Voice of the Nazarene 6-18-23

I'm coming to you from North Central Ohio, we share with you the voice of the Nazarene, a week by week venture into the Word of God sponsored by the Bucyrus, Ohio Church of the Nazarene. We joined our Pastor Ray LaSalle, and the voice of the Nazarene Had many flaws and a number of failures, but found forgiveness.

Miles of distance and centuries of time, separate us from King David. He was the king and we are commoners. And still, despite the distance and the differences between this man as a father, I believe in looking at his life for a few moments it can help us in the presence.

From this man from long ago, we're introduced to David before he became a king. When he was the youngest son, and offspring of Jesse, there in First Samuel 16. He was to be anointed to replace the fallen Saul, the eighth son of Jesse, First Samuel 16, verses 10 through 13 contains the story. Jesse made seven of his sons pass, before Samuel. Samuel said to Jesse, the Lord has not chosen these.

1 Samuel 16:10–13

Samuel said to Jesse, are all the young men here? Then he said there remains yet the youngest and there he is keeping the sheep. And Samuel said to Jesse, send and bring him for will not sit down till he comes here. So he sent and brought him in, and now he was ruddy with bright eyes and good looking and the Lord said, arise, anoint, for this is the one. Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers. And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. Now, if I could teach by flannelgraph, I would hang on the walls of your mind some pictures of David and his life. David had absolutely no bragging rights to the kingdom, except for who his God was. How interesting in the saga of David. The fact that his mother's name is never mentioned in divine writ not once, the silence is deafening, it's almost like a cover up. For some reason, it seemed like he was always viewed as the redheaded stepchild or stepson.

His father kept him out of the family and from the house and from the rest of his brothers out there on the back 40.

And when Samuel came to anoint Jesse's Son to be the king, and God said no to all seven, Jesse had the audacity to stand these seven boys and run them back to the line again, before the preacher, again God said, No.

How strange the gall of Jesse you'll find that in First Samuel 16 Verse 10. And when he said are you sure there's no more sons? I thought God sent me down here and God has said no and finally, Jesse with an ashamed look, he said, well there's another kid he's the youngest he's out tending simply sheep.

1 Samuel 16:10

He doesn't live up here at the house. The old preacher said, You'd better send for him. We're not leaving till we look this boy over. And when he came in to the house, he looked different than all of his brothers. He didn't look like the rest of the family. Fact of the matter of First Samuel 16 Verse 12, said he was ruddy. And in First

1 Samuel 16:12

42, When Goliath saw him he disdained he was ruddy, and of a fair countenance and complexion. All the other brothers had olive skin out in the sun they tanned and darkend but not David. He was ruddy light complexion. In fact the sun burned his light skin. The word ruddy in the Hebrew is admoni and it means red haired, or red complexion. Much like Esau insinuated that he was red and he looked different than all of his brothers. When he arrived at the battle scene to bring food to his brother's a task that only servants did. His own brothers disrespected him and poked fun of him. In Psalm 51, David makes a very startling confession, when he admits to his immorality, but he adds to that his own father's immorality as well. While we talk about it as being mentioning original sin, there's also a deeper meaning for his hidden sin, did my mother conceive me, every rabbinical tradition that I've ever studied, mentions the fact that Jesse, somewhere in the mid activities of life fooled around, outside the confines of marriage and had had an offspring. They were ashamed of.

David, no wonder he was the most humble King Israel ever had. He had nothing to brag about.

Absolutely brothers despised him, daddy hid him, no mention of any mother. But somewhere on the backside of the desert alone, he developed a relationship with God, an intimacy, a connection. And in the writings from his pen. It shares his faith and Almighty God, he said that God was his deliverer, God had delivered him from the paw of a bear. And God delivered him from the paw of a lion and God had delivered him from the hand of a giant. With that final victory under his belt in the death of Saul, he's made king and I want you to listen to his humility, Second

18. Then King David went in and set before the Lord and he said, Who am I? Oh, Lord, God, what is my house that you have brought me this far? And yet, this was a small thing in your side, Lord God, and you've also spoken of your servants house for a great while to come?

Is this, the manor man, oh, Lord God. Now what more can they would say to you for you, Lord, God, know your servant, for Your word sake. And according to your own heart, you have done all these great things to make your servant know them, therefore, you're a great Oh, Lord God, for there is none like you, nor is there any God beside you according to all that we have heard with our ears. And moving from that flannel graph to his faith. David is affirmed in both the Old and the New Testament, as the one that God says, is a man after my own heart. That alone is a commendation from the Creator God. And not only that, think of the great successes famously defeated Goliath, united the 12 tribes of Israel, composed many poems. And one of Jesus titles famously was son of David. David had a foundation of faith that increased as he relied upon God, but he moves from that faith to his fatherhood, here in Second Samuel chapter three, verse two, and he is the father of at least six sons at this time. Did you know that fatherhood carries tremendous responsibility?

