GraceLife Sarasota

“Forever” is a big promise. It’s easy to say when everything is going well, harder to believe when everything falls apart. People promise they’ll always be there. We make plans as though the job will last, the relationship will hold together, & the people we love will always be around. Then something changes. What we counted on suddenly becomes uncertain. Sometimes one phone call, one conversation, one diagnosis changes everything. That uncertainty can feel like an attack on our faith. When what we see doesn’t look like what we expected, we begin to wonder. “Did I misunderstand God? Am I expecting something He never promised? Or is He doing something I can’t yet see?” In 2 Samuel 7, God makes David a promise so large, David won’t live long enough to see how far it reaches. A family. A kingdom. A dynasty established forever. But if you know what happens later in Israel’s history, forever doesn’t seem to fit. Kings die. The earthly kingdom falls. The throne stands empty. Imagine remembering that promise & asking, “God, what happened to forever?” And how God answers that question will help us see how the whole Bible holds together. It reaches right into our lives, because when your life feels like a total train wreck, wouldn’t it be good to know whether God’s promises still hold, and specifically how we can know for certain that He keeps His word?

Have you ever wanted to say something and then didn’t because you were concerned about how it might come off. You wanted to encourage somebody, but thought, “What if that sounds weird?” You wanted to ask for help, but thought, “What if they never look at me the same way again?” Sometimes nobody has even said anything! We imagine their reaction, & it’s enough to stop us. They don’t have to disapprove. Just the possibility does the job. Now, caring how our actions affect people can be a good thing. But when does caring about people turn into protecting our image? Have you ever said, or heard somebody say, “I don’t care what people think!” Well why do we feel the need to make sure people know we don’t care? We even say it about somebody as a compliment: “Man, he don’t even care!” And we think, “I hope people say that about me!” See the irony? How can we be freed from the burden of needing people’s approval… needing to look like we don’t? And what happens when that starts shaping how we respond to God? How do we learn to stop protecting our image before others long enough to humble ourselves before God?

Have you ever left church & said, “Worship was really good today”? What made it good? They sang your favorite song? The words hit something you were going through? You looked around & everybody was singing, & you could barely get the words out yourself? Those can be beautiful moments. I love those moments. But when we say, “That was great worship,” what are we actually measuring? We know whether we enjoyed it. We know whether it moved us. But how do we know whether we responded faithfully to God? Is it possible to be moved by worship & still have something in our lives we shouldn’t be touching? That question is uncomfortable, especially in our church, where we love to celebrate. So what needs to change? Does taking God seriously mean we should be a little less excited? A little more reserved? After what happened in last week’s passage, you might think so. David wanted the ark in Jerusalem. There was music, excitement, & celebration. Then Uzzah died, & David was afraid to bring the ark any closer. Today, David tries again. And surprisingly, this procession is full of joy. What happened between David being afraid to come near & being eager to celebrate? That’s where we’re going this morning.

Have you ever heard someone say, “I could never believe in a God who would do that”? Maybe you’ve said it yourself. You read something in the Bible and thought, “That doesn’t sound fair. That doesn’t sound like something a loving God would do. Why would God do that?” Those can be honest questions. Some of us have asked them through tears. We have our own ideas about who God should be and what He should do. What love should look like. What forgiveness should mean. What He ought to accept. What He ought to overlook. When God doesn’t meet our expectation, we’re tempted to change who God is, to make Him into someone or something we think He should be. The 1st part of 2 Samuel 6 is an uncomfortable story. But if we want to know God, we need to hear it. When it comes to entering His presence, we need more than our assumptions. We need to know what God Himself has said.

Few things are more discouraging than facing once again, a battle you thought was finally behind you. You prayed, asked for help, and made difficult changes. God carried you, & it really seemed like the battle was over. Suddenly, you’re standing in the same valley, facing the same enemy, asking yourself, “Why am I back here?” When a familiar enemy returns like that, it can make you question everything that happened before. “Was that victory even real? Did I misunderstand what God was doing? Is my faith failing? Has God let me down?” We tend to believe that if God really gives us victory, we should never have to fight that same battle again. But is that actually the kind of victory God has promised His people? What kind of victory is it when the enemy returns, and yesterday’s breakthrough becomes today’s battle? Our passage today is remarkably honest about that. It may not answer every question about why the enemy returns. But it will show us what… that another battle does not erase God’s previous grace, and where to turn to when the enemy attacks again.

