David Begins the Path to the Throne
Tom Shrader covers five chapters spanning 1 Samuel 30 through 2 Samuel 3, narrating David's recovery at Ziklag, the death of Saul, and the beginning of David's gradual ascension to the throne. Throughout the narrative, Shrader highlights David's pattern of inquiring of God before acting, his refusal to celebrate Saul's death, and the way God's long-promised plan unfolds on His own timetable. Five closing application points draw out timeless lessons: God keeps His promises, God desires the heart, all achievement is His gift, dependence on God is expressed through prayer, and human weakness is the very place where God's power is most fully displayed.
“God is faithful. He keeps his word. It's not that God makes a promise and then keeps it the next day or the next minute, but those promises will come through.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: So You Really Want a King?
Recorded: 2009 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 48 min
Themes: waiting on god, prayer, leadership, humility, promises, dependence on god, suffering, trusting god, feeling like a failure, waiting for breakthrough, leader under pressure, navigating loss, new to leadership, feeling abandoned, husband and father, struggling with doubt
Scripture: 1 Samuel 30, 1 Samuel 31, 2 Samuel 1, 2 Samuel 2, 2 Samuel 3, 2 Corinthians 4, 2 Corinthians 12:9-10, Exodus 20:2-5, 1 John 5:21
Theological Themes: divine sovereignty, covenant faithfulness, seeking god, sanctification, providence, kingdom of god, prayer as dependence, strength in weakness
Full Transcript
David Strengthens Himself in the Lord
Open your Bibles to 1 Samuel, chapter 30. If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand and we'll give you one — I believe it falls around page 222, 223, or 224 somewhere in there.
We are going to do something today that is unprecedented in the eighteen-and-a-half-year history of East Valley Bible Church. We are going to cover five chapters, and we are going to do that because this is a narrative that is moving along. We'll move through it quickly, and then at the end I want to give you five application points that come out of this story — and I'll broaden those to draw from our entire study in 1 and 2 Samuel.
Where We Left Off
In 1 Samuel chapter 30, we see a continuation of what we have been looking at for weeks. God has declared that David will be the new king, and Saul has been pursuing him to destroy him. On a consistent basis, that has been the story. Twice, David was in a position where he could have killed Saul, but he didn't. He spared him both times, with the same question and the same defense: "How could I lay my hand on one of God's anointed?"
In chapter 27, we saw what I called an amazing meltdown. David moves into Gath with the enemy, and he doesn't just pass through — he resides with them and actually aligns himself to fight in battle against the nation of Israel. He set up a city in a place called Ziklag, and there he left his family, his men's families, and all their resources and livestock. The commanders of Gath — not the king, but his commanders — said they didn't want David fighting with them. They told David he couldn't go, that they didn't trust him. So David and his men returned to Ziklag.
This is where we left off. In verse 3 of chapter 30, they come back to town and find it burned with fire. Their wives, their sons, and their daughters had all been taken captive. David and the people lifted up their voices and wept until there was no strength left in them. Then verse 6 tells us: "Moreover David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him, for all the people were embittered, each one because of his sons and his daughters." The men who had been so supportive of David turned on him and said, "This is your fault. We are done with you."
Turning Back to God
At this moment, having lost everything, David does the one right thing. The last part of verse 6 says, "David strengthened himself in the Lord his God." Saul had declared, "I have sinned — you are righteous, more righteous than I am" — and yet Saul still pursued him. David had done some incredibly stupid things, and yet he had obediently followed God's command not to lay his hand on Saul. Now, at this moment, it is almost as though David comes to his senses.
He says, in effect, I have tried it my way long enough. I tried these short-term, get-rich-quick schemes. I looked for immediate gratification. I did my plan, and it hasn't worked. God, what do You want me to do? I want Your plan, Your strategy. I want to do it Your way, with Your strength. And we see that in verse 8: "David inquired of the Lord."