Sometimes parenting feels like the most wonderful duty in the world, a lot of the times it feels like the worst. The Bible is filled with stories of success and failures in parity.

He gave us both the promises of the principles along the way for our work and raising and loving our own children. And one of the greatest spin of the Bible, the son of Jesse, the great king, the sweet psalmist of Israel, was quite a failure as a father.

He did well on trying to build a house for God but he kind of failed in keeping his own house.

He knew the pain of seeing some of his own weaknesses, passed on and amplified by his own sons.

And David intended to indulge his children and not punish them, when appropriate. Now those scriptures point out failure. But you know, I'm convinced that God uses and even loves screw ups like David.

There's no way that the story could be told without the horrible mistakes that he'd made. Because those pieces in the narrative, David would appear to be the proto typical golden boy, the perfect man of faith, the untouchable, the only qualified person to lead all of Israel, but not really. God chooses the limpers and the weak. David, first of all, didn't look the part now in a culture where bigness and strongness were the leaders, God told Samuel, I want you to annoit the youngest and the least and the last. One of his failures was many wives and I know you'd be quick to say, Well, Pastor, it was polygamy was commonplace in that day, and I'll agree it was but yet you'll find every time you study about it that it always created humongous problems in the family structure. And it contributed to David's flawed, and broken family as well. And then rape is mentioned. Remember how David saw Bathsheba? How he sent for Bathsheba how he slept with Bathsheba? And can you really call that power imbalanced incident anything but rape?

Bathsheba is summoned by messengers of the highest potentate of the land King David, she's the wife of one of his most loyal soldiers. Had an affair whether she wanted one or not. And then to cover up he brings Uriah in from the battlefield and told him to relax and go home and enjoy yourself. And he slept outside the door and complicated things for David and now David's thinking murder. How far can our failures go? And David puts Uriah at the front of the battle where he's killed. And this is the pinnacle of David's abuse of his own power. And another thing was poor leadership of his family. I think another like father like son. Solomon took his father's polygamous tendencies to the extreme. I want you to notice next flaws as the father, fathers must discipline in't that fun, being the bad guy. My boy called me here while back and he said dad there's something I never realized. He said when you're a dad, you're always the bad guy.

And there's always you alone the rest of the family they gang up on you. I said I've been there.

Discipline. In Second Samuel 13 it tells how he had a son named Amnon. Amnon had a weakness he, had a desire in his heart for a half sister by the name of Tamer. Everybody around the palace, saw that he had eyes for her, everybody but the king.

King was too busy with his own career. He's kind of an absentee father and the things got to the place where Amnon said I have to have her and he used a friend and he beguiled his sister, said he was sick would you bring me something to eat, overpowered her incestuous relationship and then in guilt and anger, thrust her out and further disgraced her and she went to her full brother Absalom and told him what had happened. And he said to keep quiet. Let's keep down the scandal. He thought maybe his dad would rebuke and deal with that brother, but he didn't. And Absalom became bitter. And over the course of time for two years, he plotted and brewed a plan to murder Amnon because David didn't take things into his own hands. They got Amnon drunk at a party and killed him. I believe if David had handled the situation, Absalom would have been satisfied and would not have taken matters into his own hands. You learn a couple of things here as an example, I would say number one, when disciplining children, you can't do it without displeasing them sometimes. Fathers its not a popularity contest. Sometimes you got to interfere to protect them from self destructive behavior. Sometimes you have to interfere to keep them from hurting others. Sometimes you got to interfere to keep them from displeasing God. The second lesson in David's life to you and I as fathers, is the fact that it's not always the mother's full responsibility to do all the discipline. And David left it to the wives to the mothers, and he failed to set limits to his son's behaviors.

Here's the second thing fathers must be examples to the children we either be transparent or the child sees us as a hypocrite.

And David had a flawed example.

Fathers, secondly must restore.

And David was slow to restore.

And if you remember, after Absalom had killed his brother, he fled for his life, he went to his grandfather's kingdom, who was the king of Geshur. And stayed there for three years.

Not one time did David ever send a messenger to Absalom and said, why don't you come back and lets talk. He didn't try to restore him. I think he was relieved that Amnon was dealt with and he didn't have to do it. And finally, his general said to the king, if anything happens to you, Absalom is to be the next king. The kingdoms going to fall apart, you better reach out and forgive him and restore him. And finally, David said you can bring him back to Jerusalem and they let him return to the city.

