David: Shadows of a King | Gifts of Grief

Good morning. Today's reading is from verses

in 2nd Samuel 12 15 to 25. Then Nathan went home, the Lord,

struck, the baby that uriah's wife had born to David, and he

became ill David pleaded with God for the boy.

He fasted went home and spent the night lying on the ground,

the Elders of his house, Stood Beside him to get him up from

the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat anything with

them. On the seventh day, the baby

died, but David servants were afraid to tell him the baby was

dead. They said look, while the baby

was alive. We spoke to him and he wouldn't

listen to us. So, how can we tell him that the

baby is dead. He may do something desperate.

When David saw his servants were whispering to each other.

He guessed that the baby was dead.

So he asked his servants, is the baby dead.

He is dead. They replied then, David got up

from the ground. He washed anointed himself

changed. His clothes went to the Lord's

House and worshipped. Then he went home and requested

something to eat. So they served him food and he

ate his servants asked him. What did you just do?

While the baby was alive. You fasted and wept.

But when he died, you got up and ate food.

He answered while the baby was alive.

I fasted and wept, because I thought, who knows the Lord may

be gracious to me and let him live, but now that he is dead.

Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again?

I'll go to him, but he will never return to me, then, David

comforted his wife Bathsheba. He Went and slept with her, she

gave birth to a son and named him Solomon.

The Lord, loved him, and he sent a message through Nathan.

The prophet who named him Jedidiah, because of the Lord.

This is the word of the Lord. To remain standing looking to

pray. We believe that as scripture

says that Jesus walks in the midst of his church, so that God

himself is present with us and already actively working in your

lives. Let's take a moment just to be

silent. What comes up for you, what

prayer requests come up for you. Right now is your silent and

still in the presence of God? Just be honest with God about

that. Our Father, we thank you that

there is nothing hidden in your sight.

Our desires, our habits, our instincts, our dreams, our

hopes, all of them are before you.

And right now, we ask, as we are here in your presence.

We've been in your presence all week and we are uniquely aware

of that presence. We ask that you take our minds

and you'd reform them udrih Story.

The ways that we tend to grasp for identity in success and

image and followers and blah blah blah.

We asked Jesus that you would feel Our soul this morning that

when we walk out of here, we'd be filled with joy and peace and

hope and life. And that that would be what

emanates from our own lives to the world around us.

We ask this in the name of the father and son and holy spirit.

Amen. Please be seated.

Well, it's good to see you guys. We are wrapping up a summer time

series, which means summertime is also wrapping up, but we are

very thankful for some cool air in this room.

And are we not? Okay, do not make me work this

hard today, please. My name is Al if you haven't

already met. I have the privilege of speaking

most Sundays and this past week, our staff watched a video of

Anderson Cooper. Interviewing Stephen Colbert.

Maybe some of you saw it this to begin their conversation with

Cooper relating to Colbert. They both lost their father at

the age of 10 in tragic accidents and Cooper said it

changed. Changed the trajectory of my

life. I'm a different person than I

feel like I was meant to be. He says, and then he's visibly

holding himself together. He's trying not to break down

these, trying to hold on to his position as a journalist and he

turns the Colbert and he said you once said, what punishment

of gods are not gifts, quoting Tolkien Lord of the Rings, which

Colbert admits to being the biggest fanatical nerd of Lord

of the Rings there ever were. And he says, do you really

believe that what punishment of the gods are not gifts.

Do you really believe that in Colbert classically pauses for a

moment? A long silence.

And he smiles, almost smirks. And he says, yes, it's a gift to

exist and with existence come suffering.

There's no escaping that. Colbert says, I don't want it to

have happened. I want it, the death of my dad

and my brother at an early age, not to have happened.

But if you're grateful for your life, and I'm not always

grateful, then you have to be grateful for all of it.

And you know what? I appreciate that.

He didn't look through Rose Colored lens.

Like hey, look it, we suffer. Look on the bright side.

God works all things together for good.

