With confidence about the patriarch David, that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Being therefore a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants on his throne, he foresaw and spoke about the resurrection of Christ, that he was not abandoned to Hades, nor did his flesh see corruption. So Peter is referencing David and David's unique relationship to Jesus, David pointing to Jesus in Psalm 16. But I want to show you this morning the other text that Peter references, and that takes place in 2 Samuel chapter 7.
Last week we examined Psalm 16, and it's a psalm that contrasts the sorrows of those who run after gods other gods, and the sweetness of those who trust alone in the Lord. We talked last week about how those who run after other gods in the midst of their heartache will multiply their heartache. I said last week that look back to 2018 and ask yourself, what was the hardest thing that you dealt with? What was the greatest sorrow of that year? And then said that if you examined your response to that sorrow, you'd see one of two things mostly. You would either see that you responded to that sorrow with belief, and therefore the sorrow kind of— it didn't get any less hard, but it remained this one thing with which you have to wrestle and deal and trust the Lord in. Or you may have responded to that sorrow with unbelief. And if you've responded to that sorrow with unbelief, then you should be able to trace back now with a little perspective, how that sorrow has multiplied into many, many more. And that this is sort of how we self-sabotage our lives.
I said last week that if you wanted to do one thing to dramatically change 2019 for the better, you would repent of idolatry and therefore not eliminate all sorrow from your life, but certainly reduce the multiplication of those sorrows that happens through unbelief. We also said that Jesus is the only one who's really ever done this perfectly. And today we're going to ask this question because we ended the message saying this: for those who are in Christ, he is teaching us faithfulness. Jesus is teaching his bride monogamy, and we are progressively over time learning how not to respond to the sorrows that come into our life. With unbelief. And so progressively over time, our lives should become less chaotic. It may not be less difficult, but they should be less chaotic. When we follow Christ and repent of our sins, our life becomes fairly integrated. I'm not gonna say it's shalom, but it's shalom-ish. Like, it's almost shalom. It's, it's, it's Our life begins to be ordered in Christ.
And what do we do when, after Christ has blessed us and given us faith to respond to adversity with faith, what do we do when our life starts becoming more ordered? What do we do when our life starts to become more put together? Well, that's the question that stands before us in 2 Samuel chapter 7. Last week we talked about multiplying sorrows and how Jesus helps us not to do that. This week we're gonna say, okay, let's say we get to the point where we have some reasonable level of integration in our life. Our life isn't full-blown chaos like it used to be. Now what do we do with this peace that the Lord has provided?
Now you'll see in 2 Samuel chapter 7, verse 1, it's exactly the conditions set forth for us in the text. It says, now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all of his surrounding enemies. So this is the place where David finds himself. He's in a place of rest, he's in a place of peace, and that is a peace that God won for him through David's faithfulness. David went through a lot to get to this place. He descended from raising sheep, right? He'd killed Goliath. He'd endured this really long, protracted season where Saul was trying to kill him. He ascended to the throne. He'd fought many wars since ascending to the throne. And now, after a long, painful struggle, we realize struggles are painful, but they don't last forever if we're obedient to Jesus. Rest eventually comes. What do we do with that rest?
You know, in some respects, this question, what do we do with rest, is historically in the church a uniquely— not uniquely— an especially American question. Did you realize that really, as you try to explain how people get to a certain place, that the American story is a bit unique in that the people, the Europeans who came here came here for a religious reason, that they came here not necessarily for commerce, not necessarily for those— they didn't settle here necessarily for those things. They didn't endure all the harshness of a new world for commercial reasons. They came here because they wanted to worship Christ according to their convictions. And so we're a unique place. This country is unique in the sense that it was founded in a unique way, and almost from the very beginning really almost from the very beginning, the early American Puritan pastors saw the trajectory of what was taking place. And here's what they saw. They saw that when a group of people lived in community together under the authority of God's Word, prosperity would come. And they saw that all too often, even in those early days, that prosperity threatened those people's allegiance to Jesus, those people's zeal for Jesus. So that even at the very beginning of the American experiment, an American Puritan by the name of Cotton Mather famously wrote, 'Religion brought forth prosperity, and the daughter destroyed the mother.' So this question of what to do with rest, what to do with peace when God gives it to us, is central not only to your life, because hopefully as you follow Christ, you're experiencing more and more integration in your life and less and less chaos. But it's also even just a cultural question. What do we do with rest?
