. But if that's why they picked him, they don't tell us that in Second Samuel. It just seems like David was like. And then they were just somebody's house was close and they were like, here you go. And they give it to him. So that's what happens.

> And it was told King David, "The LORD has blessed the household of Obed-edom and all that belongs to him because of the ark of God." So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed-edom to the city of David with rejoicing.

So they said, hey, just want to let you know Obed edom's doing great because of the ark. And he's like, let's go get it seems as if he was worried that maybe God was going to punish. God was upset about how they'd handle it. It was going to go poorly. He gives it Obed edom. It goes well. And he goes, oh, well, then we can. That can we can get that into the city. They do. Beginning of chapter, verse 13 is very important, says this.

> And when those who bore the ark of the LORD had gone six steps, he sacrificed an ox and a fatling.

When those who bore the Ark of God, they're carrying it this time. So in that three month interim, they learned what they were supposed to do, or they knew it immediately and said, we shouldn't have been doing this. But we just know that this approach is different. They are now carrying the ark and it is accompanied with sacrifices. This whole procession seems more worshipful this time around and at least is trying to follow the guidelines given. So that's what's happening. It's accompanied by sacrifices. And they're going. And

> David danced before the LORD with all his might. And David was wearing a linen ephod.

David is celebrating. It's still worshipful, but he's dancing before the Lord with all his might. A lot of dancing, aggressive dancing. You've been at a wedding before where you saw someone dance with all their might. Like all that they could muster to dance, they were doing that. That's what David's doing. He's wearing an ephod, which is what priests wore. It's normal priestly garments. They're actually at times described as those who wear the ephod. So he's wearing priestly garments. This whole thing is more worshipful and the people would have recognized it as a priestly garment. The same way that you can, you know, play a game called Spot the Nun. And it's easy because of the way they dress. Same kind of thing. All right.

> So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the LORD with shouting and with the sound of the horn.

So still celebratory, joyful, and this time, though I think more worshipful. As the Ark of the Lord came into the city of David,

> Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD, and she despised him in her heart.

David's coming in, leading this procession, leaping, dancing with all of his might. She sees him and she hates him. Now we'll quick note to married couples, be careful the types of thoughts in your heart that you harbor towards your spouse. Be mindful of the way that you talk to yourself and think about your spouse. They are going to do annoying things at times it will feel like that's their main thing they do. But it's up to you to consistently seek good and joy and hope and love for your spouse. That's not what this passage is about, so I'm going to stop talking about it, but I just thought I'd give you that little aside.

> And they brought in the ark of the LORD and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it. And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the LORD.
> And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the LORD of hosts.
> And he distributed to all the people, to the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, a cake of bread and a portion of meat and a cake of raisins. Then all the people departed, each to his house.
> And David returned to bless his household. And Michal the daughter of Saul came out to meet David and said, "How the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today in the eyes of the servants of his servants, as one of the vulgar fellows would shamelessly uncover himself!"
> And David said to Michal, "It was before the LORD, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as prince over Israel, the people of the LORD—and I will celebrate before the LORD.
> I will be more lightly esteemed than this, and I will be abased in your eyes. But by the servants of whom you spoke, by them I shall be held in honor."
> And Michal the daughter of Saul had no child to the day of her death.

And they brought the ark, brought in the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it. So it's been in. It had been in the tabernacle, which is a tent. David sets up a tent for it in the city of David. The tabernacle still is set up somewhere else and they don't come together until they build the temple. So just so you know, the tabernacle still somewhere else with all the instruments of the tabernacle. But the ark now is in the city of David in a tent. And David offered burnt offerings and peace offerings before the Lord. And when David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the peace offerings, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts. So this whole thing is worshipful. And it's unclear. We don't know if it would have been approached the same way the first time, but it certainly is now. And he blessed the people and distributed among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, a cake of bread, a portion of meat, and a cake of raisins to each one. Then all the people departed, each to his house feeds everybody bread, meat, cake of raisins. Which I learned this week that a cake of raisins is not cake with raisins in it. It is just raisins smushed together, which they loved. It was a treat to have it's high, high calorie food that they were excited about. Some of you don't like that because you don't like raisins. But they were pumped. But it's like David has this and then he gives everybody like a half rack of ribs, some cornbread and banana pudding. He just feeds everybody. It's a celebratory moment. That's what's happening here. And so they just highlight that David feeds everybody instead of just sending them home.