Here is an important point, and it is one of my concluding points as well — but let me drop it in here, because you never know how the clock is going to treat us. If you are depending upon God, one of the characteristics of your life will be that you are a person of prayer. I am not necessarily saying you are going to sit for hours on end in a prayer closet. I am saying there is a dependence upon Him that you acknowledge, so you are constantly going to Him, even in the course of the day.
Even this morning, sitting at the light at McQueen and Elliott at 4:45 — there's not much traffic at that hour — I was saying, "God, I have a day in front of me. I have a lesson that is big in scope, and I'm not sure how the timing is going to fall out. I have two or three pressing issues outside of this that need to be thought through. Give me wisdom and strength and patience, and make sure the conversations I need to have are communicated well." That is not kneeling down in a prayer closet, but I would say it demonstrates a dependence upon Him. It is acknowledging that He cares and that He can do something about it.
The Pursuit of the Amalekites
David asked God: should I pursue these Amalekites? Should I go after them? And God said, pursue them, and you will surely overtake them. So David takes off with 600 men. Verse 10 tells us that 200 of them stop along the way. The remaining men find an Egyptian lying in a field. They bring him to David, feed him, and give him provisions. David asks him in verse 13, "To whom do you belong, and where are you from?" The man answered, "I am a young man of Egypt, a servant of an Amalekite. My master left me behind when I fell sick. We had been out making raids."
Now, let me put this in some context. Here is an Amalekite tribe that is traveling — they are nomadic — and in that land, with all its hiding places, trying to find them is a little like trying to find bin Laden. It is a genuinely difficult task.
God's Provision in the Pursuit
This young Egyptian did not just happen into camp. This is God's way of providing direction to David. Could he have found the Amalekites anyway? Maybe, perhaps — we don't know. Here is what we know: this man becomes the key.
David asks where the Amalekites are, and in verse 15 the Egyptian says, "You promise not to kill me? I'll tell you if you don't kill me." David agrees, and the man points the way. So away they go. David slaughtered them from twilight until the evening of the next day, and not a man of them escaped except for 400 young men who rode on camels and fled. Four hundred got away, but the rest were wiped out.
The result was just as God had said in verse 8 — "You will overtake them, and you will rescue all." David overtook them. He gets back all the spoils, all the things that were taken, plus the enemy's own goods, and he brings it all back. This is all David. This is God's provision.
The 200 men in verse 21 who had not followed David into battle are now brought back into the fold, and David begins to share abundantly. The huge point comes in verse 23, when David says to the people around him: the Lord has given us this, the Lord has provided this. David understood again that everything happening is a gift from God.
Everything You Have Is a Gift from God
In 2 Corinthians chapter 4, Paul writes: "For what do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it?" Here is what he is saying: everything you have was a gift to you from God, so why are you bragging about it?
We can see that truth in all sorts of different things. You are really, really pretty — well, why are you bragging about that? You did not do anything to be pretty. You just are. You are really, really talented — sometimes you can watch musicians play and you can watch them really play, watch those chords, and then you watch other guys and you can see the difference immediately. When Mozart sits down at three or four years old and starts composing music, there is no reason for Mozart to brag. It is a gift.
Everything that you have in your life, God has given you. And because He has given it to you, it is really His. Even as we deal with the resources we receive, someone asked me this week about giving — how much to give, why we give at all. We do not give because we are, in essence, buying God off. The point of giving to Him is to acknowledge that all of it is from Him. So the question is not how much of my money should I give, but how much of God's money should I keep.
Another person this week said to me, "I have lost everything — everything is gone, nothing left." I am vulnerable to that kind of pain, because I do not want to be in that spot. But God gave it to you, and it is His right to take it away. He gave you great health, and it is His privilege to allow — or cause — you to be sick. I received an email this morning from Dave Moore, and several of you probably did too. He is dealing with some medications and is in excruciating pain. He has not been in church for several weeks now. I do not have a basket to put these things in that gives you a neat explanation of why. But I understand this: God is the one who is in control. God is the one who delivers.
David's Generosity in Victory
David gets that incredible truth, and the balance of the chapter shows him sharing. He is generous. You see it in verse 26, where he shares the spoils with the elders of Judah. He spreads these things around and continues to take those things and distribute them among the nation of Israel.