You didn't do that. I appreciated that.

He said, I don't want it to have happened.

I want it to not have happened. But I'm also grateful for the

gifts that have come from it. There are probably events in

your life that you are saying to yourself.

I don't want it to have happened.

I wanted it not to have happened.

And you know what? Quite honestly there are

probably things that God would look at in your life and say, I

didn't want that to happen. I wanted it not to have

happened. In fact, when God created the

world, he created everything and he said, looked at it and he

said, it's very good. It's very good.

Good, that's how he created this world.

And certainly we see that in Jesus.

For example, Jesus groans over the pain of others.

He weeps when he sees a family mourning, the loss of a loved

one at the gravesite and he warns his disciple in this world

because it's fallen and it has the broken effects of sin gone.

Wrong in this world. You'll face trouble.

And because we live, in a world where we can expect trouble, the

question that you and I often have to answer is, how can we

find the gifts in the midst of the trouble?

How can we find the gifts in grief?

So, in order to address that question, I think we need to

look at the story in two phases. The first is, I want to look at

the work of grief in David's life.

And then I want to look at the gifts of grief and then we will

talk about how do we access those gifts.

So first, The work of grief, most of you are familiar with

Aron Ralston, the guy, you know, the guy who was trapped in the

canyons. He was hiking climbing.

He's stuck underneath the Boulder and an order for him to

escape in order for him to live. He has to cut off one of his

limbs. He has to cut his arm off with a

pocket knife. David has been trapped beneath

the boulder of his own decisions.

From a young age, his life moved from Victory to victory until

now. He's been climbing the ladder of

success. But how many of you know that at

some point when you climb that ladder you look and you're at

the top and you realize oh my gosh, this ladder is against the

wrong wall as a warrior. He achieved military success as

a worship leader. He had sheep spiritual success

as a king. He achieved political success,

but success has a way of blinding me.

To the shadows in my own soul. I can I can hide in the cracks.

The character can hide beneath the covering of success.

So when David sees a beautiful naked, young woman, bathing

outside of his Palace window. He's overcome with desire.

He sends for her. He's the king.

So he seduces her. And then he sleeps with her and

she conceives a child the culture calls.

It just a moment of weakness in the chapter.

God, calls it wickedness. The Scandal David knows will be

enough to wreck him enough to kill him.

Maybe so he does what we'd all be tempted to do.

He covers his tracks. He brings the husband of the

best Sheba back from war Uriah. He tries to make it look like

your Raya is the one who impregnated his own wife.

But Uriah is not willing. He's too loyal to the team and

he's too loyal to go home and enjoy a night with his wife.

When his friends are out on the battlefield.

David realizes this plan is not working.

So when he can't make it appear like it's uriah's baby.

He decides to have Uriah killed for a year, David lives with

this secret. The boulder of his guilt is

crushing his bones. He thinks that he's getting away

with it until one day. His Pastor, a man by the name of

Nathan comes to visit him. And he confronts him.

And in that moment, David learns that what he thought was done in

secret is naked and open before the Living God.

God speaks to his people. Prophetically speaks to this

man. Nathan.

Nathan tells him some random story about a rich man who

steals a lamb from a poor man only lamb.

He has then, he kills it to slaughter it and give it to his

dinner guests. And David says, that man should

be killed. Ethan says, David son.

You're that, man. And so in verse 13 of chapter

12, David responded to Nathan and says, I have sinned against

the Lord, then Nathan replied to David.

The Lord has taken away your sin.

That's the beauty of the Gospel in is that through the blood of

Christ, the lamb slaughtered for us.

Our guilt is washed away. Here's the rub sin has

consequences. Has in the consequences are

significant. Nathan replied to David, the

Lord has taken away your sin. You will not die.

However, because you treated the Lord with such contempt.

In this matter, the son born to you.

He's gonna die and then Nathan went home.

Sometimes when you're trapped beneath something crushing you,

you need Extreme Measures to be set free, but David's about to

have more than just his arm cut off.