And David returned to bless his household. So he's blessed the people he's now going to go back bless his household. But Michal, the daughter of Saul, came out to meet him. So he's coming back joyfully going to bless his household. She comes out to meet him and said, now we're going to read what she said in a second. But this is our second instance where we're going to see the self centered view, the man centered view, coming in contact and conflict with the God who centered view. It's on a different level than the situation we saw with Uzzah. But it's the same kind of thing at work here. And so we're going to see what she says. She says how the king of Israel honored himself today, uncovering himself today before the eyes of his servants, female servants, as one of the vulgar fellows shamelessly uncovers himself. Okay, so she says, well done. Made a big deal of yourself today, how you've honored yourself today. That's sarcasm. She doesn't mean it. Then she says, you've uncovered yourself like a shameless, vulgar fellow in front of the eyes of your female servants. Sorry, your servants. Female servants. Now, we were told what he's wearing, which is an ephod, he's not scantily clad. Ephods aren't like highly revealing outfits. It wasn't like when you went to see the priests. They were all not wearing much. They were wearing ephods. But ephods are thin linen garment, a very simple linen garment. And it was something that priests wore. It was not something a king should wear. We're also told earlier in the text when she saw him leaping and dancing, she despised him. It doesn't say when she saw him almost naked. So it's not just what he's wearing. That's what she's saying to him. But there's something else about the leaping and the dancing. And the whole thing is just dishonoring in her viewpoint. Now, I think to a king, it would look odd to see a king in an ephod. And I think in her eyes it would be very odd. It's a little bit like, because it's not a revealing outfit. But I'm going to try to help you have a connection point here. My grandmother, both my grandmothers would wear a house coat. My mom sometimes would wear a housecoat. And then if someone came around or if you went in, they'd say, I'm sorry, I'm in my house coat. Or, I can't do that, I'm in my house coat. Or, oh no, my house coat. Like that. Now a housecoat starts here Goes to here and then all the way down to your ankles. It's one of the least revealing pieces of clothing that you could possibly wear, but it feels like underwear somehow. And you don't want people to see you in your house coat. To be fair, I wouldn't want any of you to see me in a house coat. So I understand the. You know, but I think that's a little bit. What's happening here is. It's not revealing as much as what are you wearing? What is this? You're the king. And in her mind, it says that she's the daughter of Saul. It doesn't call her the wife of David, which it could say calls her the daughter of Saul. And I think that's to try to help us key in on how Saul would have handled this and how she would have understood what a king is supposed to do. That's how she's framed it up in her mind. This was a day to honor David, and oh, my goodness, how he's dishonored himself today. It was a day to put on display his kingliness. Bringing the ark to the city was to establish more of his power and his control and his position and his kingliness. And what he's doing done, wearing an ephod and really flopping around, dancing and bouncing and whatever that was. Oh, my. What on earth. That's what she meets him with. What are you. What. What. What are you doing? You look like a shameless fellow. What a. What a moron. Nobody wants to see their king jumping around like some goon in the street. That's what. That's what she's coming at him with. So he responds.

And David said to Michal, it was before the Lord, who chose me above your father and above all his house, to appoint me as a prince over Israel. The people of the Lord and I will celebrate before the. The Lord. She says she was viewing it through the eyes of servants. What did the people think about what's happening? That's what she was doing. And David says, irrelevant. Don't care. That's not who I was dancing for. It was before the Lord. I will celebrate before the Lord. It's about his eyes, not anybody else's.

I will make myself yet more contemptible than this, and I will be abased in your eyes. He said, oh, you're going to think worse of me, but the female servants of whom you've spoken, by them I shall be held in honor. So she's dishonored him, disrespected him. He said, it's going to get worse. I'm going to be more abased. He said, but the people that you're worried about, they'll hold me in honor of.

