The Pain of Transition

1st Sunday of Advent

READ:  1 Kings 1-2 (The story of King David's death), Psalm 22

Psalm 22:1-2

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from helping me,

from the words of my groaning?

O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer; 

and by night, but find no rest.

Psa. 22:14-15

I am poured out like water, 

and all my bones are out of joint; 

my heart is like wax; 

it is melted within my breast; 

my mouth is dried up like a potsherd, 

and my tongue sticks to my jaws; 

you lay me in the dust of death.

SERMON:  THE PAIN OF TRANSITION

Questions from Pastor Sizer

This week we completed our sermon series on the life of King David–seeing him in his greatness and in his weakness.  The transition between him and Solomon (his son) was painful.

1. If you could go back to a certain age, or era, what would you choose and why?
2. Does change come easily for you?
3. How high is your threshold for change?  Has it been higher and lower at different times or periods in your life?  Why?
4. Is there something about David's life that encourages you? Disillusions you?
5. Peterson writes, "Death brings out the worst in many people: we'll be treated as a problem to fixed, or as an opportunity to be seized, or as a responsibility to be carried out and put right. Like David. The David story doesn't trade in illusion and doesn't sentimentalize" (224). How does our culture deal with death and dying?  How important is it for the Christian to be a witness to the dignity of death?
6. During Advent we wait for the coming King, the Christ, Jesus. Has this time spent in David's story helped prepare you to live as a Christ follower with more anticipation, joy and integrity?

I Called, God Heard

READ: 2 Samuel 22 and Psalm 18

I love you, O LORD, my strength. The LORD is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer, my God, my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. I call upon the LORD, who is worthy to be praised, so I shall be saved from my enemies. - Psalm 18:1-2, NRSV

SERMON:  I CALLED; GOD HEARD

Questions from Pastor Tankersley

1. The conditions within which the kingdom of God grows are not always supportive.  There are enemies both within and without that are resistant  to the good news. C. S. Lewis in MERE CHRISTIANITY, wrote that we live in "enemy occupied territory."  How would you describe the condition of your own heart? Is your life receptive soil for the seed of God’s Word?

2. David was surrounded by his enemies and knew he needed help.  Therefore, he called out to God for help.  Do you remember a time in which you needed help and cried out?  Did the heavens hear?  How did God answer?  Are you still waiting for the answer?

3. Could you write a paragraph personal story of salvation, of how God saved you, rescued you and brought you into a new place?  If you have never done that, give it a try, begin a journal and keep track of your prayers and dialogue with God.

4. Read Laura Hillenbrand’s book, Unbroken.  It's Louis Zamperini’s salvation story.  How did God answer his prayer, “If you will save me, I will serve you forever.”

5. King David could remember many times in which he was delivered from his enemies.  Read Psalm 18, how would you summarize David’s story?

6. Is there a Grand Story, a Meta-Narrative of Salvation, to which the Bible bears witness?  Let me suggest three movements in this Grand Story:  Paradise Created; Paradise Lost; Paradise Restored.  Interpret this movement!

For Prayer 

Make a gratitude list of all God's blessings of your life. 

Take some time to give thanks for God’s blessings in your life.

DAVID IN RECOVERY

READ: 2 Samuel 13-18 (The story of David and his son, Absalom); Psalm 3

Psalm 3   A Psalm of David, when he fled from his son Absalom. 

O LORD, how many are my foes!

Many are rising against me; many are saying to me, 

“There is no help for you in God.”   Selah

But you, O LORD, are a shield around me, 

my glory, and the one who lifts up my head. 

I cry aloud to the LORD, 

and he answers me from his holy hill.  Selah

I lie down and sleep; 

I wake again, for the LORD sustains me.

I am not afraid of ten thousands of people

who have set themselves against me all around.

Rise up, O LORD!

Deliver me, O my God!

For you strike all my enemies on the cheek;

you break the teeth of the wicked.

Deliverance belongs to the LORD; 

may your blessing be on your people!  Selah

SERMON:  DAVID IN RECOVERY

by March Chagall.  Driven from Jerusalem by rebelled again Absalom
David barefoot climbed to the hill of olives, 1956

1) The story tells of King David being driven from Jerusalem by his son Absalom in a Civil War.   After reading the Samuel chapters, what interests you?  Who was responsible for this family conflict that irrupted into Israel’s life?

2) Eugene Peterson suggested that David’s fleeing into the wilderness was the beginning of his spiritual recovery.  Have you ever been in a spiritual wilderness?  What did you learn during that time?  Was God present with you?

3) David learned humility; he learned to pray again; he learned to love out of his suffering.  Could it be that God allows us to go into the wilderness for the sake of transforming us to become more like Christ?  Did Jesus ever have a wilderness experience?  See Matthew 4

4) Could it be that the church of the 21^st century is in its own wilderness by the will of God?  What do we need to learn?

5) Read the NY Times link entitled, The Devil and Joe Paterno. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/13/opinion/sunday/douthat-the-devil-and-joe-paterno.html Is it relevant to the church?  Could it be that the whole world is in some spiritual wilderness by the will of God and for our own good?  What does the world need to learn?