He's about to have his soul ripped out.

Verse 15, the Lord struck the baby that uriah's wife had born

to David and he became ill. These are hard words.

I don't want them to have happened.

I want them to not have happened.

I don't want to believe that God's goes to Extreme Measures

to get my attention. But as we saw last week

consequences of sin are still significant.

And David story follows the progression of sin that James

describes in his letter. Look at James 1, verse 14.

James 1:14

Each person is tempted when they're dragged Away by their

own evil or over desire. And enticed, then after desire

has conceived, it gives birth to sin and sin when it is

full-grown gives birth to death. We like to think that we can

talk our way out of most anything or at least I do.

Which is why, as I mentioned last week, when I was telling a

friend at one point in my life early, in my following Jesus

phase. Hey, I know God's word says

this, but here's where I want to go.

Here's what I want to do, and my friend who loves me, who is a

Nathan in my life? Looks at me and says out.

I've thought about that all day long.

When you told me that and I want to tell you, there's nothing

there for you, but death. Galatians 6 says, don't be

misled. You cannot mock the justice of

God. See we all want Justice.

When it benefits us or when it's in, you know, it's cool.

It's in Vogue. It's the Hipster thing to do.

But he says, you will always reap what you plant.

Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will

harvest Decay and death. From that sinful nature, but

those who live to please the spirit.

They're going to harvest everlasting life from the

spirit. It's the law of sowing and

reaping. It's just the way it is.

David needs the work of grief. He needs also to do the work of

grief and he needs grief to do. Its work in him.

It's two sides of the same coin. What do I mean if all you know

is spiritual achievement without Affliction you run the risk of

being very religious. But not living a life of love.

If all, you know is spiritual achievement without some type of

Affliction, you run the risk of being a very condemning person,

very critical person, very self-righteous smarter people

than I have broken down the life of faith and to six phases.

The end goal of these phases is always a life of love, but it is

necessary to be interrupted to get their say just one two and

three. David.

Already experienced. He's already experienced a

life-changing awareness of God at a young boy, 16 or so.

He's out in the fields with the shepherd.

His discipleship, period was real.

He could tell you all of the right answers on the Bible test

and then he serves, right, he serves in the Kingdom.

He even becomes king. He's serving God's people and

profound ways, but at some point, if David is going to

really experience love and extend life, giving love.

Of, he's got to experience what the mystics call the sacred

wound. The Dark Night of the Soul.

A crisis of faith. And that wound forces us into a

journey inward. Where were forced to face the

choice of doing inventory in our own soul, about the addictions

that we don't want to admit to. I'm talking about even things

like critical attitude. Gossip slander.

We have to face the idols that we hold onto.

And I'm forced to ask myself who God really is, and what God,

really wants of me. And what I really want of God.

Do I really want to love God with all my heart or do I want

God to just bless my life and hold on to it.

I'm forced to face my own inner fears.

And where I'm really putting my trust.

Well, I'm finally being transformed by love so that I

can really love others. If all, you know, is spiritual

achievement without spiritual Affliction, then you'll likely

have a very rigid religion, not gospel spirituality.

If David doesn't allow grief to do its work, he still going to

take advantage of people. He's still going to abuse power.

He still going to see himself as better than others.

He'll forever. Have the shadow side of the

king, the patriarch, the evil Tyrant who uses power for his

own pleasure, but for David to passively allow grief to do its

work. He has to actively do his grief.

Work verses 16 through 18, gives us a clue as to what that

involves three things in order to do the work of grief or for

grief to do its work and you it requires a few different things.

First, the work of grief involves tears.

It involves emotion and Falls crying.

It boss. What David is doing is pleading

and fasting and spending the night on the floor.

His child is about to die course.

He's on the floor. Of course.

He doesn't want to eat food. He's dependent on the Living

God, in a way that he hasn't been for several years.

Good grief. Work requires us to open our

emotions and shed our tears. But, secondly, good of grief

work, not only requires tears. It requires truth.