It’s natural for Christians to assume that if things are going well, we must be doing well spiritually. But what if success can tell the truth about one part of your life while hiding the truth about another? What if everything can appear to be going right around you while something is going terribly wrong within you? When life begins falling apart, consequences have a way of getting our attention. Failure forces us to ask hard questions. But success can convince us that because one area of life is flourishing, everything inside us must be healthy. When people are concerned about us, we’re more likely to examine ourselves. We rarely examine ourselves when everyone is congratulating us. That’s what makes today’s passage unsettling. Everything in David’s life looks successful. But tucked inside all that success is an enemy David has not defeated an enemy growing within his own heart. So, what do the apparent blessings in David’s life actually prove? Does visible success mean God approves of everything happening within us? Can we be winning battles everyone else sees while losing a battle no one else knows we are fighting? This passage will show us why we need more than David’s strength, courage, or success. We need a better King.

Some of the most important moments in our lives happen when we finally stop resisting what has always been true. You know the kind of moment I mean. It wasn’t that you received new information; you finally admitted what you knew was already true. For some, admitting an addiction controlling you, a relationship destroying you, a path you had chosen taking you somewhere you did not want to go, or that you’re the one who needs to apologize. The truth did not change at that moment. What changed was your posture toward the truth. You stopped defending, denying, and making excuses, and finally acknowledged what had been true all along. That’s what happens in 2 Sam 5, when God’s people finally come to the king they spent years resisting. Could we be like them when it comes to Jesus? Knowing the gospel, believing the Bible, understanding Christian doctrine, and calling Jesus King. But has knowing the truth about Him changed your posture toward Him? There’s a big difference between knowing who the King is & actually belonging to His kingdom. How do we move from knowing what God says about the King to saying, “You are my King”?

We often measure our value by our usefulness. What can I accomplish? What can I contribute? How badly am I needed? That can happen at work, in our families, in recovery, even in church. Without realizing it, we start believing that being useful is the same thing as being faithful. But are they always the same? Most of us want to feel valuable. We want to know our work matters, and that somebody important notices. Is it possible to accomplish something important while completely misunderstanding the person you claim to serve? Can you do something in Jesus’ name and still completely misunderstand Jesus? That’s where 2 Samuel 4 takes us. Two men travel all night, convinced they have solved what they believe is David’s greatest problem, & proving their usefulness to his kingdom. Apparently, it never occurs to them David might see what they’ve done very differently. The question in this story is, did these men understand what the King wanted?” Maybe more uncomfortably, what do we believe our King wants from us?

How often do you look at something another Christian did and think, “How can somebody who claims to follow Jesus act like that?” Maybe it was hypocrisy. Bitterness. Revenge. Abuse of power. Often, one of the hardest things about Christianity isn’t Jesus’ teachings. It’s Christians who act nothing like Him. We believe Jesus changes people, right? Yes! We believe He gives us new hearts, teaches us to love our enemies, forgive people who hurt us, pursue holiness, and increasingly become more like Him. So why can people who belong to a righteous King still behave so unrighteously? If I gave everyone a piece of paper and asked you to write one name down of someone like that, who would you write? But don’t get too comfortable thinking that question is only about everybody else. What about your own actions? How often do you have to ask, “How can I genuinely love Jesus and still sometimes think, speak, react, hold grudges, seek control, and treat people in ways that look nothing like Jesus?” Today’s story shows us just how deep that problem really goes. David is finally king. The right king is on the throne. But something is terribly wrong inside his kingdom. And what God shows us through this sad, violent story reveals what each of us still desperately needs from our King.

Can we trust God’s promise without trying to control it? Have you ever asked God to do something, then immediately started trying to make sure He does it your way? You pray for His will but already have a timetable in mind. You trust Him with the outcome but still feel responsible for controlling the process, you believe He will keep His promises but subconsciously demand He do it in a way that makes sense to you. And when His way begins threatening the future you imagine, trust can quickly turn into management. Most of us would never say we want to control God. It usually looks much more respectable than that. We call it planning, wisdom, responsibility, or even faith. Sometimes it is. But sometimes our plans reveal that we trust God’s promises but struggle to trust God’s process. That’s what we see in Abner. He knows God’s promise. He can explain it, quote it, & persuade other people to believe it. But he still acts as though the promise needs his power, his timing, his influence, and his management. But Chapter 3 begins by showing us that God’s promise is already moving before Abner does anything. It describes a long war between David’s and Saul’s house. David’s house is growing stronger while Saul’s kingdom is declining. Yet even as David’s house expands, the list of his wives & sons in verses 1–5 reveals not everything growing in David’s kingdom is healthy.