When You Pray and God Says No
Tom Shrader teaches from 2 Samuel 7, where David's good-hearted desire to build God a permanent house is redirected by God, who instead promises David an eternal dynasty. Using this narrative as a pastoral framework, Shrader draws three practical responses for when God says no to a good request: look back and remember what God has done, cultivate genuine gratitude for both large and small blessings, and look forward to the future God has promised. He closes by connecting David's experience to John 14, anchoring the believer's ultimate hope in Christ's promise to return and bring His people home.
“He loves me with a perfect love. I love myself with a counterfeit false love. I want what I think would make me comfortable and happy. He wants what would make me joyful, even if it's discipline and hardship.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: So You Really Want a King?
Recorded: 2009 at East Valley Bible Church
Duration: 45 min
Themes: unanswered prayer, trust, gratitude, hope, disappointment, God's plan, waiting, surrender, struggling with unanswered prayer, facing health crisis, navigating disappointment, dealing with closed doors, parent, grieving, feeling confused about god's will, middle age
Scripture: 2 Samuel 7:1-22, 2 Samuel 6:8-9, 2 Samuel 8:1, Isaiah 55:8-9, Isaiah 6, Psalm 46:10, Revelation 2:2-4, 1 Corinthians 10, James 4:13-16, John 14:1-6, Acts 9
Theological Themes: sovereignty of God, divine providence, davidic covenant, eschatology, future hope, prayer, God's promises, biblical narrative
Full Transcript
When Rest Leads to Reflection
Second Samuel chapter seven. As you study chapter seven, this can become confusing because it is not in chronological order. We are actually getting a fast-forward picture here. When you get to chapter eight, verse one, David is defeating and subduing the Philistines. You will see battles and wars and conquering all through chapters eight, nine, and ten. But there is a point here that God is making in His word.
David has this moment of what the author calls rest. He has a moment where the nation is united, the covenant is back in a central place within the nation, and David has rest. Rest is not idleness. It is a time of reflection, meditation, and review. The word I love is *ponder* — to reflect deeply on a subject. It is not something highly valued in our culture.
You can prove this to yourself with a simple illustration. Go to the office tomorrow, go down to your cubicle, put your feet up, and just sit there for a minute — no beverage, no noise — and begin to ponder. Eventually word will spread through the office that someone is just sitting there. Someone will come down and say, "Are you all right?" You say, "I'm fine." "What are you doing?" "Thinking." Then they will say, "We don't pay you to think." The *Wall Street Journal* did a study about four or five years ago and said that an executive or management-level person should be spending approximately twenty percent of their time thinking and reflecting. That is where David is.
David's Idea and God's Response
In that moment of rest, David takes inventory. He sees that he has peace with his enemies, prosperity, and comfort. He says, in effect, I want to respond to that. He has a permanent dwelling, but the Ark of the Covenant is still moving in a tent. He wants to give it a permanent place.
It says in Second Samuel chapter seven: "And it came about when David lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies, that the king said to Nathan, 'See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells within tent curtains.'" Nathan says to David, "Go, do all that is in your mind, for the Lord is with you." And then in verse four, God speaks to Nathan. Within the first four verses, we meet the three main characters of Second Samuel chapter seven.
The Central Question
Here is the hook for this week. Here is the question: what do you do when you want to do something — and let us say it is good — but God says no? You have this idea, this plan, this prayer request, this thing you are praying about and thinking about and planning. It is a good thing, not a bad thing. Maybe it is a health issue, a family issue, a relationship, a business matter — something good. And God might even acknowledge that it is a good thing, but He says no. What do you do? That is what we are going to look at today, because that is exactly what happens to David.
Seeing Ourselves and God Accurately
Last week's lesson had three main takeaway points. Number one, that we are sinners. Number two, that our sin is serious and the consequences of that are unfixable by us. Number three, that God is holy. Within that context, Tim gave us one of the classic examples of how we see things differently than God, found in Second Samuel, chapter six. Uzzah reaches out to catch the Ark of the Covenant as it begins to fall — he probably didn't even contemplate it, just reached out instinctively. What does God do? Strikes him dead.
My heart goes out to him. I think, are you kidding me? How can You do that, God? And that reaction is exactly the problem. We have a hard time seeing ourselves as we really are and seeing God as He really is.
I call it the Isaiah 55 challenge. It's Isaiah 55:8-9, where God says, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor my ways your ways, for the heavens are higher than the earth. So my ways are higher than your ways and my thoughts are higher than your thoughts." I don't see things as God sees them, and I have a hard time seeing myself accurately.