When David Son actually dies, the elders, come to David to ask

him, why he's fast. And when the baby was sick, but

now that the baby's dead. Why won't why are you eating

now? Why are now you taking a shower?

Why are you now getting ready to go out and do your work?

David's response to the words of these men with the doctrine of

the Resurrection. He needs tears and he needs

truth. He's holding onto the truth of

scripture, the truth of a coming New Creation where he will see

the baby again. Most of us lean toward one of

the other. Conservatives usually are good

at the truth. Part of grief work, liberals

tend to lean towards the tears, part of grief work in the Gospel

of Jesus. And in David, we see the need

for both, Grief work is both passive and active.

Meaning, grief work. Does it work in us?

If we're willing to do the greet, the work of grief, David

needs this grief work to work in him if he's ever going to be a

king. Who serves others.

Thirdly, lastly we don't just need tears and Truth in grief

work. It involves others.

Look at verse 17, the Elders of his house.

They stood beside him. To get him up from the ground,

but he was unwilling and he wouldn't eat anything with him.

Listen. I am learning at the age of 42

about to be 43 next month on September 21st, and I would love

an Apple Watch for my birthday. I am learning.

Preach it. That I need a community of

people around me to help me work through the works.

The areas of grief. Because listen, if I don't learn

to transform my pain, I will transmit my pain to others.

It'll come out in the form of bitterness and I know because

I've done it. We need to do the necessary work

of grieving. So grief can do it's necessary

work in us. If we are to journey through the

wall, beyond the initial stages, and into a life of life-giving

love. That's the first thing, the work

of grief. But secondly, I want to look in

the story at the gifts of grief. Colbert says, there are gifts in

grief. What are they?

Well, by the end of the chapter, David has a renewed sense of

purpose. He has a renewed identity.

We begin to see the transformation and his character

and his confidence. And I see at least a few gifts

in this grief, that happens to David first.

I see a redirected faith in verse 15 through 17.

There are many of you in here. Who have had your faith

redirected? What I mean, is Faith is what we

all possess? All of us are trusting

something. All of us are holding onto

something to make life, a life of meaning significance value.

And at some point in your life, your faith was taken from that.

To that it was redirected from a lesser thing to.

God, whether it was that you hit rock, bottom, or you ascended to

the very top of your class or your profession.

No matter what it was, doesn't matter.

If you reach the top of the ladder, or your fell to the

depth of Despair. One of the gifts of grief is a

redirected Faith. David is pleading fasting

weeping. Why?

Has his faith. His trust is being redirected.

Faith is how David ended up in the situation.

I'ma say it again. Faith is how David ended up in

this situation in the first place.

Why? Because beneath his adulterous

affair with Bathsheba. Do you know what he was really

doing? He was misplacing his faith.

Faith is simply trust. I'm trusting in someone or

something, maybe myself over God and God's word to bring me an

identity security or to bring me an ultimate sense of value and

worth and satisfaction. That's the essence of sin.

The essence of sin is we often say is not that I'm doing wrong

things. It's I'm trusting the wrong

things. So when David sees Bathsheba,

and then he kills Uriah and then he lies to cover it up, beneath

it. All.

He's really trusting something to be his, ultimate salvation to

save him to free him. To be as covering sin is

idolatry. It's misplaced, faith and

idolatry. I don't know about you, but for

me, it's always appealing. But we'll always let me down.

That's why Dallas Willard, says, anxiety worry, fear.

They occur only as a hangover of bad habits establish.

When we were trusting things like human approval, wealth, and

security things that were certain to let us down.

Someone might say, well, I'm not a religious person.

I'm not sure. I even resonate with all your

faith talk. One Theologian said if, at the

very least faith is what you trust in than everyone has faith

in something. If you are a child of God,

through faith in Jesus, there's a promise that you have when you

begin to trust in other things, lesser things, there's a

promise. That's yours that you might not

want to actually. Hebrews chapter 12 says and have

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

you forgotten the encouraging words?

