Where do we go from here | Nathan Lawson Life of David Part 10

Music.

Your next step. Well, we are now in our final week of the David series.

Some disappointed, you know, we're not going to have any stories about stabbing,

at least for a while, which is kind of nice.

It's gotten some rough parts, but we look back and we also look at many of the

amazing things that make David really did live up to this name of a man after God's own heart.

That despite the ups and downs, there's never a moment in David's life where

he is disloyal to God directly.

He never worships other gods. And anytime somebody comes and confronts him,

David responds immediately if it's a word from God.

And so we saw in his life that he, of course, took down Goliath and he spent

over a decade in the desert with opportunities to get revenge and move his career

along, but he chooses to trust God.

And even this episode with Abigail, where David almost does something very foolish

to this town because of Nabal, but when Abigail brings wisdom.

David is willing to hear it.

And that is not common for people in power to listen to the wisdom of people

who are far beneath them socially or in terms of their power.

But then we also saw that as David came to power and he takes the Ark of the

Covenant and brings it into Jerusalem to put worship at the center of God's people.

But in that same breath, we saw David abuse his power.

He abuses Bathsheba and he murders Uriah. And that causes a series of tragic

events where we have one sin that starts in the father and then is continued in the sons,

a generational sin that leads to murder and rebellion.

And just so many people are caught up in it.

You would not be, you know, no one would, would fault you if you said,

well, I don't know where this is going, but it seems like we're about to start

the same pattern we saw with Saul, Like sons are murdering each other,

it's violence And you might assume that if you were saying what's going to happen

after David's gone You can imagine that the cycle will continue But today we're

going to talk about how that for all things that doesn't happen That David is

going to pass the torch And who can say the next name, who's the next king in line?

Say it like you mean it. You've had plenty of time for coffee. Who's the next king?

There we go. It's Solomon, right? Solomon is going to have this amazing,

long, and prosperous reign.

And we're going to talk a little bit today about this last thing that David

does, really sets up that next kingdom for success and makes all the difference

to that next generation.

We're going to be looking today at 1 Chronicles 22, if you want to turn there and follow along.

I do want to point out just one other thing, that I have been in this series

for 10 weeks, and not one time did I say this morning we're going to be having a panel discussion.

So I just want to say that I have saved that for this last Sunday,

so we get to use it one time, and then it's finished.

All right, we're going to be in 1 Chronicles 22. This is a word that we're going

to get from David. David is the one speaking here, and here's what it says.

Then he, David, called for his son, Solomon, and charged him to build a house

for the Lord, the God of Israel. And here's what David says.

David said to Solomon, my son, I had it in my heart, right, to build a house

for the name of the Lord, my God.

But the word of the Lord came to me and God said this, you have shed much blood

and have fought many wars.

You are not to build a house for my name, because you have shed much blood on the earth in my sight.

So this word comes to David that David had wanted to build a temple. And that makes sense.

If you go back several hundred years earlier, when Moses is leading the Israelites

in the desert, there's the tabernacle.

That's the mobile worship space, but it was at the very middle of the tribes of Israel.

So all the tribes would camp around it. And this place of worship would be in the center.

And so David is saying, look, now that we're settled in Jerusalem,

we need to continue to keep God at the center of who we are.

I want to build a temple that will be remembered for generations to come.

And God comes back and he says, no, not maybe, not we'll think about it,

not wait until the next season, full stop, hard, no.

That's a hard message for David to hear.

But there's some important things before we say that, that this tells us about

God in the Old Testament. because some of you perhaps were bothered and have

been bothered by the amount of violence in some of these books.

I mean, good heavens, it's like one after the other. And here you're gonna have

God saying, yeah, I know, it's too much violence.

And that's why David is no longer qualified to build my house.

Even though that many of the things that David was fighting,

these were battles that God allowed and sometimes God even helped David have

victory. They were still necessary. but even so, God said, I don't want it to

be associated with worship.

You see, David is known as a military hero. He's a conquesting king.