And Michal, the daughter of Saul, had no child to the day of her death. Which is an interesting note at the end of that story, because it doesn't tell us why. Which is a thing that people do, though, when they tell you a story. Sometimes they'll be like, buddy was never seen again. Yeah, but he never came back to that side of town. Yeah, but they broke up after that. And it's like, what does that mean? It's like just saying that's what this feels like. It is accomplishing that there will be no grandson of Saul on the throne. So him marrying into the Saul's lineage is. That's not going to continue. So that's accomplished. You can then infer either a rift between her and David or God not blessing her from this point on, because their. Their understanding was that children certainly were a blessing from God, and God oversaw that whole process. And so it just makes the note. And then you're like, why'd you write that? And it's like, all right, let's talk about chapter seven. It's just in there now. She comes to David and says, the point of today was to honor yourself. The point of today was like, you've dishonored yourself. Because in her mind, it's. It's. You're putting yourself on display in front of people. And David says that this is about the Lord. The day was for the Lord. I'm in front of the Lord. This is before the Lord. That stuff doesn't matter. And there's a way. This is why I said it's. It's Michal's interaction with this self versus the this man center versus God center is lower than the one when we're considering Uzzah. Because when we're considering Uzzah, we're considering are there sacred things, lines that God can't cross? But Michal's, on a much more practical basis of what's the point of today? Who's the point of today? What's the point of worship? What's the point of celebration? How often have you walked through life with Michal's lens on, which is, what do other people think of me? How am I being viewed in the eyes of other people? It's really interesting when you can begin to see this in children. Sometimes children for a long time are just kind of free. They're just doing whatever the heck they want. And then you'll see them start being able. And it's real obvious, but they're thinking about how you're thinking about them or how these people are thinking about them. They begin to be more aware of the eyes of the people on them. And there's something to Paul talks about, like, work as unto the Lord, not as unto your boss. There's a way for us to live as if my goal, my highest hope in life is to enjoy life, have life, be good and have everyone else around me, affirm me and be excited about me. And what I'm doing is actually putting myself on display to them. And there's a way to walk through life where it's about God is the one viewing me and he's the one who matters. And let me live in a way that honors him, let me live my life before Him. And one of those puts him central and one of those puts us central. So that David seems genuinely like, what are you. This today was about the Lord. It's not about anything else. It's not about me. Bringing the Ark of the Covenant to, to this city shouldn't be about me. Okay, so I said my hope was that we would begin to move ourselves out of that central position. Because there are distinctions between a man centered viewpoint and a God centered viewpoint. A God centered viewpoint says that God comes first, that he created everything and that there are actual morals that come down to us, that we are to live in line with the way he's designed the world and we're to relate to him the way that he tells us to. A man centered viewpoint says, no, we I get to decide. And if there is a God, he has to respect my boundaries. Which just so you know, the I'll decide what's right and wrong began in the garden. That was the first sin of humanity. Will be the ones who have the knowledge of good and evil. Thank you very much. We'll be the ones who choose what's right and wrong. So this idea that we'll pick, we'll decide what's good, we'll decide what's bad, we'll decide what's right. And God has to. And you'll hear people at times say things like, well, God couldn't do that because. And then their reasoning is some, some way that he would cross a boundary with us. There are times even where you're reading a text and they'll go, well, God can't do that, because he can't do. And it's like, well, he just did it. So you maybe need to go back to figuring out how you understand God. It says he does that. And there's part of us that doesn't want that. We don't want a God who chooses. We don't want a God who chooses winners and losers. We don't want a God who gets involved in life. We don't want a God who steps in and does things. We don't want a God who respects and defends his own holiness. There's a lot of things that bother us as humanity, and it's because we're trying to sit on a throne that's designed for him. That's why we don't like it. There are things God doesn't do, but it's because of who he is, not who we are. We're downline from Him. And then on a much more daily basis, there's a way for you to just walk through everything like it's about you. There's a way for you to show up in worship this morning like it's about you. You can get in the habit where you don't sing songs you don't like. Why are we singing? You can hang out there and go, yeah, I don't really. I'm not, you know, singing is not my thing. So you hang out and come in a little later. And your thing is people. So you talk to people. They're trying to sing or whatever. Hey, it's good to see you. You sit there, you get your phone out, you do other things because you're confused about why we're. There's a way for us to do that in our community group. And you'll hear it. You need to listen to yourself. You can hear it. Sometimes you'll say, yeah, I just am not really getting what I need out of that. What. What you need out of it is obedience and an opportunity to serve people. Doesn't sound like you're getting that. I'll agree with you. What you get out of that is belonging to the people that God tells you to belong to. But there's a way to show up to your group and be asking, are they treating me the way I want to be treated? Not am I treating them the way I want to be treated? Which is the way Jesus says it. I don't feel like they care about me enough. I don't feel like they love me enough. I don't feel like they do this enough. You find this one. It's real easy to not show up to your group meeting times. Because I just had some stuff going on, right? Because that group's about you. It's not about the other people who need you there so that you can love them, so that you can serve them. You're complaining about your group instead of making things better. Usually when you're frustrated with your group about something, it's an area that you're good at. And I'm thankful to Jesus that you're in that group so that you can make it better, not tell them that they're the worst. There's a way for you to exist in church family. Like, this is about you, and you're confused. And I'll add, probably miserable, because that's a terrible way to go through life. Michal had a day that could have been joyfully worshipful. She's miserable. Have you ever felt that? Have you seen that in yourself? You're just upset with everything, frustrated about everything. I'm willing to tell. My guess is that you're trying to sit on a throne that's too big for you and in a seat that doesn't belong to you, and therefore you're miserable because you weren't ever supposed to be there. But if you get in a position where everyone just annoys you, everyone bothers you, everyone falls short of your expectations, I will tell you who is central in your life and who matters the most. And I will tell you that you're wrong and you won't find joy there. We hear this stuff all the time. People will say things like, well, God just wants me to be happy. As if he centered that in his viewpoint for how life would work, our individual happiness. The reality is he does want you to be happy, but you don't know how to get there. You've picked something that won't actually accomplish your joy. It's actually only found in Him. It's only accomplished by Him. It's only carried out by Him. It's only kept by Him. And that when he calls us to him, he's actually calling us to joy. But when you read your Bible and you go, well, I know it says that, but I know that God wouldn't want me to be unhappy, so I get to do whatever I want. You're wrong and you've centered the wrong thing. In a moment, we're going to take communion together, which is a celebration of what Jesus has accomplished for us, that he died on a cross to rescue us, to pay for our sin. We're. We're going to. At the Last Supper, he said, this is my body broken for you. As he broke bread, he said, this is my blood poured out as a new covenant for you. That we would be forgiven, that we would be redeemed. But if we don't understand the glorious, unapproachable holiness of God, then we won't see the beauty of the gospel. You won't. You won't be able to wrap your mind around what you're getting to partake in. That he came as someone who could be touched, that he came as someone who died for us. If you've centered humanity, then you'll put it somewhere in like, well, of course he would. You won't see his humility, you won't see his suffering as glorious. You won't see it as wonderful. You won't be captivated by it. It won't break your heart and make you fall in love with him all at the same time. If we don't understand how big and how glorious he is and how much he did not have to come save us, except for the fact that he is really, really good and really, really loving. And he chose to redeem and to rescue people who did not deserve to be redeemed and rescued. And it is only by his grace and glorious goodness that we are welcomed in, not by some sort of centered excellence of humanity that he had to come get us. The band's gonna come back up. We're gonna sing in a moment. We're gonna take communion first. I want you to just ask the Lord, where have I centered myself? Is it in my philosophy? Is it on a high level in the way that you're supposed to interact with humanity as a whole? Or is it just in my daily life? Where have I failed to see that I'm supposed to live out in front of you and just talk to the Lord and then repent and then celebrate that we are saved by grace and grace alone, through the work of Christ and not through our ability to get this right, That God in his goodness, graciously removes us from the center. We have a hope in Him. Let's pray, Father. As we come to the table, as we come to partake in something more glorious than the ark of the covenant, that your Son would come and die to rescue us, to bring us hope, to bring us life and that we might celebrate together and remember together his sacrifice on our behalf. Lord, we pray that we would come in a way that helps remind us that you are central so that we might have the joy of self forgetfulness. In Jesus name, Amen. If you are not a Christian, we. We would ask you to refrain from participating in communion, but we would invite you to come know Christ as your savior. When you're ready. Let me take.