God spoke to you as his children.

He said my child don't make light of the Lord's discipline

and don't give up. When he corrects you for the

Lord disciplines those, he loves and he punishes each one.

He accepts as his child. David's faith is being

redirected and B being redirected by a God who is so

good. And so committed to his

flourishing that he'll Faithfully do, what needs to be

done in our lives so that we are free from the boulder of

idolatry. You get me.

Just yesterday. I had a chastening moment.

There are these moments as a parent.

Will I have to enter in as a as a moment of chastening and I

don't always do it. Well.

But I feel like yesterday. I'm pretty much crushed it.

actually, I had my wife there just to make sure that we did it

the right way and we looked at our daughter one of our girls

and she's not in this room and we said If we want to give you

everything that you ever wanted. Everything that you want.

That's not going to wreck you and make you feel entitled.

And right now, you're wanting something more than wanting to

listen to what we're saying to you.

With tears running down her face.

We wiped her tears. And when he said, but the thing

is, when you assess obsess over, what you don't have to the point

that you don't listen to us. And onerous as your parents,

we're going to do all that we can to help you listen because

we're interested in your flourishing ultimately as an

adult. I can personally count two times

in the past year where I was sure that either the fine I had

to pay or the apology that I had to give was the direct result of

God's chastening work in my life.

One of them was so clear that I was walking and I had this thing

I had to pay or apology. I had to give us a result.

And I was so angry that I said, God.

Are you bleeping chasing me right now?

And I'm not saying that so that you can try that just saying

that. So you can see that.

I'm in the same boat. The next morning I read through

scripture. Am I normal scripture?

Reading? I read these verses.

This is no lie. Lamentations 3:25 through 26.

Lamentations 3:25–26

It was just my normal Bible Bible reading.

The Lord is good to those who wait for him to the person who

seeks him. It is good to wait, quietly for

deliverance from the Lord. Let him sit alone and be silent

for God has disciplined him. I was like, oh, you are chasing

me. I get it and I'm sorry.

Help me to learn this lesson. Help me to Love Like You Love.

Well, someone might say how good can this Lord be when he strikes

a baby. Let me first say that the Hebrew

genre of writing is sometimes written in the form of exalted

prose narrative. So sometimes there is an

exaggeration to prove a point, but let's say in this case.

It seems like the death of the baby isn't just a loud.

It's intentional, please please please hear me.

I am not saying that God removes everything to get good to get

our attention. Nor am I saying that everything

good that's been removed. You have, please listen.

Nor am I saying that everything good that's been removed from

your life has been removed by God because of a work of

chastening. I'm not saying that and many

times, we will not know until the other side of this life.

What was truly at work there? What I am saying is that God is

a good father, far better than me, who does whatever it takes

for his kids to be free when they're trapped, beneath the

boulder of idolatry. He'll even cut off an appendage

so that their faith can be regrown.

And redirected. It's what old translators of the

Bible in Romans 11 called the goodness and severity of God.

We were in deep Waters now guys, We're In It Together right here,

okay. There's a section in CS Lewis is

novel called The Chronicles of Narnia where one of the main

characters, a young girl named Lucy and counters to talking

beavers as you do from them. She learns that the king of

Narnia who was to put all things right is on the loose.

He's a lion by the name of Aslan.

And she asked mr. And mrs.

Beaver is, is he a man? A salut.

See as land a man misses. Mr. Beaver sternly says,

certainly not. I tell you he's the king of the

wood and the son of the great emperor, Beyond the Sea.

Don't you know, who is the king of beasts?

Aslan is a lion, the lion, the great lion.

Is, is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous

about meeting a lion. Safe said, mr.

Beaver. Who said anything about safe.

Course, he isn't safe, but he's good.

He's the king, I tell you. God is so good that he's

redirecting. David's faith in the goodness

and the severity of God. That's the first gift of grief.

The second gift of griefed is a resurrected.

Hope. What do I mean by a resurrected?