6 · Signals a structural turn—the sermon's first major section will intentionally provoke listeners to view rest and relaxation with caution rather than unqualified approval
The first point of this message, the first section of this message, is kind of meant to provoke you, to make you suspicious, or at least cautious, of relaxation and rest. For the sake of relaxation and rest. Okay, so this section is meant to kind of stir you up.
7 · A brief humorous pastoral aside thanking those who came through the snow and jokingly asking them to tithe for those who stayed home—builds rapport and lightens the tone before returning to the provocative teaching
Speaking of stirring you up, thank you for coming this morning. I have good news and bad news about your being here today. First of all, good news, I want to affirm you for making it through the snow to be here. And the bad news is I need you to tithe for those that are not here this morning. So thank you for your first step of faithfulness, but please please endure to the end and complete your step of faithfulness. Just imagine the person who's not here and try to come up with their tithe and just throw that in the plate for me. Thank you.
8 · Reads 2 Samuel 7:1-3, explaining David's godly impulse—he sees the contrast between his cedar house and the tent housing the ark, and proposes building a temple, an idea Nathan initially affirms
So what do we do with peace and rest when God gives it to us? It's a huge question. Well, look at the text again. 2 Samuel 7:1. Now when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest from all his surrounding enemies, The king said to Nathan the prophet, 'See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells in a tent.' And Nathan said to the king, 'Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.' So David has an idea, and it's prompted by the Lord's blessings on him. He sees that he has a nice house. He sees that the Lord has a tent. And so David is wrestling with what to do with his rest, which, by the way, is a very righteous and often underestimated quality. Not many of us necessarily even think about it this way. So David has this idea: how about I build the Lord a house? How about I build him a temple? This is something a king would normally do, after all. And so he goes to Nathan and says to Nathan, Hey, what if I build God a temple? What if I use all the rest that I've been given from the Lord and use it to get to work? And Nathan's first response is, do all that is in your heart, the Lord is with you.
9 · Introduces the first of several tensions embedded in David's moment of rest—the fundamental question of whether life is oriented toward self or toward God, which determines whether rest becomes an endpoint or a launching point for further service
So I want you to think about this moment where David is rising above his rest, and I want to provoke you a little bit to think rightly about what to do with the peace and prosperity that God invariably gives in multiple ways to his people. So I just want to walk you through some tensions that are showing up here, and the first one is just this: self versus God. Who am I living for? Self versus God. Who am I living for? Was this— was David's life about himself? If so, he really doesn't need to do anything else. Because he's okay. But if his life's about the Lord, then there's something else that needs to be done. And this is what David is sensing.
10 · Contrasts the nature of spiritual testing in hard days versus prosperous days—suffering forces the trust question repeatedly like waves, but prosperity's test is subtle and sustained, allowing drift without conscious awareness
The question of what you will hold on to in hard days is one kind of question. But the interesting thing about hard days is that it just comes in waves. The pain just comes in waves. And so every time it hits you, you're challenged with this question: will I trust God or will I not? Will I trust God or will I not? So that it's sort of like in the ocean and these huge breakers are hitting you. You've got this life raft and you're just asking yourself, 'Will I hold on to the raft or not? Will I hold on to the raft or not?' But the question of trusting God in prosperous days, it doesn't hit you that way. It's far more subtle so that you can go a long time without even asking the question if your heart isn't oriented in the right direction.
11 · Applies David's example to the congregation with a direct diagnostic question—does relaxation loosen your grip on God?—and asserts that the answer is yes, requiring conscious vigilance
So David is already showing us some pretty good fruit. He's showing us that he just essentially views life not through the lens of, am I okay? Because if I'm okay, everything's okay. But through the lens of, I'm not my own, I was bought with a price, this life is bigger than me, I'm living for the glory of the Lord, and I'm going to think through that lens. So one of the questions I have for you this morning is Does relaxation cause you to relax your grip on God? Does relaxation cause you to relax your grip on God? I think the answer is yes, which means you have to be conscious of that.
