SERMON POWERPOINT

Sunday, October 20, 2019  Brad

Barrett

David’s

Psalms:  Mirror of the Soul

Week 1:  Praise Him!

Last

Sunday I wasn’t here.  I visited another

church out of town.   The service was more than twice as long as

Stonebrook’s.  Three-and-a-half hours!  Three and a half!  It was a church much, much larger than

ours.   75,000 people.  No joke. 

The

church was in Kansas City.  It’s a

worship center….a PAGAN worship center….called Arrowhead Stadium.  The home of the NFL team, the Kansas City

Chiefs.

Several

months ago for Father’s Day and my birthday, my family bought tickets for a

Chiefs game.  Some of my family lives

there, so we went to a game.  I hadn’t

been to an NFL game since I was a teenager. 

We had a lot of fun, even though the Chiefs lost.

But

sporting events are fascinating.  If you

have ever wondered what “WORSHIP” is, just go to a popular sporting event.

NFL.  An Iowa State game.  Sports fans know how to praise.  We don’t have to be taught how to praise our

team.  We just know.  We dress with team gear.  We read about the team.  We attend the game.  We cheer, yell, jump up, clap.  We boo the referees who, of course, who bring

great injustices against our team.  And

when we score a touchdown, we even high-five strangers in the row behind us.  How weird is that?

We

praise all sorts of things.  A good meal like

at Thanksgiving.  And the cook.  A good book. 

A great movie.

We

experience them, and we want to tell someone. 

“You HAVE to read this.  You MUST

see this.”  We know naturally and

reflexively how to praise. 

Our

theme this morning is PRAISE.  Certainly

not praising a sports team.  We are to

praise God.  To celebrate.  To cheer. 

To be in amazement.  To be in awe.

 To speak.  To sing.

And…

we are to do this with others.  Not only

by ourselves, but together.  It is one of

the reasons we, the people of God, are to gather together.  We are commanded to gather. 

We

are going to learn about praising God this morning from one of the greatest men

of God in history.  David, king of

Israel.  Described by God himself as “a man after God’s own heart.”  David knew God.  He was intimate with God.  And he wrote out his prayers.  And God left them for us to learn from.  To speak and sing and shout about.

Psalm 145:1 ESV I will extol you, my God and

King, and bless your name forever and ever.

Today

I hope to plant a seed in our hearts, and to water it if it’s already blooming.  The seed is the knowledge and experience of

God.  To know God and to walk with him in

all of his majesty and power and tenderness and mercy.

And as

we know him, we will praise him.  We

will.   And when we praise him, our souls will be

satisfied deep within. 

Review of

David and Psalms

Before

we dig into our topic, let’s review.  We

just finished a series on Samuel.  About

2/3 of those that book focuses on one man of God, David.  He had quite a life filled with adventures,

trials, and sin.

David

was a unique man, being both a Warrior and a Poet.  He wrote and played music.  God has inspired and preserved 75 of those songs

and poems in the book of Psalms. 

2

Samuel 23:1 calls him, “The sweet

psalmist of Israel.”

David

wrote psalms while running for his life against King Saul who hated him.  He wrote psalms when he was delivered from

his enemies.  He wrote psalms after

committing adultery and murder, hiding it for nearly a year.  He wrote psalms to express his praise and awe

and wonder of Almighty God. 

Psalms

(in general) help us to express the deep needs and emotions in our souls.

For example:

Seek

an intimacy with God.

Psalm 63:1 ESV “O God, you are my God;

earnestly I seek you;  my soul thirsts

for you;  my flesh faints for you, as in

a dry and weary land where the…

This week we conclude our series with 2 Samuel 21-24, a carefully constructed epilogue to “The book of Samuel” which compiles scenes from the life of Samuel, Saul, and David. In it we find connections with the introduction to the book, Hannah’s poem/prayer, that help us see the main thrust of the prophet’s message: God is faithful to his promise in spite of man’s failures, God opposes the proud and exalts the humble, and that a promised king is coming which will bring blessing to all the nations.

David, a great man of faith, fell from the glorious heights of intimacy with God to the lowest point of rebellion, even despising God and his word. Yet he repented and rejoiced in his forgiveness, and even though some devastating consequences from his sin followed him to the end of his life, he continued walking with the Lord. How did he endure in the midst of those consequences? For us today, David’s life and the gospel inspire us to walk with the Lord, even in the “aftermath” of sin.

David was a “man after God’s own heart,” and we can be inspired by his faith and many good qualities. Yet David was also a mere mortal like us and capable of sin, and in fact he sinned greatly against the Lord. But he later repented and found great joy in God’s mercy and forgiveness. So we are both warned by David’s sin and inspired by his response to it.