Hope? Verse 16?

Through 18. David is desperately pleading

with God, on their behalf of the baby.

He knows that the child is suffering, as a result of his

foolish choices that he's misplaced, his faith in 47 days.

David doesn't eat, doesn't Get up off the floor.

He does the work of grief. He's in such a desperate

condition that when the child does die.

Verse 20 says, then David got up from the ground.

Washed anointed himself changed. His clothes, went to the Lord's

House and worship and then he went home and requested

something to eat. So they served him food and ate

his servants asked him. Why did you just do that?

While the baby was alive? You fasted and wept, but when he

died, you got up and ate food. David responds in an interesting

way. He says, in verse 22, while the

baby was alive. I fasted and wept because I

thought, who knows? Maybe the Lord will be gracious

to me and let him live. But now that he's dead.

Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again?

I'll go to him, but he'll never return to me.

David has a resurrected hope or put more accurately, David has a

hope that comes from the resurrection.

It doesn't take away the pain of his loss.

In fact, probably as long as he's alive, and I know this

having walked with friends who've lost their children.

He will always have the wound. And therefore, he'll always need

to hold on to Hope first. Peter. 1:3 says blessed, be the

1 Peter 1:3

God and father of our Lord, Jesus Christ.

According to his great Mercy has caused us to be born again to a

Living Hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

From the dead. About a year ago.

My good friend named Bruce was updating me on the status of his

six-year-old. Nephew named Samuel.

Samuel had been battling a cancerous tumor for about six

months. But as the summer Drew near and

his seventh birthday passed, it became clear that Samuel to

Wood. Us.

Just before Samuel died. I received this message from

Bruce. It's been a while since I've

updated you on my nephew. At the moment.

Sammy is at home with my brother and his wife by his side

constantly. They stopped giving him steroids

as it was not having an impact. Things have deteriorated rapidly

over the last few weeks. I had a chance to briefly Skype

with him yesterday and see Sammy.

He opened his eyes a few times while I read to him from Psalm

23. And the last paragraph of Cs

Lewis's book, the last battle and then I prayed for him.

Darryl told me that he had started reading the final

chapter of the last battle. You read it too Sammy recently,

but he had not managed to finished.

It. It was lovely that I got to read

it to him. I'm grateful for such a small

Mercy. In the email, my friend included

those words from the final chapter of Louis's last battle.

It's a chapter called farewell to the shadowlands.

It's a fictional fantasy about the new heavens and the new

Earth. And when I read it, I wept I

wept because of the pain of a family about to lose their child

and I wept because I long for the home that Lewis described in

the words from Saint, John in Revelation and the hope that's

coming and the healing that's coming and the heavens that are

coming to this earth, mean that The Best Is Yet To Come.

And if we believe that the best is yet to come that we can have

hope in the midst of our heartache.

Here's the ending to the chapter that my friend Bruce read.

In the chapter Aslan, the lion gives the children's shocking

news. He says, there was a real

accident. There was a railway accident

Aslan said, softly your mother and your father and all of you

as you used to call it in the shadowlands are dead.

The term is over. The holidays have begun.

The dream is ended. This is morning.

And then he says, and as he spoke, he no longer look to them

like a lion, but the things that began to happen, after that were

so great and beautiful that I cannot write them.

And for us, this is the end of all the stories and we can most

truly say that they all lived happily ever after.

But for them, it was only the beginning of the real story, all

their life in this world. All of their adventures and

Narnia had only been the cover. And the title page.

Now, at last, they were beginning chapter, one of the

great story which no one on earth has ever read which goes

on forever in which every chapter is better than the one

before. Well, someone might say, if all

you do is hope and Resurrection for life.

After this one. How will you be any Earthly

good? You see in this chapter after

David goes, through his work of grief and grief Works in him.

He resumes his role. As a man who's bringing

restoration to the world and he does it so imperfectly that the

rest of his life is going to be marked by pain and death.