Mill City 3/1/26 Mill City 3/1/26

2 Samuel 5

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Mill City 2/22/26 Mill City 2/22/26

2 Samuel 3-4

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Mill City 2/15/26 Mill City 2/15/26

2 Samuel 2

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Mill City 2/8/26 Mill City 2/8/26

2 Samuel 1

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Good morning. Through snow and ice and disconnected H VAC units, we have finally gathered together, and we are getting ready to finally start Second Samuel. So if you're with us in the fall, we finished up First Samuel. We. We took a break with the Remember series and Give series, and now we get to start Second Samuel. We kind of jump into the middle of the story. First and Second Samuel actually were written as one book together. If you remember this when we first started, it's written as one book together because of how scrolls worked back in the day, they had to divide it in two separate scrolls. So it's one story. And we're jumping in the middle of a story at the beginning of 2 Samuel chapter 1. And we jump in the middle of a sad moment. And what we're going to see today is a lament that David has wrote for the people of God. And there are times where it's good to be sad. And when tragedy hits, when loss hits, there's something in us that aches for a response. I remember in 2001 when 911 happened, that as a nation, we were just collectively at a loss of words, and there was just a deep sadness for what many of us witnessed on TV and all the horror and the pain that came with that. And in November, two months after. I remember at the cmas, which is the Country Music Awards, Alan Jackson, he performed a song that he had written just a few weeks before. It's called Where Were youe In the World? Stop Turning. And the whole song is. It's a lament. It's country music, but it's a lament that captures how everyone felt in that moment as we witnessed all the pain and suffering at 9 11. And I just remember watching that with my parents and just being. Just felt it. You felt it in the room. And, you know, people outside of country music that don't even like country music, which is quite a few people, they actually, some of them very much appreciated the moment because what he was doing was capturing what we just felt. And that's what lament does. It captures this. This suffering, this. This loss, this pain that we feel. And it's good for. For us to sit in that. And poetic songs and poetic laments capture that. And that's what we get to see today as we jump into the middle of a story where we finish up in Second Samuel. We see the death of Saul and Jonathan and the defeat of Israel. We're going to walk through how David finds out about this. Then we're going to see how he laments and then as Christians, we're going to be able to sit in this and understand the importance of. Of what it means to be a people who lament. Well, so I'm going to pray for us, and then we'll walk through this together. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word. It is precious, it is a gift, and it communicates wonderful, eternal truths that mold and shape us and conform us into your image in new and better ways. And I pray that you would do that to us this morning as we read and study and sit under the authority of your precious word. We ask this in Jesus name. Amen.

Okay, so if you weren't here for First Samuel, let me just give a quick summary. If you were here and it's been months, let me just help us remember. In 1st Samuel, God calls the final judge and the period of the judges and prophet Samuel. Because first and Second Samuel in the Old Testament is the beginning of the age of the kings. So the people are longing for a king. They want a ruler. They had God as their ruler. They had God as their king. And God used judges to reign them in at times. But this moment, they want a king. They go to Samuel. Samuel listens to the Lord, gives them their first king, which is Saul. And at first it goes well. Saul fits the bill. He looks like a king. He's tall, he's handsome. He leads the people, and they beat, they defeat the Ammonites. They do all kinds of things like this. And it's wonderful. And then as you keep reading, you see that his heart actually isn't fully for the Lord, that he has moments of deep faithlessness. And in his faithlessness, God rejects him as king. He anoints David, who is the next king of Israel. If you're familiar with anything in first and Second Samuel, you're probably familiar with the story of David and Goliath. That is when David steps onto the national scene after he's anointed by Samuel and he becomes a hero. He defeats Goliath, and then Saul appreciates David for, like, 10 minutes. It seems it's not very long. He, like, invites him to marry his daughter. He marries into the family. Things are good for a moment. And then quickly, I think Saul realizes, oh, David is the next king, and he becomes a threat. And the whole rest of 1st Samuel is Saul trying to kill David over and over and over again until finally we get to chapter 31 of 1st Samuel, when finally God brings judgment upon Saul and his house, and they're defeated by the Philistines.

In 1st Samuel 31 it says,

> Then the battle went hard against Saul, and the archers hit him, and he was badly wounded by the archers.
> Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, "Draw your sword, and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and mistreat me." But his armor-bearer would not, for he was very afraid. Therefore Saul took a sword and fell on it.
> And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he likewise fell on his sword and died with him.
> So Saul died, and his three sons, and his armor-bearer, and all his men, on the same day together.

So that is the end of Saul and 1st Samuel, or 2 Samuel chapter 1 picks up right where that leaves off a few days later. Verse 1.

> After the death of Saul, when David had returned from striking down the Amalekites, David remained two days in Ziklag.
> And on the third day behold, a man came from Saul's camp with his clothes torn and with dirt on his head. And when he came to David, he fell to the ground and paid homage.

So while Saul was fighting the Philistines, David was facing off with a band of Amalekites who had kidnapped him and his men's families. So he goes, he defeats them, and this is them kind of resting after the battle. And then all of a sudden, verse two, it says, and on the third day, behold, a man came from Saul's camp with his clothes torn and dirt on his head. And when he came to David, he fell to the ground and paid homage. So clothes torn and dirt on your head. That was an immediate sign to David and his men that something bad has happened. That's a sign of lament. You're in your garments, you put dirt on your head. Something major has happened. Which David said to him, verse three, where do you come from? And he said to him, I have escaped from the camp of Israel. And David said to him, how did it go? Tell me. And he answered, the people fled from the battle. And also many of the people have fallen and are dead. And Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead. So this is the first that David hears of this, that Saul, Jonathan, his friend, they're gone.