David desired to build a house, a temple for God. But God said, “No, I’m going to build a house for you,” and promised David that his lineage and dynasty would last forever. Yet, no descendant of David has reigned over Israel for over 2,500 years. The prophets who spoke after David foretold the coming of a greater, eternal king who would fulfill all of God’s promises to Israel and to David. Yet, today, we await the return of this greater “Anointed One,” King Jesus, who waits in heaven until it is time for Him to restore all things and bring everlasting peace to the world.

David is the undisputed hero of the Old Testament, and perhaps, second only to Jesus in the entire Bible. Certainly he is a model of faith, courage, and godliness… except when he’s not. How are we supposed to relate to David’s example? That’s what I want to talk about today: how we are to relate to David’s example.

Only in his 20’s, David was a great warrior and a man after God’s own heart. And because the Lord was with David, King Saul was afraid and jealous of him, which quickly turned into a demonic pursuit to kill him, his own son-in-law. But even through years of running for his life, David remarkably doesn’t grow bitter or vengeful. Instead he keeps his heart fixed on the Lord.

SERMON POWERPOINT

Sunday, September 8, 2019  Brad

Barrett

1 Samuel 18-24—Rise

and Fall

David the Refugee

Over

the centuries there have been many cruel and warped leaders.  Generals and presidents and prime ministers

and kings who were extraordinarily evil, even killing family and staff members.

Sadly,

we can find stories like this in the Bible. 

Israel’s first king, Saul, was such a man.  Saul was opposed to his best military leader,

David.  And on top of that, David was

Saul’s son-in-law.

We

pick up the story in 1 Samuel 19. 

1 Samuel 19:8–12 ESV  There was war again. And

David went out and fought with the Philistines and struck them with a great

blow, so that they fled before him.  Then a harmful spirit from the Lord came upon Saul,

as he sat in his house with his spear in his hand.  And David was playing the lyre.  

David was a

Warrior.  And a Musician, here playing a

musical instrument for his king. 

And Saul sought to pin David to the wall with the

spear, but he eluded Saul, so that he struck the spear into the wall.  And David fled and escaped that night.

Saul sent messengers to David’s house to watch him,

that he might kill him in the morning.

This

story is astonishing.  The king’s best

general—his son-in-law, too—just wins a great battle.  Then the king—under demonic influence—

decides to kill him.  What?  I shake my head.

Within

a 12-hour span, David ran for his life twice, escaping the clutches of his king

and father-in-law.

From

this point forward, life was chaotic for David. 

He lived the life of a refugee—a fugitive– for years, perhaps up to 10

years.  Most of his 20’s were spent on

the run.

For

you who are in your early 20’s, imagine for the next 7 to 10 years, all that

you know and enjoy and love today is gone until your 30th birthday.

The

story is simply bizarre. 

Yet

in the face of all the pain and injustice, David never grows bitter.  He never turns from God

God

himself called him, “a man after God’s

heart.”  A man who sought after

God.  Who loved God. 

We

are in Week 6 of a sermon series traveling through a book called Samuel.  From last week on forward, the most prominent

person we will look at is David. 

Today

we will find two things. 

First,

PREPARATION.

Here

in 1 Samuel God is preparing David. 

Preparing him to go from a simple shepherd as a boy to a fierce warrior

as a 20-something to a terrified fugitive in his 20’s to a godly king at age

30.  God prepares and shapes his people

into something greater and richer.  As

with us who are in Christ:  “He is conforming us into the image of

Christ.”

Second,

PRESENTATION

And

in this story there is a Presentation. 

God is presenting himself.  Presenting

himself to David.  To show David and then

to show us who the Lord truly is.  His

character.  His heart.  His power. 

Presenting David to us to show Israel and us what God can do through

someone.  And presenting himself….with an

invitation to us… inviting us to himself.

You

see, David’s story not only spoke to David and the people of Israel, it speaks

to us.  And it invites us in to see and

aspire to a life in God. 

Review

Let’s

briefly review the book so far.

In

your bulletin is a handout giving an overview of 1st & 2nd

Samuel. 

We handed this out 5 weeks ago, so I’m giving it

again in case you weren’t here.  Or in

case you simply want to see it again. 

My desire is that you would read it and gain a

better view of the big picture.  What the

book is all about. 

So

far we’ve heard some remarkable stories.

A godly woman named Hannah who in desperate prayer sought a son.  Hannah’s son Samuel became a great man of God and the leader of Israel

for many years.Then Israel’s first king.  Saul

was a king who looked great o…

God chose David to succeed Saul as king, not because of his physical strength or his wisdom or his position in Israel, but because of His faith-filled, God-honoring heart. In an act of amazing faith, David faces Goliath, risking his life to defend His people and to honor and glorify God. We also can put our trust in the Living God and bring Him glory.