I played golf recently with a business executive and we were talking about personnel issues. He said one of the hardest problems he has is getting people to see themselves accurately. In some cases he has to encourage people and say, "Listen, you have great potential." But most often, he said, it's employees who think they ought to be further along than they actually are.
We have this notion that we're all special, extraordinary people. By definition, most of us are average — and that includes me. William F. Buckley is a genuine example of an extraordinary person. Think about it: Bill Kristol edits the Weekly Standard, but Buckley did that with National Review. Tim Russert had the most watched interactive show on television, but Buckley did that with Firing Line. And Buckley was also a novelist, a sailor, and a syndicated columnist. There aren't many Bill Buckleys. There's a whole bunch of the rest of us.
The Bad News Before the Good News
Seeing ourselves accurately — our gifts, our talents, our weaknesses, our strengths — is genuinely difficult. I've had people in the past year tell me I should write a book, and I tell them I'm not a very good writer. I gave something I had written to Susan, whose judgment I trust. She looked at it and said, "How old were you when you wrote this?" I said fifty-nine. She said, "It's not very good. Don't write. Keep talking." I can't write, and that's simply the truth.
Before God, seeing ourselves accurately is the very heart of the gospel. Tim talked about the good news last week, but the good news must be preceded by the bad news — that I am a sinner and my sin has grave, serious consequences. It is essential for me to come to terms with that bad news before I will ever truly respond to the good news.
That is the crisis David faces after Uzzah is struck dead. In Second Samuel chapter six, verse eight, David is angry because of the Lord's outburst against Uzzah. In verse nine, David is afraid of the Lord and says, "How can the ark of the Lord come to me?" In other words, if God holds that standard of judgment, David knows he cannot measure up.
It is the same realization the disciples had when Jesus told them their righteousness needed to exceed that of the Pharisees. The Pharisees kept all the laws — they were the most outwardly righteous people anyone knew — and even they fell short. David is saying: if that is the standard, I cannot compete with it.
Grace, Forgiveness, and a Future
In that context, David sees what we need more than anything else — grace. Our greatest need is forgiveness of sin and restoration to a right relationship with God, and God provides exactly that. David understands this in verse twenty-one, when he says, "It was before the Lord who chose me." God chose him over Saul to be king, but more than that, God chose him to be His own.
I made a list of what I call the three F's that David receives from God in this passage: forgiveness, freedom, and a future. We desperately need that forgiveness. Once we have that Isaiah 6 moment — once we arrive where David arrives in Second Samuel 6, where Paul arrives in Acts chapter 9 — once we truly see our sin and understand it, something shifts. All of a sudden we begin to see how great God's grace is. At that moment we feel helpless, and we are helpless in ourselves. We have no sacrifice to offer. But God has moved. God has acted.
The next book we plan to teach after Second Samuel is Ephesians, and we will not get very far into Ephesians before we have to deal with exactly these themes.
remembrance of me. We're told that at the Lord's table. God says to Israel, I want you to celebrate the Passover, because I want you to remember. He wants us to remember. When you are in these dark moments, when you're in these moments of confusion, when God says no, remember what He has done. Remember how He's been faithful. Remember His grace in your life. That's the first thing.
When God Says No to a Good Idea
David had a genuine, heartfelt desire to do something for God. He looked around and said, I'm living in a house of cedar and the ark of God is dwelling in a tent — that's not right. Nathan affirms him. But God appears to Nathan that night and says, no, we're not going to do that. Look at verse five. God appears to him and says, "Go and say to my servant David, 'Thus says the Lord, are you the one who should build me a house to dwell in? For I have not dwelt in a house since the day I brought up the sons of Israel from Egypt, even to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent, even in a tabernacle. Wherever I have gone with all the sons of Israel, did I speak a word with one of the tribes of Israel, which I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, why have you not built me a house of cedar?'"
David, God says, I appreciate this idea. It's a good idea. But it's your idea, not Mine. Just a few books later, Solomon speaks in a parallel passage commenting on this very moment. He says, "It was in the heart of my father David to build a house for the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. But the Lord said to my father David, 'Because it is in your heart to build a house, you have done well that it is in your heart. Nevertheless, you shall not build the house, but your son who shall be born to you shall build the house.'"