But two years passed before David ever allowed him to come home to the palace. I'm simply saying don't refuse to forgive your children. And we have to deal with their sin quickly, but we need to also deal quickly in forgiveness. For without forgiveness and restoration our kids see us as harsh disciplinarians. And not as loving fathers. May I add fathers must restrain. David knew about the evil of his children, yet consistently neglected to restrain and correct them. And is bitter to his son Absalom. And Absalom started a campaign to take down the father that he no longer respected. He would go to the gate and offer a sympathetic ear to anybody that had a complaint against David. And apparently a battle ensued and and even then David didn't want to deal with matters he said when you come to my son deal gently with him. Let me read it to you. The king ordered Joab and Abishai and Ittai to deal gently for my sake with a young man, Absalom. He still couldn't handle the discipline. May I add fathers must teach. They need to teach their children what's important in life. Before he died right on his deathbed he called in Solomon and said, obey God. Keep his laws. What advice? I want to stop just for a moment. It's not in the message. But I want to remind you that our failures have consequences. And when the preacher came to David, he said you gotta reap, got to reap fourfold. And that little baby was born and it died. Boy, it seems like the innocent sometimes pays the price, do they not? I've thought about that so many times. I think the harshest reality that we contend with in a broken world is the suffering of the innocent.

Children born with alcohol, fetal syndrome, crack babies, meth babies, no fault of their own. Babies born with deformities their lives are shortened because of environmental pollution. Babies who are never born because they're aborted from the pregnancy. The baby dies and he thought surely, surely that will be the end. There won't be any more reaping, Oh surely it's over. It can't come back to me but I can go to it, I'll get my heart right and maybe God will look another way. And word came when the years pass, your son Amnon was murdered. He grieved for a while about that, and then a battle takes place and his son Absalom is killed on the battlefield. And when the word came back, they said we wouldn't have God at all if your enemies were like your son, Absalom. The Bible said that he headed up to an upstairs room, weeping. And in my mind, I can see the silhouette of King David, sitting down at that great old desk, piled high with papers. The wall has the degrees and all the community awards and all the good things that he's done. The desk calendar is full of appointments. And there's the moonbeams playing across the wall. He sees a hand drawn picture, like a grade school picture in crayon. It's a picture drawn of a palace, cold gray wall palace. There's a sun in the sky in yellow with a bright smile. There's a stick figure with a crown on it. And then scrawled across the bottom to dad from Absalom. And David screams out Absalom my son with God I'd die for thee. Have you ever wept over your children? I don't know so much as my boys sins. But I wept for him when he went through all the cancer time and went through the chemo and went through the radiation. I cannot tell you that hours that I paced the floor and wept and sobbed and begged God for an extended life. Then on Sunday, I will put on my suit and my tie and my shoes and put on a smile and come in and never mention anything about it Sunday after Sunday, month after month. David carried it in his broken heart, the love for his children and his failures. But I want to close out about forgiveness.

God's sent a preacher by the name of Nathan to David. God is sending me this morning to be the preacher that taps on your heart to tell you that God cares. The story of David at times is sorted but like other clippers in the Bible, the story isn't given for shock value only. In fact, it's not even just a cautionary tale, its a don't do what I did story. David wasn't always in step with God, but he was always chasing God's heart. That's the amazing thing.

I think his chase fell apart at times. But he'd get up repent, except consequences and kept chasing and went after it. And he wrote that 51st Psalm, have mercy upon me Old God. Blot out my transgressions create me a clean heart, renew a right spirit, cast me not away. The journey truly lived and at a time stumbled. He even made a fool of himself. But I believe God stuck with David because of the great love that David had for God. And while, Solomon didn't have that enduring chase in him. David did. I'm simply saying, If you're blown it today, I preached here now for 30 years. I've never walked into this pulpit on a Father's Day with any kind of a negative note, but we're on a David series. And I've stuck with the story. And I've always avoided it on Father's Day because David had some weaknesses. But the good thing is he found his way back. He chased after God. He wouldn't give up and he wouldn't give in. He kept getting back up and going after God if you want to read something that's heart moving. Read again, the diary of David. It's the Psalms. He knew nobody had accepted him growing up. He knew folk were talking about him. He knew he had enemies. The only thing that he really knew that he had going for him was the fact that he loved God and immersive God loved him. And he made amends, and he dealt with problems. And David's story shows you can still chase after God's heart.

There's forgiveness, there's grace, there's mercy in the chase. Father, we're glad even on a special day like Father's Day that you remind us that you're the great father. And yet you had fathers on Earth who had their flaws and their failures.

But they knew how to find forgiveness. And we're glad today that that forgiveness is extended across the way to us.

There's dads here that have children in the heaven. And while that boy or that little girl can't come back, we can make our heart right with you and we can go to it. And one day have that family reunion.

We can kneel like David did and ask that you would blot out any transgression. Create a nice, clean heart. Don't cast us away.

But make us the kind of man that we need to be.

Would you extend grace to us today and while most of us would have to say we haven't measured up 100% and yet we're chasing after you the Great Father. May your example help us to be a better father. Bless the fathers today, the mothers all that have gathered together here even the children that are over in the children's church that look up to their moms and their dads.

Help us to be what you've called us to be for these times. I pray in Christ's name. Stand with me just for a moment I'm not pushing for a great altar call but I wouldn't want to close without opening the altar for a moment Thanks for being a part of the voice of the Nazarene. Visit us every Sunday at 9am with BNC's Pastor Ray LaSalle. For more information regarding BNC visit Bucyrus nazarene.org