Now, put yourself back in when we finish this up in the fall, and remember all that David went through to get to this moment and understand the complexities of how he must have been feeling. Saul tried to kill him over and over and over and over again, hurling spears, chasing him in the wilderness, chasing him in and out of towns, and finally it's over. And David had opportunities. He had opportunities to kill him himself. He had two opportunities with his hand in his life, and he spared him because he would not raise his hand against the Lord's anointed. He said, God will bring judgment on Saul. I will not. And it's finally happened. So that's in the background. And then also, Jonathan was one of his closest friends. Jonathan was a dear friend to him. If you remember when we walked the story of David and Jonathan, we got to see Jonathan, who was the next in line to be the king. Saul's son was. He was beloved by the people. He was a mighty warrior. And when David steps on the scene, he yields. It's very clear that he trusts that God has anointed him to be the next king. And that doesn't happen in the Old Testament, that doesn't happen in history. People don't give up their right to the throne like that. But he's a faith filled man and he trusts the anointing that David has. And you see, even when they talk, he longs to be serving in David's court one day. And he also. We saw how much Jonathan honored his father. He called him out at times for how he was pursuing David, but he honored him and stood by him in this battle. And his friend Jonathan is dead. So there is a lot happening in the soul of David as he receives this.

And then in verse five, it says,

> And the young man who told him said, "I happened to be on Mount Gilboa, and there was Saul leaning on his spear, and behold, the chariots and the horsemen were closing in on him.
> And when he looked behind him, he saw me and called to me. And I answered, 'Here I am.'
> And he said to me, 'Who are you?' And I answered him, 'I am an Amalekite.'
> Then he said to me, 'Stand beside me and kill me, for anguish has seized me, and yet my life still lingers.'
> So I stood beside him and killed him, because I was sure that he could not live after he had fallen.
> And I took the crown that was on his head and the bracelet that was on his arm and brought them here to my lord."

Okay, if you're reading first into second Samuel, just chapter 31, straight into this right here. That's quite jarring because those aren't the same stories. That is two different tellings of what happened. And I just want to show you the differences in this. I've got a chart up here. And first Samuel, chapter 31, the narrator tells us that archers surrounded Saul and badly wounded him. But when the Amalekite retells, he says, no chariots and horsemen were close upon him. And in 1st Samuel 31, the narrator tells us that Saul turns to his armor bearer and asks to kill him because he doesn't want to be mistreated. But Amalekite says no. He called out to me. He said, I'm. He said, ask me to kill him. In 1st Samuel 31, we see that the armor bearer refuses. So Saul kills himself, but the Amalekite says, no, I killed him. The only part where. Where it is similar and you can line them up in compatibility is when it says in 1st Samuel 31 that the Philistines recovered just the armor. And then we get in the Amalekite retelling that the crown and the armlet he had so that you can line up, but everything else is different. So when we come upon situations like this in the Bible where there's. There's two differences there, that's an opportunity to lean in and to ask why? Why are these accounts different? And if you are undiscerning and you hop on the Internet and you get into the deep pages of Reddit or Google or wherever you go, you might find the lazy approach that's like, aha. Contradictions. See, your Bible is not trustworthy. And that's an opportunity to just sit in it longer, to ask deeper questions, to be more thoughtful and discerning. And once you do that, it's very clear what's happening. The Amalekite is lying. He's a liar. He's an opportunistic liar. He stumbles upon the battle. He sees Saul. Everyone knows that if Saul's dead, David is the next king. This is an opportunity for him to be rewarded in his mind. Grabs the crown, he grabs the armlet, he makes up a story, he leaves. And then he comes and he tells David the story. So he tells him this. Now David begins to really lament.

Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them, and so did all the men who were with him.

> Then David took hold of his clothes and tore them, and likewise all the men who were with him.
> And they mourned and wept and fasted until the evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of the LORD, and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword.

For Saul and for Jonathan his son, and for the people of the Lord and for the house of Israel, because they had fallen by the sword, which is just a picture. When, when the leader mourns and laments, everyone does. They follow suit. They tear their clothes, they weep, they fast. Which just as a thing to think about, that's one of the reasons for fasting. Like we're in the south and when someone dies, we eat. Which I think can be fun, but also have a category for fasting is good for the people of God to actually to. To fast and to pray and depend upon the Lord. And that's what they do until evening.

And David said to the young man who told him, where do you come from? And he answered, I am the son of a sojourner and Amalekite.

> And David said to the young man who told him, "Where are you from?" And he answered, "I am the son of a sojourner, an Amalekite."

David said to him, how is it you who. How is it you who were not afraid to put out your hand to destroy the Lord's anointed? So this is about the moment the Amalekite begins to realize that he has made a massive mistake. Because David had multiple opportunities to do just this. David could have ended Saul's reign, could have taken the throne, could have seized power. But he feared the Lord and he trusted the Lord. And he was not going to do and raise his hand against the Lord's anointing. He was going to trust the Lord when the Lord decided to bring judgment. So how in the world could this Amalekite, this person who belonged to a people who were enemies of God, think that he could raise his hand against the Lord's anointed and this would somehow be rewarded? This is not the case. And he realizes he has made a mistake, that condemnation is coming.

Then David called out, called one of the young men and said, go execute him. And he struck him down so that he died. And David said to him, your blood be on your head for you, for your own mouth has testified against you, saying, I have killed the Lord's anointed.