It's a tragic story here on but David still is the man after

God's Own Heart. And he still is working

co-creating with God, which is why NT Wright says, people who

believe in the resurrection in God, making a whole new world in

which everything will be set right at last, our unstoppably

motivated to work for that new world in the present.

Dang. There's only one.

Final gift left for David to experience.

It's a gift that will change everything.

You remember he opened the gift of a redirected faith and a

resurrected hope but now he opens the gift of real love.

Verse 24, and 25 verse 24, then David comforted his wife

Bathsheba for the first time in this section.

Bathsheba is called David's wife.

Until now, she's been your riyas wife, David saw her, David saw

Uriah David saw joab, the commander all as objects until

now. As instruments for his success,

but it took the wall, it took the sacred wound.

It took the Dark Night of the Soul.

It took the crisis of faith. It took the ability to look in

the mirror and see his own Frailty in order for him to,

really begin to love like he was made to love, like God loves.

And now he sees the heartache that he's caused verse 24.

Says David comforted his wife. He's forgiven.

The consequences are significant.

But God's forgiving. Love is so extravagant and David

is learning to comfort others. Psalm 103 says the Lord is

compassionate and gracious. Slow to anger and Rich and

faithful love. He will not always accuse us or

be angry forever. He is not dealt with us as our

sins deserve or repaid us. According to our Answers David

will forever have the wound, but he's journeying into that six

stage of Faith, the journey into love and I have to tell you from

experience. I have found that every time God

chastens me. There's a work of redemption

that almost always follows. Doesn't remove the wound.

But it allows me to see real love.

And this case, God gives another son to David and Bathsheba verse

24, then he went and he slept with her.

She gave birth to a son and named him Solomon, and the Lord

loved him. And he sent a message through

Nathan. The prophet who named him

Jedidiah, because of the Lord. How is it that David is learning

to give real love. It's because David received real

love. The lord.

Gave David a son named Solomon or Shalom, a meaning.

Peace, the Lord love this child and gave him.

The throne name Jedediah the Beloved of the Lord and through

it. All God, love David and he would

continue to love David. Although his life would never be

the same. the consequences of sin are significant, but God's

love is extravagant how so You enter this world and you and I

have lived lives trapped beneath the boulder of sin beneath the

boulder of idolatry. We tried to cut ourselves away,

several different ways through success and fame and money and

power status, more insta, followers.

Whatever. The only way for us to be free

was for another beloved Son to be cut off.

So Jesus, the prince of peace entered, the world spreading

Shalom. Our punishment was placed on

him. He bore our shame, he was struck

down for our spiritual adultery, or for loving other things, more

than God, who was blessed for Evermore?

Jesus was smitten for our idolatry.

Which is why Colbert ends his interview this way.

What do you get from Los? You get awareness of other

people's loss, which allows you to connect with other person

which allows you to love more deeply and understand what it's

like to be a human being. If it's true that all humans

suffer. At a young age.

I suffered something so that by the time I was in a serious

relationship in life with my friends, or my wife or my

children, I understood that everybody is suffering and

however, imperfectly acknowledge their suffering to connect with

them and to love them in a deep way.

That not only accepts that all of us suffer, but makes you

grateful for the fact that you have suffered.

So you can know about other people.

It's about the fullness of your her man.

Do what's the point of being here?

If you can't be the most human, you can be.

I want to be the most human eye can be and that involves

acknowledging and ultimately being grateful for the things.

I wish didn't happen because they gave me a gift and this is

how he ends and it drops the mic with these words.

In my tradition, that's the great gift of the sacrifice of

Christ. The sacrifice of Christ.

Is that God does it to you really not alone?

God does suffering too. That's the gift that David is

learning. God does it to, he gives his son

who has struck down so that we can be free from the boulder of

what's holding us down. Let's pray.

We'll ask the Holy Spirit to begin to speak to us, to reveal

to us, how we are to respond to him doing our own work of grief,

Our Father. We thank you for your words to

us. Thank you for your mercy.

That is new here this morning. Dear God.