Grace

Gtcotr/ws012021

Without respect as to how we feel or what we may experience in life, whether or not this is a good day or a bad day for you, believe me when I say, “Your greatest day is yet ahead!”

This is the everlasting, overriding, never-failing, word of Almighty God for His children. In John 16 Jesus told His Disciples:

John 16:33  “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

Jesus is the one constant in whom we find our peace and all hope for the future. Victories and defeats are all subject to His name. He is our Rock and our Fortress and the One in whom we put our trust. All other ground is but sinking sand.

We are given accounts throughout the scriptures which encourage us to stay on track and stay focused on the purposes of God. God does not intend to save the world but rather God is intent on saving people from this world. The good, the bad, the rich, and the poor. This world will wax worse and worse and will ultimately fill their cup of sin to the point that God will finally bring judgement on all the ungodly for their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed (Jude 1:15). This is God’s job not ours.

I thank God that He is ever merciful to the just and to the unjust. God told the Apostle Paul that His grace is sufficient (2 Corinthians 12:9).

God is not without knowledge concerning the unfolding events in our lives and even the sin which abounds in the earth today. In fact, the reason God sent Jesus was to save us from this world.

Romans 5:20  … Where sin did abound, grace did much more abound.

The grace of God is more abundant and more powerful than the sins of men. God is also greater than the temporary victories we achieve in this life and His plan is both sure and secure. God will not be distracted or detoured from the single purpose of His will and neither should we.

This is one messed up crazy world and I am so glad it is not my home. I am also glad I have been invited and equipped to lead a search and rescue party to seek and save those who are lost and trapped in the darkness of this world. Thank God He has given us a great light to shine on the souls in danger because it seems to me things in this world are getting darker and more divided with each passing day.

Our hope for family members, our friends, and those we meet on our way is that they might see the light in us and listen to us as we share the Gospel of Christ with them.

I know some of you are greatly disappointed right now in the way things are going in our nation while others are quite happy with the results. I won’t suggest you put away your convictions or abandon your heartfelt beliefs however I will ask you to re-focus for a moment on the future and realize that God has a plan and there is a part He needs you to play. He is not distracted, and it is no time for us to forget His purpose in all things.

This evening I have chosen an event in the life of David to help us re-focus our attention on the greater truths of life and to hopefully help to give direction to many of you who are feeling some level of despair or justification right now. You have taken the first good step in that you have turned tonight to the Word of God. This is no time to shut out what God has to say. His grace is sufficient.

This may not be a word you want to hear but it is a word you need to hear. Then, this coming Sunday morning, we are going to hear from a real, honest-to-goodness prophet of God … he is the real deal … you don’t want to miss this word from God.

Tonight our story begins in 2 Samuel. In a moment we will read from the 11^th chapter. While you find it, allow me to catch us up to that point.

·        King David had been very successful in all he had done. One year he decided to stay at home when his army went out to war. This was a good idea with great reasons, but it did give him some idle time.

·        From the rooftop of his house King David saw a woman named Bathsheba taking a bath on the rooftop of her house. Bathsheba was the wife of Uriah, one of his commanders who was off at war.

·        David invited Bathsheba to his house, and they committed adultery and she became pregnant.

·        First David tried to hide the affair by bringing her husband home from the battle hoping he would sleep with Bathsheba and later imagine the child was his.

·        The plot didn’t work because of the integrity and honor of Uriah. Uriah couldn’t allow himself to enjoy comfort or consolation when his troops were still in battle … so instead of going to his house, he slept on the steps of King David’s palace.

·        David sent Uriah back to the battle with a letter to the Captain of the hosts directing him to send Uriah into the heat of the battle in hopes he would be killed.

·        And so it happened … Uriah was killed by the enemy on David’s orders.

·        King David took pregnant Bathsheba into his house, made her his wife, and the child was born.

·        In Chapter 11, God sent the prophet Nathan to David. Nathan told David a story about two men and how one of them had robbed the other of his one precious lamb.

·        David was enraged and then Nathan discovered to David that the story was all about what he had done to Uriah by murdering him and taking Bathsheba as his own.

·        David repented … and he even wrote a Psalm about the whole affair … Psalms 51.

The prophet Nathan told David that he had been a great disappointment to God and to the nation, but God had forgiven him and removed his sin from him.

2 Samuel 11  NKJV

14  “However, because by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the LORD to blaspheme, the child also who is born to you shall surely die.”

15 ¶  Then Nathan departed to his house. And the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife bore to David, and it became ill.

16  David therefore pleaded with God for the child, and David fasted and went in and lay all night on the ground.

17  So the elders of his house arose and went to him, to raise him up from the ground. But he would not, nor did he eat food with them.

18  Then on the seventh day it came to pass that the child died. And the servants of David were afraid to tell him that the child was dead. For they said, “Indeed, while the child was alive, we spoke to him, and he would not heed our voice. How can we tell him that the child is dead? He may do some harm!”

19  When David saw that his servants were whispering, David perceived that the child was dead. Therefore David said to his servants, “Is the child dead?” And they said, “He is dead.”

20  So David arose from the ground, washed and anointed himself, and changed his clothes; and he went into the house of the LORD and worshiped. Then he went to his own house; and when he requested, they set food before him, and he ate.

21  Then his servants said to him, “What is this that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while he was alive, but when the child died, you arose and ate food.”

22  And he said, “While the child was alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, ‘Who can tell whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?’

23  “But now he is dead; why should I fast? Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he shall not return to me.”

David was successful in his strategic appropriation of Bathsheba but now he could not imagine losing his son. And for as long as there was any hope that God would intervene, David prayed and pleaded and fasted, night and day and refused to be raised up from the ground. After a week, the child died anyway. Seeing how devastated David was when the child was sick, David’s servants did not understand how David recovered himself once he realized all his hopes and prayers turned to nothing.

This is where the servants underestimated David and his relationship with God.

·        Unlike others, David trusted God.

·        Sure David did not want his son to die.

·        Certainly, David knew God could intervene.

·        Truly David made his honest petitions to God.

·        David bore his heart and soul to God and pleaded with Him.

·        Then God answered … and when God answered … David accepted God’s answer.

·        Then David

o   Got up

o   Washed his face

o   Cleaned himself up

o   Changed clothes

o   Went to Church

o   Worshipped God

o   Went home

o   Had a good lunch

o   And looked forward to the future he believed would come to pass.

o   This was in no way over … it was just over for the moment and would need to take a different course … but the future was secure …

o   David would one day receive his desire, just not today.

·        In answer to his servant’s questions, David replied: “Why should I fast … I can’t change this … I have to put the future in God’s hands.

God is good to us and will deliver us from our successes and from our failures - even if we sin, how much more if someone else sins against us 

Both success and disappointments fall prey to the scrutiny of God’s purpose and will.

Here is my big take-away from this evening’s message:

Some things don’t work out like we hoped … still our greatest day is yet ahead!

I want to challenge each and every one of you here and all who are attending online to refocus on what you can do to accomplish the purpose of God during the days ahead. God’s grace is sufficient … You can trust His decisions … He knows what He is doing.