> And David said to him, "How is it you were not afraid to lift your hand to destroy the LORD's anointed?"
> Then David called one of the young men and said, "Go near and execute him." So the young man struck him down, and he died.
> And David said to him, "Your blood is on your head; your own mouth has testified against you, saying, 'I have killed the LORD's anointed.'"

So the Amalekite, his reward for opportunistic lying is execution. And that's is another example from the scriptures of the dangers of lying. You can do a whole sermon on that right there. But that's actually not the main point of this story. And we're going to move on to what is the main point, which is this moment of loss for David and the people. And David is going to enter into a lament that he has written. We get the setup for that in verse 17 when it says,

> And David took up his lament over Saul and his son Jonathan, and he ordered that The Song of the Bow be taught to the people of Judah; behold, it is written in the Book of Jashar.

So what we're about to read is a lamentation, a poetic sadness that the people of God are meant to read for centuries to come. And we also see that it's recorded in the book of Joshar, which. That is a Jewish history book that's referenced a few times in the Old Testament. It's lost to history. We don't have any more copies of it, but it was written in the Book of Joshar for the people, and it was recorded here in these scriptures for the people to remember and to lament together. So we're going to read this lament. But as we read this, I want us, as we catch this poetic capturing of the sadness of the people of God and David, we should remember the complexities of how David is feeling in this, of everything that's happened to him and everything that even Saul and his relationship and how complicated that was, that Saul was his enemy, that Saul wanted him dead, but Saul was also his father in law. Saul was also his king. Saul was also his commander. And now he's gone and so is his friend Jonathan. So there's a lot happening here. And we'll read this lament together. He said.

> Your glory, O Israel, lies slain on your high places! How the mighty have fallen!
> Tell it not in Gath; proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines be glad, lest the daughters of the uncircumcised rejoice.
> O mountains of Gilboa, may you have neither dew nor rain, nor fields of offerings; for there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul, not anointed with oil.
> From the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan did not turn back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty.
> Saul and Jonathan, beloved and pleasant in their lives, and in their death they were not divided; they were swifter than eagles; they were stronger than lions.
> O daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you with crimson in luxury, who put ornaments of gold on your apparel.
> How the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle! Jonathan lies slain on your high places.
> I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan; very pleasant have you been to me; your love to me was extraordinary, surpassing the love of women.
> How the mighty have fallen, and the weapons of war perished!

If you have a title for this lament, it's how the mighty have Fallen, which I got curious and I was wondering, and as best I can tell, that is where we get the sarcastic play on Lament, oh, how the mighty have Fallen. So this is. It comes back to this. It's how the mighty have fallen. One of the things he laments in the loss of Saul and Jonathan and this army is that the daughters of the Philistines rejoice. And this is. This is a picture of the people in Gath and Ashkelon. These are cities in Philistia. They're all celebrating. So not only have they lost their leader, but also their enemies are rejoicing and they're sad.

You mountains of Gilboa, let there be no dew or rain upon you, nor fields of offerings. For there the shield of the mighty was defiled, the shield of Saul not anointed. With oil. Mount Gilboa is where this battle happened. It's where Saul died. And David curses it. He curses it. He wishes this place to be as desolate and devoid of the life that was taken there. Cursed be Mount Gilboa. Says, from the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty, the bow of Jonathan turned not back. And the sword of Saul returned not empty. Which, every now and then the ESV translations get a little clunky. I think it's helpful if you reverse this. The bow of Jonathan turned not back, and the sword of Saul returned not empty from the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty. What that is saying is that they once were mighty warriors. They. They once fought for Israel, they slayed their enemies, and now they're gone and they're lamenting the loss of their mighty warriors. So Saul and Jonathan, beloved, beloved and lovely in life and death. They were not divided. They were swifter than eagles. They were stronger than lions. And we've seen this, we talked about this, that they, that. And through everything that was going on with Saul and David, Saul or Jonathan, honored both his friend and also his father. And they fought together, and they were mighty in battle. You read that in First Samuel. Together they were mighty warriors who defeated their enemies. They were swifter than eagles, they were stronger than lions.