And as much as God is going to use that to promote justice and peace eventually

for Israel, that doesn't change the fact that God is fundamentally saying that

violence is not meant to be part of the design.

And so when you're reading through the Bible, this is an important truth to recognize.

If you grew up on that idea that, you know, there's a lot of these lessons we

have in Sunday school where we read a story from the Bible and then we extract

some important lessons for life.

You know, David or Joseph in Genesis, he forgives his brother and we should also forgive.

Abraham trusts God, even though he doesn't know how it's going to work out.

We should also trust God. And Joab stabs Absalom three times in the heart.

So we should also stab our enemies.

No, that's not right. But the problem is, is that some pundit will get on the

news and for people who only grew up with those stories from Sunday school, will pull it out and say,

look at this murder and all these terrible things. And you call that scripture.

How can you trust the Bible if that's the case? That's a valid accusation if

the Bible was a collection of fables meant to teach moral truths.

It is not a collection of fables meant to teach moral truths.

There are many lessons we can learn from scripture about life,

but that's not what it is.

Scripture is an ongoing story of God unrevealing himself to his people,

to a people who are broken.

And many times scripture will include tragic things that God does not want to

see continue, but he writes it down because he wants to be honest as we're moving forward.

This was necessary for a season, but not part of the design.

In Genesis chapter one, when God creates the world, he makes it clear that there

was no conquest involved.

He didn't defeat anybody to make things. Violence is not part of creation.

And going forward, the prophets will say that one day we're gonna have all these

swords and we're going to beat them into plowshares.

A very poetic way of saying that what God wants this to head is that the weapons

of war will become farm equipment.

Because I want a time of peace.

In just a few chapters, we're gonna see, a few chapters later in 1 Kings,

when Solomon has built the temple, he will say a prayer for the temple.

And part of that prayer says, my prayer is that this place will become a house

of prayer for all nations, that

we want all to be able to come here and to seek and to learn about God.

That is the opposite of somebody who has a background of conquest.

And so this is an important truth about the nature of God and what God values

and where God is going in the story, even though God has to,

for a time, defeat these enemies to bring about his purposes.

But this is not the way that God wants it.

Many of the things that break your heart also break God's heart.

But to David, this has another layer to it. And I can't help but think there

isn't a little bit of a sting.

That idea that all that David has done, the faith, the trust,

the patience, the getting things together. I'm willing to sacrifice.

He's the guy that took off his royal robe to worship on the way to Jerusalem.

I'm ready to build this temple. And God says, no.

Well, what can I do about it? Nothing. It's in your past. You're disqualified.

What do you mean I'm disqualified? Can I repent or something? Nope. Nope, you can't.

That's a hard truth to face. And many of us at some point in your life have

had similar experiences.

You had a vision of what you wanted in the future. You planned on playing sports

in college, but then a injury came about, not any particular person's fault,

but it doesn't change the fact that there was a version of the future that you

are now no longer qualified to fulfill. It is gone.

It has vanished. I heard about that from Tara Vandiver

and she was playing at Ohio State a woman

basketball player and in her senior year right before

the NCAA tournament right right before it happens she blows out her knee and

gets to play in none of the games like think about that like she plays he did

this as a career really in athletics all the way through high school all the

way through college working her way up and then it's gone.

Some of you had the company that downsized, and now you're working at a job

that you do not bring up in conversation unless you're forced to.

It's retail, and this is not what you imagined for yourself.

You're doing a side hustle or Lyft or Uber, and you're just trying to get by,

and you're saying, you know, when I pictured my future, this is not the story that I wanted to be.

And I feel like it said, I feel like I'm living out a script that I would not

have for myself. And here David is being told, you are disqualified.

Sometimes it's because a situation that just had just an unfortunate situation.

Other times it's because of mistakes that we made that we just didn't realize

how serious the implications would be.

My father was the dean of the ministry department at Kentucky Christian University.

And there was a guy, we'll call him Ryan, not his name, but he got involved

in a prank that got a little bit out of hand.

They were going to light off some fireworks inside to scare somebody.

And the explosion exceeded expectations.