6) If you have not read C.S. Lewis’s, Mere Christianity, do so.  Read it again, especially Book 4, Chapters 7 to 11.  How would he answer  the question, “Why the Church?”  Do we have any idea what God wants to make of us?

Recovering an Awareness of God

READ:  2 Samuel 11-12; Psalm 51

Psa. 51:0   To the leader. 

A Psalm of David, when the prophet Nathan came to him, 

after he had gone in to Bathsheba. 

Have mercy on me, O God, 

according to your steadfast love; 

according to your abundant mercy 

blot out my transgressions. 

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, 

and cleanse me from my sin.

  

For I know my transgressions, 

and my sin is ever before me. 

Against you, you alone, have I sinned, 

and done what is evil in your sight, 

so that you are justified in your sentence 

and blameless when you pass judgment. 

Indeed, I was born guilty, 

a sinner when my mother conceived me.

  

You desire truth in the inward being; 

therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart. 

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; 

wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. 

Let me hear joy and gladness; 

let the bones that you have crushed rejoice. 

Hide your face from my sins, 

and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, 

and put a new and right spirit within me. 

Do not cast me away from your presence, 

and do not take your holy spirit from me. 

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, 

and sustain in me a willing spirit.

SERMON:  RECOVERING AN AWARENESS OF GOD

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

1. Can you think of a time when someone was telling you a story, and in the telling they were able to change your point of view?

2. As Nathan told the parable, how do you think David felt when he found out the story was actually about him?

3. How is David’s story, your story?

4. Why do you think David decided not to go out to battle “in the Spring”?

5. Is there some temptation that you are seriously struggling with in your life right now?  

    Do you feel that you can take it to God in prayer?  

    What kept David from taking it to God in prayer, earlier on?

6. Do you have any “Nathan” in your life who you can go to, to seek counsel from, pray with?

7. In the sermon, Steve said, “David deserved death, but he received mercy from God, who for some incredible reason, keeps calling us back into relationship with himself.  This God loved David, he loves you and he loves me”.  How does this inform your perception of God?

 INVITATION & PRAYER

Was there an invitation from God to you that you discerned as you listened to the sermon, or took time to be still in God's presence and mediate on these verses?  Take some time to pray that God may enable you to respond to this invitation.

WHO WILL BUILD THE HOUSE?

Then King David went in and sat before the Lord, and said, "Who am I, O Lord God?"

READ 2 Samuel 7; Matthew 16; Ephesians 2

2Sam. 7:4   But that same night the word of the LORD came to Nathan:  5 Go and tell my servant David: Thus says the LORD: Are you the one to build me a house to live in?  6 I have not lived in a house since the day I brought up the people of Israel from Egypt to this day, but I have been moving about in a tent and a tabernacle.  7 Wherever I have moved about among all the people of Israel, did I ever speak a word with any of the tribal leaders of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel, saying, “Why have you not built me a house of cedar?”  8 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 prince over my people Israel;  9 and I have been with you 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.  10 And I will appoint a place for my people Israel and will plant them, so that they may live in their own place, and be disturbed no more; and evildoers shall afflict them no more, as formerly,  11 from the time that 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.  

2Sam. 7:18   Then King David went in and sat before the LORD, and said, “Who am I, O Lord GOD, and what is my house, that you have brought me thus far?  19 And yet this was a small thing in your eyes, O Lord GOD; you have spoken also of your servant’s house for a great while to come. May this be instruction for the people, O Lord GOD!  

A.  WHAT DO YOU THINK?

We are all builders.  We build houses, careers, families, communities, nations, and churches.  

1. What are you building now?  

(In what are you investing your time, your money, and your faith?) 

2. How is the building going? 

3. What are some of the challenges we face as we seek to build God a house in Laguna Beach? 

4. What is the connection between our church sanctuary and the temple of God?

5. Have we lost the entrepreneurial spirit?

B.  DIGGING INTO THE SCRIPTURE

1.  King David was a builder.  He wanted to build God a house in which to dwell.  What was God's response to David's vision?

2.  In what sense is God a builder?  What did God promise to build for David?  

3.  How did David respond to God's promise?  When David sat in the presence of the Lord what was he doing?  Can you outline the central elements of David's prayer?

4.  Jesus promised to build his church upon Simon Peter's confession of faith.  After reading Matthew 16, what was Peter's confession?  What authority was given to Peter?

5.  The Apostle Paul spoke of himself as a skilled master builder.  What was he building?  Who was the foundation of the building?  See 1 Corinthians 3.  On the basis of Ephesians 2 who is being built into the church as a spiritual temple?

6.  In Revelation 21, John wrote of his vision of the New Heavens and Earth, with the New Jerusalem coming down from heaven.  On the basis of John's Revelation, will there be a Temple in the New Jerusalem?  If so, who will build a dwelling place for God?  What will life be like in the New Creation? 

INVITATION & PRAYER

Was there an invitation from God to you that you discerned as you listened to the sermon, or took time to be still in God's presence and mediate on these verses?  Take some time to pray that God may enable you to respond to this invitation.