12 · Introduces the second tension—saving versus giving—and challenges the congregation's expectations of financial security by contrasting them with David's willingness to risk massive resources for God's kingdom and with the historical sacrifice of missionaries and pastors
A second question, second tension that's brought forward in this, this, this story is that the tension of saving versus giving. A big question in this text has to do with how much is enough. Obviously, God wants us to be responsible with our income and responsible with our expenditures, and he wants us to think well about managing the resources that he gives us. But at some point, we really do need to ask when enough is enough. David has really only just gotten established as a truly wealthy man. He is at this point in his life where he now sees that the money that he has really is going to— theological questions are really going to start arising quickly as he questions, well, how much do I actually need? David was willing to undergo a very sizable, a very expensive proposition to serve the Lord. He is not holding on too tightly to the excess that the Lord has provided. So that's another tension here. How much is enough? David was willing to enter into risk, into financial risk, because his life wasn't oriented mostly around him. So there was some 'how much is enough' answer for him that was probably lower, right? He needs less because he was living for the Lord. Just think of it this way. Ask yourself these questions. I'm not asking them, you're asking them of yourself. If the missionaries of the past held on to your expectations of financial security, how many people would not know Jesus? Right? So we all have this threshold of how much we think we need in savings, in retirement, and so on and so forth. How much of a nest egg we want. But what I've always found interesting is that there's a pretty big conflict that the missionaries never bring up between those who serve the Lord in fairly hands-on ways and those that serve the Lord by giving and so forth. Don't hold me to any of that language. My only point is there seems to be a division between peoples in the church. One group is saying, I will progress deep into my 40s without having any clarity about my retirement. And one group is saying, I will not. I don't know that that's right. I'm not sure it's right on either side, but I want you to ask yourself, as we're provoking right now, I want you to ask yourself, how much is enough? Like, what level of security is appropriate for you, a sojourner in this world, to hold and to seek? Because obviously there's a certain level of nest egg that if it were deployed for the glory of God right now would produce good work, good fruit. So ask yourself, if the missionaries of the past held to your expectations of financial security, Would they have gone? Ask yourself, if the average pastor held to your expectation of financial security, would you have a pastor? Would you have many pastors? How many pastors would there be? I think these are fair questions. David gets to a point where he says, I'm only just now arrived, but before I even establish some sort of expectation of what arrived means and what security means, I'm going to invest a massive portion of my nest egg into the kingdom.
13 · Introduces the third tension—past faithfulness versus present faithfulness—warning that believers can rest on past accomplishments rather than continuing to walk in current faith, while David refuses to do so despite his impressive resume
Third tension: past faithfulness versus present faithfulness. You know, if we aren't careful— oh my gosh, I'm so guilty of this— if we aren't careful, we can count past evidences as present evidence of faithfulness, past works of faith as present evidences of faithfulness. David doesn't do that even though he has so many accomplishments. You know, like, you know how terrible I would be to have dinner with if I killed Goliath? Even if it was like 30 years ago, that's all you'd ever hear about, right? You'd be like, hey, have you heard about the time— David isn't leaning on past faithfulness. He's still walking in faith.
14 · Illustrates repeated faith through a personal story of a pastor friend whose growing church faces a new risk-requiring mission every few years, demonstrating that God repeatedly calls believers to put everything on the line regardless of past accomplishments
You know, I have a friend whose church has progressively grown time and time again over the last 15 years, and where it started at like 200, now it's like, I don't know, 700 or something like that. And what's remarkable about his journey is that every 2 or 3 years, the whole church is called to some mission where they have to bet everything on God coming through. Where they literally put everything out on the line and say, if God doesn't come through, we will be in a heap of trouble. What I've seen is, is that God's just calling us repeatedly throughout our lives to put everything out on the line.