Things were damaged. Things were blown apart. The SWAT team was called. It was quite an ordeal.

My dad had the tragic place of sitting on the committee where they were reviewing

for expulsion, which had already been decided by the president,

but at least to hear an appeal from the students.

And my dad remembers seeing Ryan, this kid, just put his hands in his head,

just crying. I mean, he's at a Christian college training for ministry. What now?

That's not going to look good on a resume.

Yeah, this is my college career. What made you leave? I set off explosives and

terrorism. That's what made me leave.

He's sitting there saying, what do I do at this point? You see,

the problem is, is that there's going to be moments, whether it's from actions

that you did or just an unjust situation that just happened to be the way it was.

But either way, we find ourselves sometimes as part of a story where we feel

like a future that we wanted is no longer within reach.

The college sent back the rejection letter, and all the effort and studying

is not going to change it now.

So what I like about what David's response is going to be is it's going to remind

us how do we respond when we get that word?

What is it that we should be doing when we get these moments in our life where

we're stuck in a job that we're not excited about or we're struggling with health

things that we didn't sign up for?

And now we say, but what now? We could say that I'm not playing the role that I pictured.

And so what happens next in the story is God continuing to talk to David says

the following, you will have a son and he will be a man of peace and rest.

And I will give him rest from all of his enemies on every side.

And his name will be Solomon.

And I will grant Israel peace and quiet during his reign.

And he is the one who will build a house for my name.

And he will be my son and I will be his father and I will establish his throne

and his kingdom over Israel forever.

I don't know what David's reaction was in the moment, but I could suspect that

at least a part of me, if I were in that situation, would feel a little bit ripped off.

What? Oh, he doesn't have to fight any battles, does he?

He didn't have to wander around in the desert eating stale bread,

did he? No giants coming to try to impale him with a spear.

Like, oh, Solomon's got it so easy, and that's the guy you're going to let build the temple.

You know, there is often this tension between fathers and sons in any situation, but often in kingship.

And it happens more than once where kings begin to feel threatened by that next generation.

Herod the Great did not like Herod the Great Jr. And has all of his family murdered

except for the ones that get farther away from him. He is not so ready to let go of power.

We saw in Saul's life that although it started as paranoia over David,

it quickly transferred to also include Jonathan.

You see, this is a pattern you see over and over again. And I can sometimes

feel the tension between generations.

I am now old enough to say with all honesty that the next generation of music is not good.

It's weird. It's just not good. I mean, that's the problem.

And the funny thing is, is I remember as I'm saying it, my dad saying it to

me, grunge is three chords and you just turn up the distortion to try to hide

the fact that there's no skill behind it. I think you said something like that.

Like from one generation to the next, there is often competition.

Working for years at a company with some young guy shows up with 45 minutes

of experience, ready to go and revamp this whole thing and has ideas that,

yeah, they probably would work once he puts in his dues.

There can be a sense of competition that I don't want to be replaced by that.

Are you kidding? I was not that young when I started here. You know,

I appreciate a hard day's work, not like that next generation.

You know the problem with the next generation? That phrase alone accounts for

so much content on social media.

Problem with millennials, problem with Gen Y, problem with Gen Alpha.

You know what the problem is with these kids? They don't appreciate how.

And it's often the voice of those who are not quite so ready to share the platform.

David is told that his son Solomon will get to build the temple.

And the temple will not be known as David's temple. It'll be known as Solomon's temple.

It's a massive structure. will be over 15 stories high by ancient standards,

looming far above anything else.

People will come from far around just to see it until Babylon destroys it.

This will be a testament to what it means to worship God and it will have not your name on it.

But David, once again, shows us why he is called a man after God's heart.

That because this message came from God, he doesn't bargain,

doesn't negotiate, doesn't fire and try to get a new prophet who appreciates age and experience.

He just says, if that's what God's going to do, then here's what I'm going to

do. He's going to invest in what's next.

He's going to say, if that's the lot that God has given me, if this is the role

I'm meant to have, then I'm going to do it to the glory of God. Here's what he says.