What do you do when you have a good idea and God even affirms that it's a good idea — good for you, David, well done — but says it isn't going to happen? David has had a deeply human response. He has begun to understand God's grace and mercy toward him, and he naturally responds by saying, I want to do something for God, something good. And God says no. God understands what happens to us humanly in moments like that. Though we would like to say otherwise, our first reaction is to take our football and quit — to withdraw, to pull back, to pout.
So you have been praying and praying and asking God for this good thing. Maybe it is a business deal. Maybe it is a marriage that is in trouble, dead or dying. Maybe it is kids who are rebellious. Maybe it is your health. Fill it in. What do you do?
Three Responses When God Says No
There are three things to do, and you see the first one right here in verse eight. "Now therefore, thus you shall say to my servant David, 'Thus says the Lord of hosts, I took you from the pasture, from following the sheep, to be ruler over my people Israel. And I have been with you wherever you have gone and have cut off all your enemies before you.'"
The first thing you do when you encounter this experience is to remember. Look back. God is saying to David: Didn't I come to you when you were just out there with the sheep and make you king? I have done all these things, David. I have never left you, never forsaken you. I protected you and cut off your enemies. You need to remember.
If you were to flip all the way to the back of the book, to Revelation chapters two and three, Jesus is addressing the seven churches, and one of them is the church at Ephesus. He says in Revelation 2:2, "I know your deeds and your toil and your perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name's sake, and have not grown weary." That is a pretty good résumé right there. But then He says, "I have this against you, that you have left your first love." Here is where you are: you have done some amazing things, but you have lost your first love. So what He says next is, "Therefore, remember."
There is something powerful about that idea of remembering. Do this in remembrance of Me — we are told that at the Lord's table. God says to Israel, celebrate the Passover, because I want you to remember. He wants us to remember. When you are in dark moments, when you are in moments of confusion, when God says no, remember what He has done. Remember how He has been faithful. Remember His grace in your life.
What David Understood About Grace
What David gets in those passages we read in chapter seven is the same thing Isaiah saw and the same thing Paul understood: I am a great sinner, and He is a great Savior. My chains are gone, I have been set free. My God, my Savior has ransomed me, and like a flood His mercy reigns — unending love, amazing grace.
My concern is that we have turned this into a one-time transaction: I am a great sinner, He is a great Savior, I am in His kingdom, and that is the end of my need for grace. But I need grace every day. I continue to sin every day. In some ways I would consider myself more culpable now, because I understand who God is and I still sin. I have forgiveness and freedom to be the person He created me to be, and a future that is bright — maybe not circumstantially, but genuinely and eternally bright.
emergency room, and it turned out to be nothing serious, thank God. But the fear that grips you when you get that call — and you're driving, and you're thinking, you're praying — and then when it's over and everything's okay, the thanksgiving that floods in. You suddenly realize how fragile everything is, and how much you take for granted every single day.
Remembering as the Foundation of Gratitude
So the first thing I do when He says no to my yes is I remember. And that remembering leads directly into the second thing, which is I become thankful. I become grateful.
On vacation I was thinking a great deal. I was doing some mindless, silly reading, but I was thinking a lot. And there was a list of things I was thankful for, and they were obvious ones — Susan, Sarah, Haley, Timmy, Tyler, Gracie, Reagan, Braden, Yale, and everything that flows out of that. No matter how hard things are here, no matter how deep the struggles or whatever the issues may be, it is impossible for me to drive past Elliott and look in here and not be overwhelmed by God's blessing that this place exists. It is a total testimony to His grace and His mercy.
But here is my fear when we start getting thankful: we start at that level and never go any deeper. We stay thankful for the big things and we forget the little things.
The Little Things: Larry Wright's Lesson in Thanksgiving
My friend Larry Wright had rheumatoid arthritis so badly — though it actually improved toward the end of his life — that he would say to me, "Tommy, I'm so thankful that I could tie my shoes. I could open a door." They had to make a special key for him. They took his car key and put it on a stick so that the stick gave him enough leverage to turn it, because he couldn't do it otherwise. He was thankful that he could take a shower. The little things.
He and I were in Portland rooming together, and the weather was just killing him. As sick as he was, we woke up and had a big dinner to get to. He said, "I need you to tie my tie — I can't." I said, all right. Then he said, "Can you help me with my shoes?" So I helped him with his shoes. He went into the bathroom to finish getting ready, and then he called out, "Hey, man, I need some help." I said, "You know what, we're getting real close to my limit here. I'm not sure what you're doing in there, but I'm running out of options." He said, "I can't zip up my pants." I said, "All right, I'm going to do this, but let's just keep this between us for a while."