15 · Introduces the fourth tension—age versus ambition—noting that as believers accumulate responsibilities and resources in midlife, the cost of risk increases, creating disincentive to faithfulness; references Paul Tripp's insight that midlife reveals who we've been all along rather than introducing a new self
And you know, when you're a 20-year-old or younger and you know you're facing Goliath, you don't— your brain's barely functioning. I mean, it's one thing to be faithful then. It's another thing the more you have and the more that people are counting on you, the more your family's counting on you. the harder it is to put it all out on the table again and say, Lord, if you don't come through, I'm in trouble. So that there could become a disincentivization to actually being the same kind of faithful we were in our youth. And that brings me to another tension: age versus ambition. Our best timeline suggests David was about 43 years old here. And we know he lived to about 70 or 75. So he was a little over the halfway point. He was middle-aged, and life, as you would kind of expect, life was becoming ordered, more ordered, which is the great thing that happens usually when you're in midlife. The Lord was giving him rest from some of his most antagonistic enemies. You know, this kind of thing is probably, if you're 40, 50 years old, this kind of thing is probably at some level happening in your life. You're generally at a peak professionally. You're usually pretty good at your job, and being good at your job brings certain status and trust with your employer. It also brings certain freedoms. You're probably in prime earning years, and wisdom and maturity are probably starting to make their way through your thick skull so that Some of the battles you once fought, and you were so up and down and so chaotic, now maybe there's a little bit more stillness within and without. So what do you do with this season of life? Well, that's where David's at. There's a wonderful book about midlife crisis, which I think is real, and I'll tell you my 2-second theory on midlife crisis. It has to do with your kids' ages. Like, if It has to do with how old your kids are. That's when midlife happens. When your kids start leaving the home, that's when the midlife crisis can happen. I've experienced some of that. So I read this book by Paul Tripp called Lost in the Middle. And in this book, Paul Tripp says this: Midlife doesn't introduce you to a new you, it forces you to admit who you've been all along. And now you've got the resources and the space and the peace and the wherewithal, and who you have been all along is being revealed by the peace and the space and the prosperity that you have. Some of us at middle age get twitchy because we were twitchy all along, and some of us get lazy because we were lazy all along. The way, the way you spend your 40s and 50s is usually an indicator of what you were living for in your 20s and 30s. We spend our youth striving for idols and then spend our middle years fondling them. So David's in this point where he's arrived. What does he do with it? What do you do with it?
16 · Introduces the fifth tension—rest versus work—using the analogy of roadside rest stops: rest is good and necessary, but making rest your permanent residence indicates something has gone pathologically wrong
Well, there's another tension: rest versus work. David's at rest, and we know that rest is a good thing, but how much rest is a good thing? I was reading an article, I think it was in the New York Times, about how people have begun to live at roadside rest stops. Now, I'm a big fan of the roadside rest stop. I've been thankful, and my bladder's been thankful for them many times, so that you can pull in and you can use the restroom and you can get a state map and you can, you can spend $5 on a Coke at the vending machine and and then you can go on your way. But this article reminded me that rest stops are wonderful, but if you're living at one, something's gone horribly wrong. And so this tension is also at play with David. He's at rest, but is he supposed to live there? Is he supposed to live at the rest stop? No, if you live at the rest stop, something's pathetically wrong with your life. He's at rest. God's given him this rest from all of his enemies, and yet he still aspires. He still has godly ambition.
17 · Introduces the sixth and final tension—sensuality versus sacrifice—warning that overindulgence in rest leads to sensuality, contrasting David's two moments of rest in 2 Samuel 7 (leading to sacrifice) and 2 Samuel 11 (leading to adultery)
And then a final tension: sensuality versus sacrifice. So, okay, 2 Samuel 7 starts with this sentence. You know, David's at rest, he's at home, he's at rest, he's at peace. Well, that's kind of the way 2 Samuel 11 starts too. He's at home. He's not fighting. He's enjoying his palace. And I'll just tell you point blank, like, if you overindulge in rest, what's going to wind up happening is that you will succumb to some form of sensuality. So that with David, there were these two moments, both kind of beginning with this peace and rest. And with one, he sought to sacrifice himself to the Lord. He sought to serve the Lord. And with the other he gave himself to sensuality. This is a really big deal, this question of what you do with your rest, with what you do with your free time, with what you do with your peace. The stakes are really high. What you do with your rest and the prosperity the Lord gives you really just tells you about the trajectory of your own soul.
18 · Expounds Luke 12's parable of the rich fool as a warning—the man's prosperity revealed his true self, and his decision to make rest permanent rather than serving God brought divine judgment
Think about Luke 12. Luke 12 is the parable of the rich man. The rich fool, I think, is what it says in my Bible. He realizes that his harvest has come in dramatically better than he expected. And nothing about this man has changed because he's suddenly wealthy. The true man just shows up and he says, I know what I'll do with all of this excess. I'll enter into a permanent state of rest. I'll build up my barns and I'll store all my crops and I will eat, drink, and be merry. I'll make relaxation, I'll make the rest stop my permanent place of occupation. And the Lord says, you fool, do you not know that for tonight your soul will be required of you?
19 · Synthesizes the six tensions into a unified application—rest is spiritually dangerous because it opens unique opportunities for temptation and distraction, and without grace, relaxation naturally loosens our grip on God
So these are some of the tensions involved in David's big idea, and I put those before you because I think rest may be one of the most dangerous states you'll ever find in your soul. Like, I think there's so much possibility for temptation and distraction, and I think that naturally, without God's grace, relaxation always causes us to relax our grip on God.