I have taken great pains to provide for the temple of the Lord,

a hundred thousand talents of gold, a million talents of silver,

quantities of bronze and iron too great to be weighed, and wood and stone.

And you, he's talking to Solomon, this is David to Solomon, you may add to them.

You have many workers, Solomon, stonecutters, masons, carpenters,

as well as those skilled in every kind of work.

When David says, look, if I can't build it, then I'm going to do things to make

it easier for the next generation to build it.

The reason that Solomon is able to build such a grand structure for the temple

is because his father put all of these resources right in his lap. It's a hard thing.

Tara Vandiver, she blew out her knee. But she goes on, though she has no career

as a professional sportsperson, And she went on to become a coach and has the

standing of the coach with the most wins in the NCAA Women's League.

Though she cannot play the ways that she probably dreamed growing up,

she can help others play better.

And what Solomon is now saying is, if I'm going to pass on this torch,

I'm going to do everything in my power to set you up for as much success as possible.

Can you not see how unlike others before him, if God said to let go,

David said, show me and I'm ready and willing.

He is willing to give it away.

We had a professor who was in my time, Seth Wilson. He used to be the president

of Ozark Christian College, one of the longest running presidents.

And you would see him right there in chapel, right there at the front.

He would stand up, even lift it up his hand sometimes. That was controversial

for a guy who was very, very up there in years.

And someone asked him, so Seth, I could see you really like that music. And he says, no, music.

Oh, I hate that music. I hate it. But I love them.

I love to see students using their gifts and their talents to make a difference.

And my love for them is greater than my preferences for style.

There's something about that heart that looks at the next generation and is

ready to hand over not just tasks and jobs to pay your dues,

but keys, the ability to make decisions, to do things differently.

You see people like Peyton who are coming back from college and could have college

friends to hang out with, but instead uses her gifts and her talents to invest

months of work in that dance that you saw choreographed. She didn't just teach them how to do it.

She designed the dance and all of it put together because she wants to show

girls that not only can you dance well, but there's a place for you in church

where you can use those gifts to honor God.

There is something that happens when instead of competing with the next generation,

we start competing for the next generation.

Or to put another way, if your vision about your future doesn't require the

next generation, then your vision is too small.

If your vision about your future is just a certain job level and a retirement

status or a certain place that you're trying to achieve, if it does not include

the next generation, then your vision of the future is far too too small.

There's a need to invest in what comes next.

We're going to have a guy come later this fall. He's going to talk to us about

those who are putting together their estates and their wills.

And I've been reminded that I should also probably have one of those.

And one of the things that that person is going to talk about is making sure

that what we value, part of what we have is to give it to places like Northside

or other causes we support like Five Loaves.

And It is not a bad thing for us to talk about making sure that your legacy

includes helping the next generation go farther. But it's a lot more than just finances.

If you walk down the halls of this church, you're going to see more than one

older grandparent with a small toddler in tow that can't possibly be their immediate

child is almost certainly a grandchild.

And I know that it would never happen here.

But just hypothetically, there could be places where when that happens,

there might be a temptation for some to say, typical, using the child care of

the church and the parents don't even volunteer.

They don't even show up. They're just taking advantage of it. Free child care.

Not giving anything. Wanting a free ride.

But I know that wouldn't be you.

Because you know that the reason that grandparent is bringing that child is not free childcare.

It's because they're trying to do everything they can to guide that generation's

heart closer to God, even if the parents aren't quite there yet.

And so you keep bringing them. That grandma who says to her grandchild,

I'll pick you up, I'll buy you lunch afterwards, don't give up,

you keep coming, I'll make it as easy as possible, I'll wait in the driveway,

I'll wait until you're done talking to your friends.

Afterwards, they are investing in a generation that is to come.

There are people here who volunteer in classes long after their kids have grown

and moved on and they continue to teach kids that aren't theirs.

There are people here who volunteer to make coffee who don't even drink it,

but want to let other visitors know that they're welcome.

There are people who recognize that one of the great gifts of the church is

our ability to invest in the generation that comes after us.