Out of that came such a spirit of thanksgiving — not for the big, obvious blessings, but a deep spirit of thanksgiving that he could take a shower, or open a door. Tim really drove this point home last week, and all I want to do is scratch at the scab a little bit. Worship ought to come naturally for us when we begin to think of all the things God has done. And if you have a hard time with thanksgiving, it is because you do not see how desperate you really are.
How Marriage Illustrates Remembering and Recommitment
Back when I was at East Valley Bible Church, and even in the early days, I did a great deal of meeting with people whose marriages were in trouble. I don't know that I was ever any good at it, but I would try to extract from these people their happier days — how they met. Then I would listen to the problem, which was often something like this: "We've lost feelings for each other. He's really changed. She's really changed. We don't have feelings anymore."
I developed a little exercise out of that. Here is how you get into a marriage: it is driven by feelings. The first time I saw Susan, I saw her walk up the stairs and out of her house. I didn't know if she could talk, and I'm not even sure I wanted her to. I had immediate feelings — visceral, gut, sensual, lustful feelings for her. So I acted on them. I went up and said, "Hey, I'm Tom." She said, "Hi" — didn't even give me her name. I said, "Hey, you want to go out?" She said, "Yeah, if you meet one, send him over." So then I had to woo her through actions, until the day we stood in a church and I said, "I do," and she said, "I do," and we did.
When the feelings are gone, you have to reverse that process. It went feelings, then action, then commitment. Now you start with the commitment. You sit down and say, "Divorce is not an option. I am one hundred percent committed to you because I am committed to Christ, and I am committed to you." The second step is to act like it. Every man in this room could be married to a ten — all you have to do is consider your wife and treat her like a ten. And then, more often than not, the feelings begin to come back. But it requires that process of remembering.
Remembering Where You Came From
When we were up in Flagstaff, Karen was putting together the music for the women's kickoff and texted me the playlist. I texted her back a few suggestions — I told her we don't need to play only Christian music, let's play some good music, some Doobie Brothers and other things. She texted back that it was a great selection. Then I texted a particular song and hit send, and immediately realized she had probably never heard of it. I texted right away: "You've probably never heard of that song. It was before I knew Jesus."
But that is a good thing to think about — before I knew Jesus — because it reminds me of what I really am. And Paul is doing exactly that in First Corinthians chapter ten. He is challenging the believers in Corinth to remember the nation of Israel — how they had become idolaters and adulterers and all that goes with those things. And though they were God's people, God dealt with them severely, as He would deal with you or with me. Remembrance brings humility, and humility opens the door to genuine gratitude.
Looking Back with Gratitude
There is a picture of someone who understands how desperate they are. My daughter was in the hospital emergency room with a kidney stone. My kidney stones last year were two millimeters — very, very painful. Her kidney stone was one centimeter, impossible humanly to pass. She would lay in a ball and say, "Daddy, I hurt so much."
Then I watched her as the pain began to subside and they began to work with her. They would come around four o'clock in the morning to do a blood draw. When they were all done, she would say, "Thank you. Thank you for the blood draw. Thank you for fresh water. Thank you for sharing my pillow."
That is a picture of someone who understands how desperate they are — and it points to something far bigger than blood draws or pillows or fresh water. You are a sinner separated from God, hopelessly and helplessly trapped there on your own. And in spite of you, God knows. He transformed your heart and informed your mind so you can live a radical life.
If I lose sight of what God has done, it is likely I will lose sight of what He will do. So the third thing is to look forward.
Looking Forward in Faith
Look at verses nine through fourteen. I counted ten "I will" statements in just those verses. There could be far more than that. "My loving kindness shall not depart from Solomon as I took it away from Saul. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever." God was saying: you are not going to build Me a house — I am going to build you a dynasty, and the Messiah is going to come from you.
We love the idea of understanding the future — horoscopes, palm readers, psychics. We love not just knowing the future but somehow being able to control it. James writes this in James chapter four, verse thirteen: "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.' Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.' But as it is, you boast in your arrogance."
We want to know the future, and we don't just want to know it — we want to control it. And here David hears from God Himself: this is what I am going to do. This is what I am going to do for you, for your lineage, for the people, for the nation of Israel. This is a whole picture, not of a house for God, but of a dynasty, a family for David.
God said, "I will bless your son. I will correct him. I won't do what I did to Saul — I removed the Spirit I had from Saul, but I won't do that from Solomon, no matter how bad he gets."