So if we were to take that entire chapter, here is the arc: the destruction of Ziklag, then God becoming the focus of David's attention, God providing him direction, the troops being rallied, the attack, the victory, the reunion with those left behind, and then the distribution of the spoil. All of it is done against the backdrop of God's grace.
The Fall of Saul on Mount Gilboa
When we get to chapter 31, it simply says: "Now the Philistines were fighting against Israel, and the men of Israel fled from before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa." If we were to frame it like a television broadcast, it would be like this: we now join the battle between the Philistines and the nation of Israel, currently in progress. The writer picks it up in the middle and gives you the big view — here is the battle that is going on — and then starts to fill in the details. If you are wearing a jersey that says Israel on it, it is not a good day for you.
The Philistines, in verse 2, overtook Saul and his sons, and the Philistines killed them. The battle went heavily against Saul. The archers hit him, and he is badly wounded. Saul said to his armor bearer, "Draw your sword and pierce me through with it, otherwise these uncircumcised will come and pierce me through and make sport of me." But the armor bearer would not do it, for he was greatly afraid.
What is he afraid of? This becomes pivotal to our understanding of what follows. He understood what David had done twice with Saul — even if a king is lying there dying, you do not lay your hand on God's anointed. You do not touch him. Those are the rules. This has to be a gruesome scene: blood everywhere, arrows hanging out of Saul, the man dying. And the armor bearer says he cannot do it. So David has established, by his own example, the strength to honor God's anointed even in the darkest moment.
The Fall of Saul's House
Saul is dead. His armor bearer, seeing that Saul had fallen on his sword, fell on his own sword and died with him. The summary comes in verse six: Saul is dead, his sons are dead, his armor bearer is dead, and all his men on that day were wiped out together. There is still one more son of Saul yet to be dealt with, so while it would appear at this moment that the path to the throne is clear, there is one more man in the way.
These ten verses are really powerful when you look at the language. The word "flee" appears three times, "fall" or "fallen" four times, "strike down" once, "wounded" once, "pierce through" twice, "die" four times, "strip" twice, and "cut off" and "nailed" are each mentioned once. That is what is going on. This is a horrendous thing.
In verse seven, the men of Israel flee out of the valley, go to the mountains, and abandon the cities. The Philistines come in and suddenly realize they now have Saul and his sons. In verse nine, they cut off his head, strip off his weapons, and send them throughout the land of the Philistines to carry the news to the house of their idols and to the people. They put Saul's head and weapons on display. They want to encourage their own people, and by carrying the news to the house of the idols, they are making a declaration: our god is bigger than the God of Israel, our god won. They are singing their own version of "our God reigns."
No Other Gods
When God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses, He said this: "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me. You shall not make for yourself an idol, or a likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. You shall not worship them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God." God wants no idols in our lives — nothing taking the place that is rightfully reserved for Him.
He is not talking only about a graven image. As John writes, closing out the letter we call First John: "Guard yourselves against idols" — those things in our lives that we turn to for satisfaction, for fulfillment, for completion, for comfort, those things we turn to that are other than God Himself. And God in our life is going to deal with whatever it is, to begin to eradicate those things from our lives.
I am very comfortable with the fact that God may well be using this economic time to take you and me and people like us and draw our attention away from our 401ks and our assets and back onto Him. I am not saying it is pleasant.
Individual 9-11 Moments
When 9-11 hit, Susan and I were out of town, but people from all around — from the shopping areas, the industrial parks, the schools — started calling the church, begging us to open the doors so they could come in and pray on September 12th and 13th. People came in whom we had never seen before. They knew it was a church building, and they instinctively ran to this place for comfort. I was probably too cynical and too suspicious about it and may have even missed a great opportunity.
The same thing is happening now. It is not as dramatic because not everybody is having their 9-11 on the same day. Instead, we are having these individual 9-11 moments — some people melted down six months ago, some five months ago, some a week ago, some a week from now. You may be here today because of a 9-11 moment this week in your life, something that suddenly rocked your world and you did not know what to do, where to go, or where to turn. You are looking for answers, and you came to a place that has answers — not because we are so smart, but because we know where to look.