20 · Signals a major structural pivot from provocative warning to gospel comfort—the second section will explore how God's no to David contained a greater yes
So section 2 is quite a bit different because David has a big idea. And God has a beautiful no.
21 · Reads 2 Samuel 7:4-7, showing God's nighttime reversal of Nathan's initial affirmation—God tells David no, he does not want David to build him a physical house
Look at verse 7 of 2 Samuel 7. I'm sorry, look at verse 4 of 2 Samuel 7. But that same night— so David has gone to Nathan, he's asked, hey, I'd like to build this temple. Nathan's first take is, do all that's in your heart, the Lord is with you. That's verse 3. Verse 4: But the same night the word of the Lord came to Nathan. Go and tell my servant David, thus says the Lord: Would you build me a house to dwell in? I've not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I've been moving about in a tent for my dwelling. In all places where I have moved with all the people of Israel, did I speak a word with any of of the judges of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, why have you not built me a house of cedar? So David's big idea comes with a big no. His ambition, his idea, his plan to serve the Lord is rejoined with no, I don't want that. I don't want you to do that for me.
22 · Identifies the first characteristic of God's no—it came through counsel, demonstrating David's humility in submitting his royal authority to Nathan, and establishing the principle that seeking godly counsel protects us from error while freeing us to dream boldly
Now I want to point out 4 things about this no, because they also inform so much of how we view our lives and how we view what we're about with the Lord. And I just want to— the first point is just this: the no came to David through counsel. It's so important to understand that we not run off half-cocked or flippantly when we get our big idea to serve the Lord. And here again we commend David. He was the king. If he wanted to build a temple, he could just go build a temple. But he submitted himself to godly counsel, to the counsel of Nathan. And it's not as if Nathan had the idea in his own head. It's not as if Nathan had the right thing to say right then. Nathan first gives him the wrong answer, I suppose. He says, well, that sounds good to me, go for it. By the way, I think that's always the right kind of initial take when another saint comes and says, 'Chris, I want to do...' or 'Hey, I think about...' I want to say, 'The Lord's with you, so let's see if we can dream together. Let's see if we can do this.' Nathan, I think, has the right response. But because David had sought Nathan's counsel, the Lord spoke to Nathan later that evening and said, 'I don't want this.' I don't want David to do this for me. Now, that's actually wonderful, and I think that if we will seek godly counsel, we can play a little bit more freely. We can dream a little bit more passionately. We can be a little bit more of a godly ambition if we seek godly counsel and we say, I'm not just going to do this thing, but it's okay to dream and think and wonder and ask and hope. And God will— you use our humility when we seek godly counsel. He'll use that and he'll help us figure out what he wants us to do. So that's the first point.
23 · Identifies the second characteristic of God's no—it brings confusion, triggering questions about motives, ambition, character, and plans, creating a crisis that many avoid by never risking anything for God
Second point is this: God's no can bring a lot of confusion. Having a desire to serve the Lord in a particular way only to be told no is really confusing, and I should know. This has happened to me many times. You know, as much as we praise David for his godly ambition, there's a part of us that cringes when we realize that God's response to David's godly ambition was, 'No, thank you.' No. A lot of us don't like to fail. A lot of us are so afraid of no that we never ask good questions. We never ask hard questions. We never ask big things of God. I'm here to tell you that God's no is always a good thing, and I'm gonna get to that in a minute. But I'm also gonna admit that when you aspire to serve the Lord in some way and he says no, how could you not be confused? You know, you start questioning your motives. Was I doing this for the right reason? You start regretting your ambition. You're like, man, I should have just chilled out, stayed on the couch. You start questioning your character. Maybe, maybe I'm not worthy. Maybe I'm the problem. You start questioning your plans. Maybe what I thought needed to be done didn't need to be done.