You, daughters of Israel, weep over Saul, who clothed you luxuriously in scarlet, who put ornaments of gold on your apparel. Remember how when he reigned, how prosperous we were. How, how the daughters of Israel had scarlet and gold. He says, oh, how, he said, how, how the mighty have fallen in the midst of the battle. And this refrain leads into David reflecting on his friendship with Jonathan. Jonathan lies slain on your high places. I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan. Very pleasant have you been to me. Your love to me was extraordinary, surpassing the love of women. So we catch this final glimpse of David's great love for his friend. And he describes this brotherly love that he had with Jonathan as surpassing the love of women, which we talked about this in the David and Jonathan sermon in First Samuel. If you weren't here, I'd encourage you to go back and listen to it. But just a moment to sit in that idea. It is good to have deep friendships like this. And more specifically, it is good for men to have deep friendships with other men. And a time where it is regularly written about that, that male. That male loneliness is a crisis. It's talked about as an epidemic, that men, especially young men, suicide rates are through the roof, substance abuse is through the roof. Drug overdoses has been through the roof. Sports gambling is an absolute disaster right now for young men. And on and on and on. It's just, it's regularly observed there's something wrong and that they're. There's a need for men to have deep friendships. And we aren't culturally set up well to do this. The men aren't culturally set up well to do this. In fact, it's very apparent that culturally we don't understand a depth of friendship like this. Because people read this and they, they, they jump to, oh, something, something sexual in nature must have been going on between those two. I mean, that is, that is, that is what some people will argue that this is evidence that something was happening between those two men. And it's like we've so misunderstood and are so underprepared to understand how important is to have deep relationships with other men that you can walk side by side and that you can see as brothers. So we, we need to, to grow in this. And especially if you're, if you're married. Let me just say this very clearly. If you're married and your wife is your only friend, nowhere in the Scriptures do I see that as wise. You should absolutely have friendship with your wife. Also, you should have depth of relationship with other men. She should not be your sole confidant. We have care nights where we separate the men and women. And one of the reasons we do that is so that men can grow in friendship and brotherhood and accountability and depth. And that matters. So you can go back, listen to that sermon. More was said there, but I'll move on. And he is just lamenting the loss of this great friend that he had. Verse 27. He ends, how the mighty have fallen and the weapons of war perished. So he ends that refrain, the reminder of what they lost in Jonathan, what they lost. And when you think about what David's doing on behalf of the people of God and personally, and thinking about this, it's very peculiar because you have to recognize that ultimately for David, this is a good thing for him. He's not going to have to look over his shoulder. He's not going to have to be on the run. He's not going to have the threat of death hanging over him over and over and over again. Saul for years has made his life miserable. And you can see this very clearly not just in First Samuel, but when you read the Psalms, particularly the Psalms that David wrote while he was on the run from Saul. You see this in Psalm 57. 4. It says, My soul is in the midst of lions. I lie down amid fiery beasts, the children of man, whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp, sharp swords. I mean, you see the distress as. As Saul and his men, and all the lies and all the. All the slandering, all the. The threats. In Psalm142.3, another Psalm he wrote on the run from Saul, it says, when my spirit faints within me, you know my way in the path where I walk, they have hidden a trap for me under the threat of being captured continuously. Psalm 54, another Psalm that he wrote while on the wrong from Saul, he says, for strangers have risen against me. Ruthless men seek my life. They do not set God, God before themselves. They seek Saul and his ambition, but they don't consider the Lord. And you see the turmoil that David was in for years. So it's reasonable to assume this moment that he hears of Saul's death, that he's relieved. But that's found nowhere in this lament, not for a moment as you celebrate this, even though ultimately this is for David's good and he knows now I'm able to step into the throne that God has prepared for me, he still appropriately laments. He laments the loss of this nation's leader. He laments the loss of his king, he laments the loss of his friend. And he does this for himself and the people of God to remember. And I think David's response is exemplary. I think it's a very helpful example for us to have this category of lament, even though good things may await us, because I think as Christians, we are just in America. I think we're weaker here. And I see this in a few different ways. I see this in the way that some Christians approach funerals. And I'm not here to attack you. If you've said this or if you believe this, I do want to correct you. I've heard Christians say, well, this brother or sister died, and we're not having a funeral, we're having a party. We're having a celebration because we know where they are, and where they are is far better. So there will be no tears. We will celebrate. And I just go, where do you get that from the Scriptures? Where do we get that idea that we smile in the face of death? Where do you get the idea that we should just be happy? We know that good things just. David knew that good things awaited him. But in the moment of death, the appropriate response is lament. I see people when they lose a job, some Christians come alongside them and they're quick to just want to point out things and they'll say things like, yeah, you know, but it's an opportunity for you to trust the Lord. And it seems like you're really upset about losing this job. You might want to check your heart. It's possible that you have some idolatry for this job. It's possible that you have some control idolatry, that you're trying to control everything. And this is an exposure. God is working in this trial to teach you you should be joy filled. And it's like, whoa, he just lost his job. She just lost her job. There's a moment that it's appropriate to be sad. And certainly we can work through the other things later and count it joy for sufferings. But must we jump straight into the good things that might away? This happens with health trials, various members of our church going through all types of health trials and battles. And I appreciate some of the optimistic culture that surrounds all of that. You hear people say, you know, God's got this and, and, and we're, you know, just. And I appreciate aspects of that that rally in a way that's appropriate and good. But there also, there's a moment and there are days that it's just okay to be sad. It's just okay to lament the reality of suffering. And we should hold these together because human emotion is far more complex than this. We as Christians should be the best at this, y', all to have moments where we are just sad for the reality of death and loss and suffering, while also having our hope secured and tethered to the reality of the future promises that await God's people. We should be able to hold both intention together. And no one exemplifies this better than Jesus Christ.