And in fact, this is a sign that we are following after God when our vision

about how far we want to go looks at the next generation and says,

I want them to go farther than we did.

I want them to have it easier than we did. I want them to have more opportunities

to do ministry than we did.

He invests in what's next.

Many of you have told a year ago about my dad who was picked up in Lexington,

Kentucky by his youth minister every week.

And my dad was not a cool kid by his own admonition.

Wasn't particularly social or outgoing.

He was looking for friends. His sister was 13 years older, had long been out

of the house for this kid who was a slightly awkward only child.

But week in and week out, somebody picked him up and it changed the trajectory

of his life, which changed my life. And some of you are that person.

You benefited from the youth sponsors that took time to invest and call on you.

You benefited from people who helped you when you were between jobs,

who encouraged you when you were walking through difficulties,

that you know the value of investing in those.

Even if we don't always get to see the outcome, we have always been a people

who are marked by the promise that like Abraham, we believe in a country we don't always get to see.

Even if I don't live to see it, we set up the next generation for success.

David said, I'm getting as much together as I possibly can. All the gold I possibly can.

I want him to live in a time of peace. I don't want him to have to go do hard

knocks like I did out in the desert.

I want him to hear his dad say, I am telling you how to rule wisely. And he does.

You see, David recognized in this lead up one last truth that I think set him

up for why he was ready and willing to invest in construction that he will not live to see.

We're going to have to back up a little bit to see it, but it takes place in

the chapter before 1 Chronicles 21.

And it's when David is getting together supplies that he's about to present

to Solomon. One of the things is making sure that he's got prime real estate.

Now, as you can imagine, David's a pretty influential hero in Israel.

This is near the end of his career, so he's quite the honored person.

And the guy who owns the land that will eventually become the temple says,

Buy it, David. I could never.

You may have it. Please, just take it. Please, I want to donate it.

And David says, No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Here's what he says.

David replied to a guy whose name's hard to pronounce, Arunah.

He says, no, I insist on paying the full price for that land.

I will not take for what the Lord, what is yours, or I'm not going to sacrifice

a burnt offering that costs me nothing.

What are you doing to me here? He said, this is my act of worship.

You're robbing an old man of his final act to show God that he loves and cares about him.

No, no, no, no, no. Put your checkbook back in your pocket.

I'm buying it. And he pulls out, and he does. He pays full price for the land.

Because you see, true worship always costs something.

It's just part of what it means to worship, to ascribe something else worth

and value means that those of you who are doing it have sacrificed something.

You've chosen to be here when many other people could stream it while they drive

somewhere more enjoyable to do something else.

And if there's times in your life where that's needed, but you know the sacrifice

that's involved in setting aside space.

You know the sacrifice that's involved in giving and helping regularly.

And it does sometimes feel nicer when we get to go help out a neighbor by giving them a check.

But even better are those times when because you give here, we can give anonymously

to those in needs who can keep their dignity, but it still makes a difference

in this community as we bear one another's burdens.

There's something about worship which always costs us something.

My brother was sitting with the mayor of Wichita a couple of years ago,

and in his office was this red box, the old kind that checks used to come in

for any young people watching.

Checks are these little pieces of paper you write to use the bank.

It's a really cool technology.

But in this old checkbox, the mayor asked my brother, he said,

you know what that is? And he says, no, no checkbox. And he said,

no, no, look inside of it.

And so he grabs it and he looks inside of it. And it's this like slightly moldy

pieces of tissue paper kind of folded up and with things in the middle of them

that look weird. And he said, I don't know what this is.

And he said, those, those are pits from plums.

A lady somehow got in her head years ago that she heard Wichita had a tree problem

or short of trees. And so she has been sending every time she eats prunes,

she wraps it in tissue paper and sends it to my office.

Despite being told that this wouldn't actually plant a tree,

she continues to make the sacrifice.

There was a lady at my church growing up when we first started.

Phil was the senior minister there, and we were just starting our very first

clothing pantry, the first like it in the county.

And a lady came, and she had this really nice men's jacket she was going to donate.