24 · Illustrates God's confusing no through a personal story—the pastor's abrupt proposal to move to Africa created marital crisis, followed by a year of wrestling and eventual unity, only to have the entire plan rejected in a ten-minute phone call, prompting deep questions about hearing God and worthiness
So years ago, Angela— well, I'm not gonna start the sentence with Angela. I came home and rather abruptly one day from a conference. Now I've been thinking about this for about a year, but I hadn't really done a good job talking to my wife about it. You're gonna, ladies, you're gonna just like, you should throw tomatoes at me for this. This is terrible. So I came home and I just told my wife after I was gone for a weekend at a conference, I want to move to Africa and I want to do it like within the next 6 months. So that year, the 6 months that followed that statement were some of the hardest in our marriage. Angela didn't tell me at the time, but she had secretly, when I said that, immediately planned on leaving. And living with my parents. Very difficult season of walking through that together, moving what would have been our little, little kids to South Africa right after the, the, the rejection of apartheid and riding the wave of all of the, the violence and recrimination that came following it. And so we wrestled together in, in marriage for I would say about a year, finally to the point where she came— she became— she came to peace with this idea that the Lord indeed was calling us. And she became just as sure as I was, yes, the Lord's calling us to move to South Africa. So we, we go through the process and we're approved and so on and so forth, and we begin to make plans to move. And then we get a call out of nowhere saying, all of your paperwork has been rejected. Our ministry is shutting— the ministry we were going with is shutting down. You can't go to Africa. Do you want to go to Haiti? I was like, no, I don't. No, I mean, Africa is the spot. And so in a 10-minute phone call, 2 years probably of praying and planning and fighting was just rejected. It was just put away, and we had no option to do the thing we thought God was calling us to do. Now, I think many of you know I wound up spending a lot of time in Africa afterward, and the way that the Lord came in with a, with a different, refined plan was beautiful. But when that happened, I thought, oh my goodness, did I just spend 2 years misunderstanding God. He's angry at God. God, am I not good enough to go to Africa? And so on and so forth. When you aspire to serve the Lord and He tells you no, it's confusing.
25 · Illustrates God's confusing no through a second personal story—the Crosshaven church plant bore fruit but involved constant difficulty and many unrealized aspirations, reinforcing that God's plan operates independently of our mustered courage and faith
You know, in many respects, the church plant Crosshaven is still bearing beautiful fruit. God's still working in that effort. But we had this idea, we're going to move into an urban context and we're going to plant a church. And honestly, every step of it was hard, and much of what we aspired to didn't come to pass. And all of these questions I outlined were questions I was asking all the time, and so was everybody else. God, God, what's going on here? We want to do this thing, but friends, it's not only about our desire, right? We sometimes think that once we've mustered up enough faith and courage to take the big step that God's gonna be so tickled and he's just been waiting for us and he's gonna be, 'Oh yes, Chris is on my side now!' It doesn't work that way. The Lord has had a plan all along and sometimes we miss it.
26 · Makes a theological claim about divine direction—God can more easily redirect someone moving with wrong plans but right motives than mobilize someone sitting in disobedient passivity, which is exactly what God does with David
Friends, it is so much easier for God to redirect you into the place he wants you to go after you've decided to get up off the stupid couch. I think it's a lot harder to get this body off the couch than to move this body in a certain direction. Neither are easy, by the way. But it's a lot harder to redirect a disobediently lazy person than it is to direct a person with a bad plan and a good heart, a good motivation. That's what God is doing with David.
27 · Identifies the third characteristic of God's no—it brings clarity about motives by revealing why we aspired in the first place through how we respond to the denial; David's response of funding the temple anyway demonstrates his godly motivation since he sacrificed without receiving credit
Third point about this no is that God's no will bring us clarity. Now, when God tells you no, You will almost certainly not get the answers to why right away. David didn't get the answers to why right away, not really. But if God tells you no, there is one question that you will have clarity about immediately when you find out he said no, and that is, was I doing this with godly ambition or sinful ambition? Was I doing this out of pride, or was I doing this out of a desire to obey? That clarity will come to you as soon as you hear God say no, because the way you respond when God says no to your aspiration shows you why you aspired to it in the first place. We have a lot to commend with David's response, because one of the things we see David's response is God says, no, David, I'm not gonna let you do this. You know what he does? He gives all the money away anyway. He pays for the whole funding of the temple. And the basic consequence of that choice is he's not gonna— it's not gonna have his name on it. He's not gonna be the guy who built the temple, but he's gonna pay the price to build the temple, which shows you that he was motivated to serve the Lord. Because when the Lord says, David, I don't want you to do it, he responds with faith, and he responds with as much sacrifice as is possible, and he gives as much as is possible. This moment when God tells you no, no to the thing you aspire to, which you believe is good, this moment is a moment that will give you clarity about the current state of your heart. The philosopher Kierkegaard wrote, 'The proud person always wants to do the right thing, the great thing, but because he wants to do the right thing in his own strength, he is fighting not with man but with God.' So this no is going to bring you clarity about why you aspired. If you aspired out of godly motivations, this no will hurt, it will be confusing, but But there will be something about the heart of faith that responds to this no in a godly way. But if what you aspire to was mostly out of your own human ambition, mostly out of sense of pride, then that will be evident as well in how you respond to God's no.