I am never going to find satisfaction even if the entire economic situation turns around. That still is not going to fill the gaping hole in my heart. That hole will never be filled with a person, a place, or a thing. Whatever I put into it is just going to be sucked in. I will never find satisfaction there.
God's Battle, Our Courage
These Philistines are marching around saying their god defeated the God of Israel, and there may even be times when you and I feel something like that — where it looks like the cause of righteousness has been beaten up, wasted. We look around and say we are losing in the world, and we can apply that across government, entertainment, business, wherever.
But our job is not even to win that battle. It is not our battle. It is God's battle. We need to be engaged in it, and we need to have the courage to go in and fight for the idea of truth, for the idea of the presence of God. You have those answers, and so people are looking to you in the midst of their 9-11 moments. What do they see in your life? Do they see panic? Do they see someone running around, laying awake at night, trying to figure out how to protect assets and balance everything out?
There is a measure of that which is simply what it is. There are some things that are beyond your control. It seems as though those in power are hell-bent on spending trillions and trillions of dollars, and as best as I can tell, you do not get to vote on it — yet it has huge ramifications for you. But that is not what defines us.
David and the Death of Saul
When the word of Saul's death comes to David, a man arrives and David asks him in verse three, "Where did you come from?" The man answers, "I have escaped from the camp of Israel." David asks how things went, and the man's report is grim: Saul and Jonathan are dead. Asked how he knows, the man claims that by chance he happened to be walking by, found Saul wounded, and that Saul asked him, "Please stand beside me and kill me, for agony seizes me because my life is lingering." The man says he stood beside Saul and killed him because he knew Saul could not live after he had fallen.
In verses eleven and twelve, David and his men tear their clothes — a sign of mourning — and they fast and mourn until evening for Saul and for Jonathan. This gives a glimpse into David's character. Remember who Saul is: the man who has been trying to kill David, his archenemy and rival. Saul is now dead, and in a sense David has his freedom. Yet David is broken over this loss. Never once in all of scripture is there a record of David speaking abusively about Saul as king, though he had every reason to.
David Exposes the Amalekite's Lie
David smells a rat. He asks the man in verse thirteen, "Where are you from?" The man answers, "I am the son of an alien, an Amalekite." David recognizes the problem immediately: Amalekites living in the land would know the law and understand Jewish custom. They may not be full-blown Israelites, but they know the customs. So David presses him: "How is it you were not afraid to stretch out your hand and destroy the Lord's anointed?"
We already know this man has fabricated his story, because we have already read what actually happened. His apparent reasoning was that David had been under attack from Saul, so he would claim credit for killing him — no one around to verify the story — and David would respond by making him his chief of staff. He badly underestimated David's integrity. David tells his men to cut the man down and kill him, declaring that what the man did was a violation against the law.
David's Lament for Saul and Jonathan
David then breaks out into a poetic and beautiful piece of writing found in verses seventeen through twenty-seven. It is bookended in verse nineteen and verse twenty-seven with the refrain that the mighty have fallen. Even here, David praises Saul for the warrior that he was. And in the midst of this lament, he acknowledges the loss of his dear friend Jonathan.
Jonathan was the one who came to David in his time of desperate need and put courage into him. He was the one who came alongside David and said, "You will reign, David. Saul knows it, I know it." Jonathan told him that everyone knows David is the chosen one, the anointed king, and urged him not to worry. That moment now seems ages ago in this study, as David has been up and down many times since then. But in losing Jonathan, David has lost the man he loves so dearly.
David Inquires of the Lord
When we reach chapter two, David begins his gradual ascension to the throne — but he does it in a way that is markedly different from how he acted three or four chapters ago. Look at what he does: David inquired of the Lord. It is as though he is saying, "God, what should I do? I understand Your plan. I have it. But I tried it my way before. Let's do this Your way, in Your timing." He is saying that he does not know what that looks like right now, so he will let God tell him. If God tells him not to act, he will wait. If God tells him to act, he will move.