Sitting Still Before God
In accordance with all these words and all these visions, verse seventeen tells us that Nathan spoke to David. Then David went in and he sat. He sat before the Lord. He waited. One author writes that the military strategist, the great warrior, sat coming to terms with what God wanted him to do — which was nothing.
Perhaps you thought that once you have a ticket to heaven, you always have something to do to please God. But God does not want us to do anything to save ourselves. He says in Psalm 46, verse ten: "Be still, and know that I am God." It is striking that this chapter begins with David wanting to do something for God, and it ends with God saying, "I will do something for you."
Upon Further Review
Every once in a while in football you hear these words: "Upon further review, the play on the field has been reversed." David has one of these moments in verse eighteen. Upon further review, David says, "You know what? I have nothing to say."
Let me read first from the standard text, then from Eugene Peterson's paraphrase. "Who am I, O Lord God, and what is my house, that You have brought me this far? And yet this was insignificant in Your eyes, O Lord God, for You have spoken also of the house of Your servant concerning the distant future. And this is the custom of man, O Lord God. Again, what more can David say to You? For You know Your servant, O Lord. For the sake of Your word, and according to Your own heart, You have done all this greatness to let Your servant know. For this reason You are great, O Lord God; for there is none like You, and there is no God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears."
Here is Peterson's paraphrase, beginning at verse nineteen: "But that's nothing compared to what is coming. For You've spoken of my family far into the future and given me a glimpse into tomorrow, my Master, God. What can I possibly say in the face of all this? You know me, Master God, just as I am. You've done all this not because of who I am but because of who You are — out of Your own heart — and You've let me in on it. This is what makes You so great, Master God. There is no one like You, no God but You, nothing to compare with what we have heard with our own ears."
There Is No One Like You
David's response is this: there are all these other gods, all these other ideas, all these others — but there is no one like You, God. This is what makes You God. You are the One who raises up. You are the One who puts down. You are the One who sustains. You are the One who chose me. You are the One who brought me into this relationship. You are the One who determined. I am just a kid playing a harp, with no aspirations to be anything more — and yet You chose me.
Remembering What God Has Done
David's reflection is a powerful example of recalling God's faithfulness. He acknowledges that he never even dreamed of being king, yet God made him king. God gave him the courage — some would call it foolishness — to take on a Philistine like Goliath. God sustained him through battles with overwhelming odds, and even when David wandered away, even when he was willing to deny God and fight against the nation, God was the one who intervened. God was the one who redeemed him. As David declares, there is no God like Him.
How does that apply to us? The principle is the same. John Calvin says our hearts are idol factories, meaning we are constantly creating something or someone to worship. "If only I had _____, then I would be happy and satisfied" — whatever fills that blank is your idol, your god. If only this product would sell. If only she would come home. If only he would go away. If only this deal would close.
What do you do when you want those things — and they are good things — and God says no? You pray for a healthy family, you pray for a cure, and He says no. It is a good thing, but no. The answer is to remember what He has done and to remember that He loves you more than you love yourself.
That is a hard one to get your arms around, because we love ourselves a great deal. But He loves us with a perfect love, while we love ourselves with a counterfeit, false love. We want what we think would make us comfortable and happy. He wants what would make us joyful, even if that means discipline and hardship.
He is God. He spoke the world into existence. Think of the big things He has done in your life — the Thanksgiving dinner list, all the things you put on there. But think also about the little things. Think about the ability to navigate your way here today, even if it was in a wheelchair or on crutches. Think about the ability to draw breath, to hear, to understand these words. He did not just start this world up and walk away. He did not just create you and leave. He is involved intimately in your life, and He cares about you and loves you desperately.
Trusting God With Your Future
Having remembered what God has done, there remains the question of the future. For that, we turn to the New Testament, to John chapter 14. The setting is this: Jesus has just celebrated the Last Supper. He has told His disciples that He will be denied. Peter has said that wherever Jesus is going, he will go too — that even if everyone else falls away, it will not be him. And Jesus has replied that Peter will not even make it through the night. Peter was dead serious in his intention; he simply did not get it done.
You can sense what the environment in that room must have been like — confusion, and yet a growing clarity that something significant was about to happen, that suffering was coming, that things were beginning to become clear to them. Perhaps they were in a place not unlike where many of us are right now.