28 · Reads 2 Samuel 7:8-17, God's full response to David—instead of David building God a house, God will build David a house (dynasty), establishing an eternal kingdom through David's offspring, a promise ultimately fulfilled in Christ
But number 4, and this is the best part, God's no will give you Christ. God's no will give you Christ. Look at verse 8 of our text. 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, that you should be prince over my people Israel. And I have been with you forever, wherever you went, and have cut off all your enemies from before you. And I will make for you a great name like the name of the great ones of the earth. We saw that, by the way, in Acts 2. Peter calls him a patriarch, which is interesting. It doesn't fit exactly. God's given David a great name like the great ones of the earth. And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they may dwell in their own place and be disturbed no more. And violent men shall afflict them no more as formerly. From the time I appointed judges over my people Israel. And I will give you rest from all your enemies. Moreover, the Lord declares to you that the Lord will make you a house. The Lord will make you a house. When your days are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring after you who shall come from your body. And I will establish his kingdom, and he shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be to him a father, and he shall be to me a son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him with the rod of men, with the stripes of the sons of men. But my steadfast love will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away from before you. And your house, David, your house and your kingdom shall be made sure forever before me. Your throne shall be established forever. In accordance with all these words, in accordance with all this vision, Nathan spoke to David.
29 · Makes the sermon's climactic theological claim—every divine no contains an enormous eternal yes, specifically the yes of Christ himself; God's no to David's physical temple was a yes to the eternal temple of Jesus, freeing believers to risk boldly because even their errors will be redeemed into Christ-exalting outcomes
Man, I wish that you would have, and I would have, the faith to understand that every one of God's knows has this enormous, eternal, world-shaping yes behind it. And I wish specifically that God would give us the faith when he tells us no to understand that what he's really always going to give us is better than what he withheld. Specifically, he's going to give us Christ. God says no, David, You won't build my physical temple, but I'm gonna use you and your body to build a better temple, right? The physical temple, the New Testament tells us, is just a shadow and a copy of a better temple that God built in the person of Jesus Christ. So God's no to David was, David, You're not going to be the one to build my physical temple, but through you I'm going to build the one true temple, Jesus Christ, the dwelling place of God, the meeting place of God and man. Isaiah 9:6, his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. And of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The Lord of hosts will accomplish this. So God's saying, David, No to building the earthly temple, yes to building the one true temple. No to that which passes, yes to that which does not pass. David, there's going to be a man who is God of very God who will come in through your line, and one day he'll be walking past the earthly temple and everybody will be agog at the beauty of the earthly temple, and he will with confidence and resolution say, Tear down the temple and I'll rebuild it in 3 days. Jesus Christ is the better answer to David's aspiration, and he's the better answer to your aspirations. If you fear being told no by God, you'll never do anything. It just comes with the deal. If you fear looking like a fool because you got it wrong, if you fear making the wrong assumptions like David did, if you fear messing up, you'll never do anything. But if you can realize that even when you have a bad plan, that there is a good God who will redirect and refine your aspirations and will give you Christ and bless the world through you, Then you're free. You're free. You're free to fumble through this life as the creature you are, trying your best. And sometimes, you know what, you're going to get it right and you won't even get a no. And sometimes you'll get it wrong and you will get a no. But man, with these kinds of nos, what do we have to be afraid of? With a Christ-centered eternal no that blesses us far more than the thing that we wanted, why do we need to be afraid of being told no?