At this point in the study, if someone came in with no prior context, it would be very hard to muster much respect for David. We are not even yet into the great sin he is most known for — murder and adultery still lie ahead of him. And yet here, at this moment, David chooses to inquire of the Lord rather than act on his own initiative.
David Seeks God's Direction
In this place and time, David comes before God asking, "What do I do?" I want to digress for just a moment. I was down in Tucson for the marriage getaway, and Paul David Tripp — I had not been exposed to him much — was phenomenal. He was talking about how we don't live on mountaintops, that life is lived more in the ordinary. I found that very affirming, because it sounded very much like that profound statement made just several weeks ago: mastering the mundane. That's where we live.
I listened to four sessions, and by the fourth it happened to be marriage-focused, but it could have been a conference about being a Christian, about parenting, about anything. There was a little bit of content specifically on marriage, but the whole question was the condition of your heart. And that is David's heart at this moment. He is so broken before God: "I don't want to screw this up again. What should I do?"
David Anointed King over Judah
David asks whether he should go up to Judah, and God says yes. So they go up, and in verse four he is anointed king over Judah. Some men come to him — the ones who went and retrieved Saul's body and gave it an appropriate burial — and David honors them. Moving to verse eight, we meet Abner again. Remember him? He was the commander of Saul's army, David's former bodyguard and right-hand man.
There is one son of Saul still remaining, and we meet him in verse eight: Ish-bosheth. Abner declares he will make Ish-bosheth king over all the remaining territories. Ish-bosheth is forty years old when he becomes king, and he reigns for two years — over eleven tribes, but not the house of Judah. David is king over the house of Judah.
Civil War Between the Two Factions
In my Bible, verse twelve begins with the heading "Civil War." Civil war breaks out between two factions: on one side, Abner and Ish-bosheth; on the other, David and Joab, who is David's nephew — his sister's son. They fight back and forth, and they arrange a meeting at the pool in verse fourteen.
Abner, as is interesting about him, is always negotiating something, always trying to find some sort of solution. He gets Joab and says, "We're just beating the snot out of each other. Why don't you pick twelve men and I'll pick twelve men, let them fight, and whoever wins, wins?" So they each pick twelve. Each man seizes his opponent by the head, thrusts his sword into the opponent's side, and all twenty-four of them fall together and die simultaneously.
I have to tell you, that seems really far-fetched to me — mathematically unlikely. However, God said it happened and I believe it did, and somehow He caused it, because God was apparently not looking for that kind of deal at this moment. So the battle rages on. The fighting is severe, and Abner and the men of Israel are beaten before the servants of David. They begin to run.
Asahel Pursues Abner
In verse nineteen, Asahel — one of Joab's brothers — goes after Abner. Abner turns to him and says, "Here is the deal: I am going to destroy you if you don't leave. Just go. I'll let you go. You cannot beat me. Look at you. Look at me. You cannot win." But Asahel will not stop. He comes at Abner again. Abner gives him two chances to turn away, and he refuses.
In verse twenty-three, because Asahel refuses to turn aside, Abner strikes him in the stomach with the butt end of the spear, so that the spear comes out of his back, and he falls there and dies on the spot. Notice — Abner did not use the point; he used the blunt end. Think about how powerful that thrust must have been. I don't know whether Asahel was simply foolish, or courageous, or perhaps both. But Abner was strong enough to drive the butt end of a spear all the way through him.
A Temporary Peace
Joab moves to avenge his brother. Abner says in verse twenty-seven that this is pointless — they are chasing each other, people are dying all along the way, and they should call a truce. They do. David's men, however, strike down three hundred and sixty Benjamites in verse thirty-one, and then both sides go their separate ways.
Abner's Growing Power and Defection
When you reach chapter three, we are told there is a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David. It continues — but David grows stronger while the house of Saul grows weaker. Then in verse six, while the war between the two houses goes on, Abner is making himself increasingly strong within the house of Saul. He is assuming more and more command, becoming a more and more dominant figure.