And as she looks at it, she pulls out a pair of scissors and cuts off the buttons

because she loved them so much, wanted to use them on a project she had.

And donates the coat without the buttons.

Something terrible when our worship becomes just imitation.

That worship that doesn't cost is simply counterfeit. If you get your wife flowers

and she finds out that you picked them up at the graveyard, I promise she will

not be as impressed with your thriftiness.

Worship costs us something.

And it's that cost that I think shows our trust and our devotion to God when

you set aside that time and gift and resources.

And David recognizes that while I can't build the temple, all that I do,

even in this small little roll of logistic support, will be done with worship.

And I just wonder what it would look like if I know that you may not be in the job that you want.

And maybe you feel like it just doesn't seem like anything I'd brag about.

What would you look like, though, if you decided to use that space as worship?

Saying, don't rob me of a blessing. If this is the circle God has given me,

then I'm going to make the most of it.

You see, David recognizes what it means to give.

I remember being at a CIY, which a CIY-like event that I went to growing up

called Summer in the Sun.

And they had these table on the front from Compassion International.

Some of you know about those where you can sponsor a child.

And at 16 years old, I had had my first job scrubbing pots and pans for $5 an

hour at Pioneer Food Services, the cafeteria.

And I got to scrub pots from ladies that do not believe in not scorching everything that they own.

And when I did that job, I remember being there because I was holding my very

first paychecks in my life.

I suddenly felt that weight of God putting it on me that said,

well, what are you going to do now?

Because for years I said, well, I would do something. I mean,

but I mean, I don't have any money, so there's nothing I can to do about it.

He says, well, what about now?

And it was a hard thing because it represented a lot of my monthly paycheck,

which was not a significant sum of money.

Do I really want to sign up for a responsibility like that?

But I did. And I was blessed by the letters that me and Mateo got to exchange.

Some of you know what that's like. The first time that you decided not just

to audit church, but to go all in.

You started to serve or to give or to really say,

I'm going to prioritize this even on days when it's a little inconvenient and

you recognize that there is something that happens in that worship when your

whole heart is dedicated to it that simply cannot be replicated by emotion alone

if that emotion does not come at any cost.

David said, I can't, I can't do a lot. He's old. The battlefield is long behind him.

The harp, I suspect, had even begun to get a little heavy. He does not have

long to go at this point in the story.

This is David saying, but that doesn't mean there's nothing I can do.

Because even if you're not playing the role that you had pictured for your future,

you can still play a role in God's story.

And just because your life is not as great as you thought it was,

you can still do great things for the one who made you in the space that you were given.

In just a moment, we're going to gather around these tables for a time of communion.

I hope you've recognized in this series that David was not a perfect king.

In fact, in many ways, he simply reveals the ache that we have in the world

for a king who can properly use power to be a prince of peace,

to be compassionate and kind, to use his authority, not to help separate,

but help bring together all of God's people that can really bless the world the way God intended.

David was a king looking forward to a better king.

And we here get to sit and tell you the testimony that what David longed for,

you now get to be the beneficiaries of, that what was passed on by your grandparents

and their grandparents, the testimony and the scripture,

the buildings that are here are all because there was the one true king.

So we'll take this bread that represents that when God's son came,

in all of his power and majesty, the king displaying ultimate kingship allowed

himself to be broken for your sake so that you would not feel shame or guilt

or isolation or separation from God or others around you,

that you would be able to taste forgiveness and every week know that any voice

in your head that says otherwise is a liar,

that you'd be able to take this cup, the cup of a covenant, which welcomes you

not only into forgiveness, but a new family.

It is not our table. You don't have to be a part of this church.

It is his table and we're all here by invitation.

But if you've not yet made this decision to trust this kind of king,

then let me tell you that there is no better way to redeem your story than by

giving your story into his hands.

So Mark is gonna be down here at this side. I'm gonna be out here.

Plus we have people out at the work welcome center that would love to talk to you.

If you wanna make this day a day where you take your next step in your faith

journey, would you pray with me as we gather around the table for communion?

Music.