30 · Applies the sermon to two groups—those who need to be stirred to godly ambition (for whom Romans 12:11 is the main point) and those who are wounded from past divine nos (for whom the kindness of the no revealing their hearts and pointing to Christ is the main point), closing with Piper's quote about risk and joy
So I want you to think this morning about all those tensions I brought up. Don't let that slip you. It would be extremely comfortable for you to forget the first section of this sermon. Rest versus work, age versus ambition, self versus Christ, sacrifice versus sensuality, past faithfulness versus present faithfulness. Let it sting you. You're not your own. You were bought with a price. True life is out there in faithfulness, in godly ambition. Some of you just need to walk home saying That's the main point for me today. The main point for me today is what Romans 12:11 says: do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Some of you, that needs to be the main point. But there's always some people who are licking their wounds from the last time they thought they wanted to do something for the Lord. There's always some people who really don't have an aspiration problem so much as they do problem just trusting the Lord when he says no or not now or in a different way. And to you, I want you to hear clearly: one of the kindnesses of the Lord in saying no to you is to show you your heart. One of the kindnesses of the Lord in saying no to that which you aspire is to say, like, the thing you want to do sounds really righteous, But look at how you're responding when I tell you no. Was there a heart of faith or was there a heart of pride behind what you aspired to? I mean, probably for most of us it's both, right? There's probably a little of both. So this no can help us sort through and understand our hearts more clearly, and it may be that that is what the Lord's doing in the no. But if you have aspired and you've been told no for right now— and by the way, it doesn't have to be, it doesn't have to be moving to Africa. It could be to have another child. It could be to be married. It could, it could be a million things. If there's a no, trust God that the yes he has for you is massive. Behind that no. Victor posted a quote on a job from John Piper this week on Facebook. I want to read that to you. Every good poised to bless us and every evil arrayed against us will in the end help us boast only in the cross, magnify Christ, and glorify our Creator. At the end of the road of risk, taken in reliance on the blood-bought promises of God, there will be fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.
31 · Transitions to communion by reading Revelation 21:22-23, showing that in the eternal city there is no physical temple because the Lord God and the Lamb are themselves the temple, fulfilling God's no to David's temple-building plan
Well, I want to end by introducing communion, and I want to do that by reading you 4 verses from the book of Revelation. Revelation 21:22-23 says, and I saw no temple in the city, for its temple is the Lord God the Almighty and the Lamb. And the city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the Lamb. So that's Revelation 21.
32 · Reads Revelation 22:16-17, where Jesus identifies himself as the root and descendant of David, demonstrating that God's no to David created eternal yeses that echo throughout eternity in Christ, the true temple
Now listen to Revelation 22. I, Jesus, who is the temple— I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and descendant of David, the bright morning star. The no that was issued in 2 Samuel 7 has echoing yeses for all of eternity. God says, no, you're not going to build me a temple. Yes, I'm going to make you the root of a temple, the one true temple, Jesus Christ, so that David's name continues to be mentioned explicitly with this no kind of attached, inferred for all of eternity. That's what God will do if he tells you no. That's what he's doing. He's creating a yes that will echo for eternity. Following that, he says, the Spirit and the bride say, come. And let the one who hears say, come. And let the one who is thirsty come. And let the one who desires to take the water of life without price come.
33 · Concludes the sermon by setting up communion, showing that Jesus himself experienced numerous nos in his life that were actually the visible tips of massive eternal yeses, and reading the institution of the Lord's Supper from 1 Corinthians 11
So today, as we set the table before us We see that everything is yes in Jesus. We see this example of true faithfulness in which Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but took the form of a servant, got off the throne, and went out into the work of God. And we see how all of the nos issued to him in his life. No, there is no other way for this cup to pass. No, you cannot take a wife. No, you will not have a home. All the other nos that passed through his life were simply the tips of resounding iceberg yeses, right? We just saw the little no, but there was a massive yes behind all of it. 1 Corinthians 11:23: For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus, when he was betrayed, took bread, and when he'd given thanks, he broke it and said, 'This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.' In the same way also, he took the cup after supper, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this as often as you drink it.' in remembrance of me. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
34 · Closes with pastoral prayer asking God to stir the congregation to adventurous, zealous service while also comforting them with the truth that their errors will be met with beautiful eternal yeses in Christ
Let me pray. Gracious God, I pray for, for your word to take heart, take root in our hearts. I pray, God, that you would stir us to be adventurous followers, that we would be eager, that we would be full of zeal, not slothful, That, Lord, we would lean in to the peace you've given us and see how we can sow the goodness you've given us, Lord, in this season of life into more and more grace, more and more goodness for the world, for others, for your glory. God, rouse us. Lord, you are a holy God, holy and high above all things. And God, we We think with this little ant mind through everything that we're considering, through the future. We've got this little tiny brain and we're trying to process what we should do. Of course we're gonna get things wrong. Of course we're gonna miss the mark. Lord, how gracious of you to respond to our errors, to our bad plans, with these beautiful nos that are really eternal yeses. Lord, comfort us with this truth this morning. And we thank You for Jesus, who is the yes, who is the yes to everything. As we partake in the Lord's table this morning, Lord, would You make us glad-hearted over Jesus. In His name we pray, amen.