Ish-bosheth confronts him in verse seven, accusing him of sleeping with one of Saul's concubines. Abner responds in verse eight with fury: after everything he has done, this accusation enrages him. Notably, he does not deny it. Whether he actually did it or not, I cannot say for certain — but the assumption is that he did, and either way, the accusation makes him furious.
So Abner declares in verse nine: "May God do so to Abner and more also, if as the Lord has sworn to David, I do not accomplish this for him — to transfer the kingdom from the house of Saul and establish the throne of David over Israel and over Judah, from Dan to Beersheba." He is saying that he is going to switch sides entirely and hand everything over to David.
God Is Faithful
Here is what is happening: Abner pulls off the jersey of the tribe of Benjamin and throws it aside, puts on one that says Judah, and says, "I'm done with you." He goes to David and says he is ready to come to David's side. David, in verse 13, says that is fine, but only if Abner brings Michal — his first wife, Saul's daughter — with him. So Abner takes Michal and her husband and brings them back, and there is weeping all around. Abner has consultation with the leaders, and between that moment and verse 21, they begin the process of establishing and broadening David's rule so that ultimately it will extend over all of Israel. What does David want? He wants what God has promised.
With the time we have, let me give you five points I pull out of this passage. Number one: God is faithful. He keeps His word. We would have to go back a long way to find where God made the original promise — where Samuel said to Saul, "You are going down," and that another man would be king. God does not make a promise and keep it the next day or the next minute.
We were talking about this in a staff prayer meeting the other day, and one of the ladies said her mother prayed for the salvation of all her children. God answered that prayer, but not in her timing. She died before she could see it. That is a powerful insight. God is faithful.
It is not at all selfish or self-centered for you to identify what God has promised you and to understand that those promises will come through. He has promised He will forgive you. You may be sitting here today in the midst of some sin, saying there is no way God will ever forgive you — but if you say that, you are calling God a liar.
I firmly believe that every one of us has something that, when we do it, makes us feel sad, makes us feel mad, and makes us feel stupid — and yet we still do it. That is what it means to be human. When Jesus saved you and the Holy Spirit invaded your heart, He broke the power of sin, but not the presence of sin. He is faithful, and He promised He will continue His work in you. It may feel like you want to quit, but He will not.
God Wants Your Heart
Number two: God wants your heart. When I look at David, I find myself thinking I must be in pretty good shape — that I am about as good as David. But what is it that God actually sees in him? He sees the remnant of David's heart, that brokenness when he sins.
Being here on Sunday, having your Bible, marking it up, studying the Word — those are all great and wonderful things. But one of the truest indicators of where you are spiritually is how you respond in your heart when you sin, when you blow it, when you screw up in a significant way. Are you cavalier about it? Dismissive? And how do you respond when somebody sins against you? That also reveals your heart.
That is exactly what Paul David Tripp has been saying in his sessions. When you respond to someone in marriage, the problem is not that we need to learn how to communicate — we already know how to communicate. If I say to you, "You are stupid, dumb, and ugly," I have communicated very clearly. I do not have a communication problem. The problem is what I am communicating, and that comes from what is in my heart.
I am getting ready for vacation, and I want to go deep into this idea of living in God's grace. I have the concept of God's grace for salvation figured out — and I know that sounds cold and arrogant, but that is not how I mean it. What I cannot get my mind around is that He is still giving me grace now, when I know better and still act like a sinner. That is hard to accept. How do I respond to that grace? How do I avoid turning it into a license, while still genuinely living in it? I do not have a clean answer. I think it is more art than science.
Trusting God With Your Dreams
Number three: you can trust God for all of your life, all of your achievements, and all of your dreams. If your dreams are His dreams, nobody can stop you. He is the One who allows these things to come to pass.
There is a paradox here, and I keep coming back to it. I strive the way Paul strives, and yet I cannot do anything if God does not do it. So what does that mean? It may be as simple as this: I am supposed to work as though it all depended on me, while understanding that He is the One who accomplishes it. If it really is that simple, I may have a lot of free time by the end of my vacation — but perhaps that is the answer.