When you get to the Gospel of John in chapter 11 with the recounting of the story of the death of Lazarus and his resurrection, when you read that in verse 11, it says, after saying these things, he said to them, our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him. And that's important because Jesus absorbs the reality that his friend is dead, that Lazarus is dead, while also saying, I'm going to raise him. Jesus knows exactly what he's about to do. He's about to raise Lazarus from the dead because that resurrection is going to point forward to later, not far actually down the road where Jesus Christ will be resurrected, which again points to the future resurrection. So he's doing something bigger here. He knows what he's about to do. He knows the good things that are about to happen. And yet when he meets his friends Mary And Martha, verse 32, it says now, when Mary came to see to where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet, saying to him, lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. When Jesus saw her weeping and the Jews would come with her, also weeping, he was deeply moved in his spirit and greatly troubled. And he said, where have you laid him? They said to him, lord, come and see. Verse 35. Jesus wept. And I think that's important because I think if some American Christians would have written this story, they would have said, Jesus comes on the scene and he sees them weeping and he says, dry your tears because I'm about to do something big, I'm about to do something good. I'm going to do something glorious. But he doesn't. He sees his friends who are broken and in tears, and he's deeply moved in his spirit and he weeps. It doesn't say he cried a few tears, it says he weeps. What a wonderful example we have in our Savior. And seeing the need to lament, knowing that good things may await. But the reality is, is that death stings. Yes. Oh, death, where's your sting? That's future looking. But the sting is now. And there are moments where that recognizing that and living in that reality is beautiful and good for our souls. We should be a people who do this well. We should be a people who both hold the reality of death in front of us and cry. And also hold the reality of the future resurrection and new heavens and new earth, where there is no more death, where there is no more sting, where there is no more tears. And hold those both together. I mean, that's when Paul is writing to the Thessalonians. In 1st Thessalonians 4, he says, but we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others who do not have hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. And I think some people just jump to the we have hope. We have hope. And it's like. But it presupposes what he just told them. He says, may not grieve as others who do not have hope. But he doesn't say, don't grieve. He says, no, we're going to grieve, but we're going to do it as those who have hope. Those who are grounded in the hope of the future resurrection. And that's what we're called to do. That when someone dies, the appropriate response is, if they're a Christian, is not, let's have a party. It's like, no, no, Death is awful. Now, we had a funeral here three weeks ago for one of our members, Ms. Valerie. And she was 93 years old. And y', all, she suffered greatly in the last few years of her life. And I could hold the thought in my head that says, I'm so thankful for where she is now. But when I sat with her family, I said, y' all should feel this death stings and it's okay to be sad. And we could hold both of those thoughts together. That when you experience loss, when you lose something, that you can be sad while also having your faith anchored in the reality that one day there will be no more losing, there will only be gain. That we as Christians can have sufferings. And know what James 1 says, when it says, count it all joy. My brothers know what Romans 5 says, that suffering produces character, care produces endurance. Like we can have all these together while also being faith filled and sad and also putting our hope in what is to come and growing and maturing along the way that we should be able to hold these both together. Because we as Christians live between the already and the not yet. We live between the reality of present suffering and the future promises that await. And we should be a people who lament well personally, but also we should help others lament, brothers and sisters. Do not rob others of the opportunity to both grieve and be sad and let God meet them in their grief. Because I think sometimes because we're uncomfortable, because we don't like the silence, or because we lack the theological depth to understand how we should respond. And we'll just offer shallow truisms or Christian niceties. We need to grow in helping other brothers and sisters who are lamenting suffer well and lament well so that God can meet them in their grief and grow their faith in wonderful ways.

I was on the Internet the other day and I saw one of my friends from college post this, one of the most moving things I've ever read on grief. And him and his wife had struggled with infertility for years. They six months ago had twin boys and were excited and did the gender reveal and all the things. And we're all very excited. And at 22 weeks, everything fell apart. They had emergency delivery and their boys lived for only a day. And then this past week, after six months of reflecting, he wrote this. And I Want to ask permission for me to read this because I found it to be very moving, very helpful. How God can meet us in our grief and our lament. And here's what he wrote. He said, grief is about allowing loss to enlarge my heart and increase my capacity to hold both joy and sorrow. Grief is teaching me that my boys live on in me and will always be a part of me. Grief is instructing me to cry out to God and complaint and lament long enough to hear him whisper, I know what it's like to lose a son. Grief is increasing my longing for heaven and the renewal of all things. Grief is daring me to believe that despite our loss, God is still writing a good story. Grief is consistently inviting me to choose life in the face of death. I'm a different person than I was six months ago. But as a friend who knows what it's like to lose a child, has told me I want my child back, but I don't want the old me back. I think I'm just starting to believe him. So it is through grief that I echo the words of Nicholas Wolterstaff in his book of Lament of a Son. I shall look at the world through tears. Perhaps I shall see things that dried eyed I could not see. I read that and I just was like, you don't arrive at that conclusion without having your faith so deeply anchored. The reality that one day he will make all things new, but he's sufficient to meet us in the moment of lament that comes through faith filled lament. You don't see God like this without him meeting us in our grief like this, knowing that God in our suffering gives us eyes to see, even if those eyes are stained with tears. You don't embrace this without faith filled lament. You don't refuse it. You lean into it. And that is something that we need to grow in as Christians. We need to grow in learning to lament well. We need to grow and having this trusting the Lord in the middle of the suffering and the loss.

And one of the ways we get to do that is through taking the Lord's Supper and through singing, which we're going to do in a moment. We're going to take the Lord's Supper and we're going to sing a song of lament. As we come to the table as Christians, we're reminded of what Jesus instituted for us on the night that he was betrayed. He took bread and he broke it. He said, this is my body that was broken for you. And he took the cup of the new covenant. He said, this is my blood that was shed for you, that as often as you eat and drink this, you proclaim my death until I return. Jesus instructs his church to practice this practice, to remember that he secured salvation for us on the cross while also pointing forward to one day when the final feast happens. And that we as Christians live in the middle between both. So we don't come to the table all the time with just joy filled hearts. Sometimes we come with heavy hearts, and that's good. If you're a Christian, you get to consider your sin, you get to consider our sufferings, and we also get to consider our Savior who meets us in our sufferings. And in a moment you'll come to the table and I invite you to. If you're not a Christian, we don't want you to come to the table. We want you to come to our Savior. That walking through this life will be filled with suffering, it will be filled with trials, it will be filled with death. And I hope that reality is impressed upon your heart to see that there is someone who can meet you in that and can point you to the hope that we have that is secure. So don't come to the table, come to Jesus Christ in faith. But the band's going to come up now. They're going to take the Lord's Supper, and then we're going to sing a song of lament that is meant to help us learn how to grieve well, how to lament well. And we will sing this out together.

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