Everything in life has a beginning. Your life had starting point, your job did, and your most significant relationships all did. Faith has a beginning point too, and sometimes we need to go back to the beginning to understand things clearly. In the garden, all the way back in Genesis, after humans chose sin over God and hurled the world into a tailspin of sin, death & destruction, God made a promise that He would send a Savior to rescue His people from sin, death & hell. People waited in great anticipation for this chosen rescuer to arrive for centuries. And then one day, Jesus stepped onto the scene proclaiming the good news of God’s Kingdom. He told people that He would suffer, die & rise again. Three days after Jesus was brutally executed by the Roman government, His tomb was indisputably empty. The only question that remains is; what happened? Did His disciples steal His body? Did Jesus just faint on the cross and come to in the tomb so He could sneak out? Or, did He do exactly what He said He would and walk out of that grave 3 days after He was executed proving that all of His claims were in fact true? What you do with Jesus is the most important thing you will do in your life. He was either a lunatic on the level of Charles Manson...or He’s the King of the universe and worthy of your life and devotion. Spoiler alert...that tomb in Jerusalem is still empty and Jesus is alive!

This week we shift from our David series to focus on Jesus, the Son of David who came to fulfill God’s promises in the Old Testament. Before we get to the celebration of the resurrection, we have to go to the cross. Before Jesus experienced that final victory, He suffered and died. But why? If God is loving, why couldn’t He just forgive us? Why was the cross a necessary part of the story? Whether we’ve been in church our whole lives or if all of this is new to us, we know Jesus died on the cross, but many of us misunderstand why He had to. In this week’s message, we will look at one of the clearest explanations in all of the Bible, in what many would call the most important paragraph ever written.

This week we’ll step into the final scene of David’s life. By this time, many years have passed and David is no longer the young warrior-king out conquering nations on the battlefield. He’s now an old and frail man as the sun is setting on his journey in this life. It’s a sobering picture as we imagine David contemplating his own death. That’s a healthy practice for us all. What’s our legacy going to be? As we dive into this scene, we’re going to see that David had one final thing to say, one more battle to fight, before he goes to be with the Lord. The final thing he wanted to lead his people into, wouldn’t be a battle this time, rather, he would lead them into a heart posture of worship, trust & generosity toward God. That’s the legacy he leaves with his final words. Through this beautiful and sacrificial final act of David’s life, we draw some important lessons about generosity, trust and worship when our hearts belong fully to God. He is so worthy of our whole hearts and all of our lives!

Last week we watched David walk into sin and trainwreck his life in a spectacularly sad way. This week, we see that God pursues His children who are enslaved to sin because He loves them. God knows that our joy is rooted in a right relationship with Him, and repentance is the pathway to that right relationship when we find ourselves mired in sinful patterns in our lives. While our sin always comes with consequences, because of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection on our behalf, God’s forgiveness is always a repentant heart and prayer away. God’s desire is for His children to live in freedom and joy. Lets stop running to sin, and run to the One who can set us free!

For the last couple of months, we’ve learned from David’s strengths, his unwavering trust in God, his ferocious love for God & his unprecedented success as he walked with the Lord. But this week, we’ll get the opportunity to learn from his failure. By looking at David’s failure, we can draw out some tell-tale warning signs that we too, may be about to trainwreck our lives in sin. We see that sin is often times birthed in complacency. Once we become complacent spiritually, we open ourselves to compromise, which can then lead to sin, cover-up and destruction. The good news is that Jesus offers us grace and forgiveness for the deepest, darkest sins in our lives. He stands ready to restore and make new when we confess, turn from sin, and find our hope in Him!

2 Samuel 7 is one of the most important passages in all of the Old Testament. It’s known as the Davidic Covenant and contains a beautiful messianic prophecy. In this chapter, we see David’s desire to build God a magnificent temple to display His greatness to the world. God’s answer to this noble desire is simply and somewhat shockingly; no. Why would God deny David such a generous request? Well, God was teaching David that in His Kingdom, it’s not about us working for Him, it’s about what God has done for us! We learn that our motivation to live for God shouldn’t come from a place of guilt or duty or trying to pay God back for what He’s done for us, but rather from an overflow of our love for Him. David also teaches us that our response to God’s greatness and the gospel itself, is a heart of gratitude and love that flows into a life of worship and service of our great God!

Building a Gospel Centered Marriage - Steve Harris - Guest Preacher - 03 10 19 by New Life of Asheville

After years of trusting, obeying, struggles, pain, betrayal and clinging to God’s promises, David is finally crowned king of Israel. It was a long time coming! In this part of David’s story we see that our faith unlocks the favor of God. We also learn, as we did with Saul, that our disobedience to God leads to painful consequences in our lives. But through it all, God’s presence should produce real worship in our lives. The good news is that all of God’s favor, power & presence is available to us, in Jesus. We don’t have to work for or try to attain God’s favor, we have it in full in Christ. As believers, we must learn to live and rest in His favor. As we do that, the natural overflow of thankfulness is a life of worship to the One who set us free!

David - The Tragedy of a Life Apart From God - Chris Dillon, Lead Pastor 02 24 19 by New Life of Asheville

Vision is important. Without it, we can wander aimlessly through life with no real purpose. Jesus gave His Bride a compelling vision & mission that has driven His people and expanded His Kingdom for the last 2,000 years. Sadly, somewhere along the way in our culture, we’ve turned the Jesus movement into an institution where people have become more spectators than active players in God’s mission in the world. At New Life, we’re convinced God has more for us than simply attending an event for one hour a week. We’ve been called to reach our families, neighbors & nations with the gospel as we work together to multiply disciples who follow Jesus, are being changed by Jesus and are living on mission with Him!