Depending on God Through Prayer
Number four: when you are depending upon God, you are praying. We saw it three times in today's passage — David inquired of the Lord, David asked of the Lord. He was going to God continually. How exactly God speaks to you, I cannot say with precision — somehow He gets His word into your spirit, into your heart. But if you are dependent upon Him, you are asking Him.
Here is something else worth noting, and it connects to the life of the body, the church, and the family. God can be working in two people's lives, and two genuinely godly people can look at the same situation and see two very different things. I cannot think of a more classic illustration of that than Paul and Barnabas over John Mark — two godly men, and they came to completely different conclusions.
Moral Decisions Versus Wisdom Decisions
Most of the decisions we face are not moral decisions — they are wisdom decisions. I was talking with somebody this week, and he said to me, "I want to do the right thing." I learned this with my daughters very quickly in our conversations: they wanted to do what was right and not do what was wrong. I had to teach them that most of the time, that is not the issue.
If my daughter came to me and said, "Dad, I need summer work and I'm thinking about selling drugs — what's the right thing to do?" I would not even think about it. I would say, "You can't do that. That's wrong." But if she came to me and said, "Dad, I've got an opportunity to work at Starbucks, Costco, or Best Buy — what's the right decision?" there is not a right answer in the same sense. That kind of thinking robs us of seeing God's provision and the joy of His provision. So often when we say we want to do the right thing, we are confusing it with the wise thing.
Strength Made Perfect in Weakness
Here is the last thing: when we are weak is when we are really strong. Paul writes this — God said to him, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore, I would rather boast about my weakness so that the power of Christ will dwell in me. Therefore, I am content with weakness, with insults and distress and persecution and difficulties for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong."
I have no problem — and I don't know if it's where I am in life, I don't know if I'm getting older — but I have no problem saying I am a weak, pathetic human.
Planning a Funeral and Finding a Theme
Over in the conference center this morning, they started with a Chris Tomlin song. I love Chris Tomlin music. You know how you have a to-do list before you go on vacation? Mine was to finish my funeral. I finished it last week — order of service, speakers, everything. I texted Susan and asked, "How long is too long for my funeral?" She texted back, "If it's about you, sweetie, it can't be too long." She thinks she's dying first — that's what she was saying.
I have all the speakers, I have the order of service, I have instructions for the band on when to leave and stay on the platform. Now, if you didn't know me, you would think I was a control freak, but I'm not. I've just been to a lot of these, and they're not always good. I picked the music, put it on my iPod, and kept rearranging the playlist to get the flow the way I wanted it. When I was all done, I realized I had picked eight songs — which sounds like a lot — but all eight were Chris Tomlin songs. I didn't do that by design.
Who We Were Meant to Be
When we started this morning, we were singing "Made to Worship." Let me read you the words: "You and I were made to worship. You and I were called to love. You and I are forgiven and free. You and I embrace surrender. You and I choose to believe. You and I — we'll see who we were meant to be." That is what God reveals to us day by day — who we are as sinners, and who we are meant to be as children of the King.
Then He puts us all together in this thing called church. We are in bad company on our own, and He places us together and says, "Now bear one another's burdens, care for one another, love one another, figure it all out, and do the best you can along the way."
Closing Prayer and Invitation
Part of that is being able to pray with you and for you. Whether you are in the conference center or here in the church, after the service there will be guys from our pastoral team here to pray with you. We always tend to think of prayer requests as coming from a place of hurting need, but there are a lot of praises to share as well, and there is something powerful about that. The guys will be at the front of the room right here after the service.
Father, help us see this truth. Help us begin to understand who we were meant to be and who we really are. Father, thank you for Jesus Christ, the one true and living God. Father, like David, teach us — be patient with us. You do so well, and then we screw it up. God, we are flawed people, but filled with Your Spirit, who have overcome the power of sin — though not the presence of sin or the flesh in our lives. God, teach us, would You? We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
Have a great week. We'll see you next week.