Looking around at our culture — the governmental climate, the lack of civility, the financial realities — it is difficult to see grounds for optimism in human structures. There was a two-line sentence in the news that said the Congressional Budget Office had underestimated deficit spending by two trillion dollars, and that figure did not include anything related to any healthcare legislation that might be passed. Two trillion dollars. It is hard to understand how anyone could be optimistic looking only at those realities.
Yet there is reason for optimism, and it does not lie in Republicans or Democrats or any governmental structure. It lies in John 14, verse 1: *"Do not let your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many dwelling places, and if it were not so, I would have told you. I go and prepare a place for you."* That alone is remarkable. But He goes deeper.
He continues: *"If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also."* He is not simply going to create a place and hope we find our way there. He is coming back for us. He is going to take us there. And when Thomas asks about the way, Jesus answers in John 14:6: *"I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."* There is the promise. There is the hope. There is the future.
The Purpose of Difficulty
That future is bright and certain — heaven with Him. But it is also a fulfillment here, even in the midst of hurt and pain and turmoil and anxiety, even in the most difficult circumstances we are living in now. Someone recently said that what we are experiencing is nothing compared to what people face in places like Bangladesh. The response to that is simple: we do not live in Bangladesh. Bangladesh matters, but the struggle is here.
Others say it will not be as bad as the Great Depression. In some ways it may be worse, because those in the Depression did not know what they did not have. We know what we are losing. This is difficult.
But all that difficulty does is expose our problem, our weakness, and our sin — because what we are searching for is comfort. We want things smooth and easy. We do not want the hassle. And God says that we do not grow best when life is smooth and hassle-free. That is the very purpose of hardship: not to destroy us, but to develop us.
Living as Salt and Light
Just because we read a passage about Jesus going to prepare a place for us does not mean that how we engage our culture doesn't matter. It matters. You should be involved in the political system. You should be involved in government. You should be involved in education. You should be involved in business and commerce. You should be entrepreneurs. You should be involved in the arts. You should be involved with the newspaper. You should be working to bring restoration — imperfect as it will be — to the culture. You should be salt and light there.
It is important that you are there. It matters that you are there. It is significant that you are there. It is a mess, so go be part of fixing it. We may never fully get it done, but that does not mean we do not work at it, try, and strive.
God saved you for a reason, so that you can go and take the message of salvation — not just the sweet by and by, but the joy of life here and now — to your marketplace and your world. Go. What sustains us in that hard work is that He has prepared a place, and He is going to come and get us and take us there.
Do You Know Christ Personally?
Here is the question: do you know Christ in a personal way? When we celebrate communion, those who take part are saying, "I know Jesus. I know who He is." For those who did not, perhaps you are here feeling uncomfortable, or you consider yourself very religious, or you consider yourself a total pagan. At this level, you are on the same boat. It does not matter — the very religious and the total pagan are in the same position. You are lost. You need what we might call the three F's: forgiveness, freedom, and a future.
Everything you are chasing is a counterfeit of those three things. "I'm okay, you're okay" — that is a counterfeit. "I'm free, I can do whatever I want" — no, you cannot. You are simply following your sinful, animal instincts. "I have a bright future" — really? It is just eroding away, as rust and moth destroy it. Forgiveness, freedom, and a future are found in Christ, and in Christ alone. Do you know that truth?
A Direct Challenge: Wednesday Night Prayer
I want to reinforce something mentioned during the announcements. We have a prayer gathering this Wednesday night at seven o'clock, and I am throwing a direct challenge at you. I know the instinct is to flinch — to think, "Prayer? Christchurch? I'm not involved in Christchurch. I don't need to go to that. Wednesday night doesn't work for me."
People give me books about the persecuted church all the time. They are moved by the way people suffer, and they want to support them. Showing up at seven o'clock on a Wednesday night to pray may pale in comparison to what the persecuted church endures. And when the Christchurch team — Bill Hartley and his team — tells us that what they want from us more than anything else is not money and not people, but prayer, we ought to respond by being there Wednesday night at seven o'clock.
Prayer Is Critical
Prayer is critical. That is why every Sunday after the service, here in the chapel and over in the conference center, members of our pastoral team are present to pray with you. It may be prayer requests, it may be praises, it may be sharing something God is doing — whatever it is, these men and women are at the front of the room every single week to pray with you and to partner with you.
Father, thank You for David. What an amazing life. I pray that we would, like David, sit and wait and hear from You. God, as we decide and determine and say yes and You say no, help us remember and be thankful and look to the future. God, thank You for that. Father, thank You for forgiveness and freedom and the future that we have in Your Son, Jesus. And we pray to You in His name. Amen.