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.

DANCING ON THE DANGEROUS WAVE

READ 2 Samuel 6; Luke 18; Rev 15:2-4

DANCING ON THE DANGEROUS WAVE

And I saw what appeared to be a sea of glass mixed with fire,and those who had conquered the beast and its image and the number of its name,standing beside the sea of glass with harps of God in their hands.And they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God,and the song of the Lamb:  “Great and amazing are your deeds, Lord God the Almighty! Just and true are your ways, King of the nations! Lord, who will not fear and glorify your name? For you alone are holy. All nations will come and worship before you, for your judgments have been revealed.” 

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

1. David had caught the wave of the kingdom of God.  It had been coming toward him for years.  But now the perfect wave arrived as he celebrated and rejoiced with the kingdom coming together around him in Jerusalem.  He brought the Ark of the Covenant into his city.  What was this ark?  What was in the ark? What did it symbolize in the history of Israel?

MODEL of the Ark of the Covenant

2. David danced before the ark.  Was it appropriate to dance before God?  How did Michal respond?

3.  David discovered that the ark could not easily be managed.  Poor Uzzah. What was his mistake?  What sort of warning did his death imply for David.  Eugene Peterson suggested that Uzzah’s death was a warning sign for David.  “Beware The God”.  Have you ever thought about the ways we trivialize the holy God, domesticate, and seek to manage God? In what ways does religion seek to control God?

4. Consider the Annie Dillard quote in the sermon.  She suggested that the ushers in  churches ought to hand out crash helmets, life vests, and signal flares, and then lash people in their pews.  We are playing with TNT and it could kill a Sunday morning.  What if the Holy One awakened and was offended?  What if the awakened One led us to a place we had not expected? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.  What does this mean?

5. Is Jesus safe?  He’s not safe, the little girl in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe learned, but he is good.  Read Luke 18 and ask yourself how the rich ruler was dancing on the dangerous wave of his religion. How can the Lord be both un-safe and good?

WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED?

READ 2 Samuel 5:1-5; Psalm 23; John 10:1-8

The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not want. 

He makes me lie down in green pastures; 

he leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul. 

He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.

Even though I walk through the 

valley of the shadow of death, 

I fear no evil; for you are with me; 

your rod and your staff—they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me 

in the presence of my enemies; 

you anoint my head with oil; 

my cup overflows. 

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me 

all the days of my life, 

and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD 

my whole life long.

SERMON TITLE:

What Have You Learned?

The sermon juxtaposed the way of Steve Jobs and the way of King David.  Steve Jobs’ in his 2005 Stanford University Commencement speech sought to answer the sermon question through his own life experience.

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

PART A

1.  Do you own an iPhone, iPod, or iPad?
What do you like the most about this technology?

2.  Jobs spoke about the importance of trust in connecting the dots of one’s own life journey. Have you ever looked back and wondered how the dots of your life journey connected? If they do, who is the connector? Your own gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever?

3.  Who do you trust to make sense of your life?

4.  Jobs’ spoke of love and loss. He counseled that we need to discover what it is that we love and hold on to it. "Never Settle!" Hold on to what you love and pursue it with all the passion you can muster, even in the face of loss or failure. If you could summarize the motivating love of your life, what would it be? Who would it be? Have you ever had to settle? How have you dealt with necessary compromises?

5.  How are the two great commandments of the Bible related to this: Love God with the totality of your being and your neighbor as yourself? How does love shape and form identity and destiny?

6.  But then Jobs’ argued that human life is temporary. We are all going to die and be cleared away over time. Therefore, if today is the only day we have, how does that direct our present?

PART B 

1.  King David would have given a different answer to the question: what have you learned?

2. Consider Psalm 23
If the Lord is the shepherd of his flock and we are members of his flock, are we ever alone in our journey?

3.  Do we love the Lord enough to trust that he is sovereign and knows what is best for us?

4.  Do I need to surrender to the Lord’s love revealed in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd? What might that look like in your life today?

5.  Has the presence of the Good Shepherd in the valley of the shadow of death ever been with you and brought comfort and peace?

6. If you had to choose between Steve Jobs’ world view and King David’s, which would it be?

How Long, O Lord?

READ 2 SAMUEL 1 (The death of Saul and Jonathan); PSALM 13

How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?

How long will you hide your face from me?

How long must I bear pain in my soul,

and have sorrow in my heart all day long?

How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?

Consider and answer me, O LORD my God!

Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,

and my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”;

my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.

But I trusted in your steadfast love; 

my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.

I will sing to the LORD,

because he has dealt bountifully with me.

How long, O Lord?
Wailing Wall, Jerusalem.  2008
Photo by Beth Pinney

WHAT DO YOU THINK?

1. Do you agree that our culture does not give permission for us to grieve our losses?  Where do you see that?

2. How do you respond to the idea that we turn instead to depression or addiction so we don't have to feel?

3. What do you think about the idea that we are "numbing ourselves" by not experiencing emotional lows, thus becoming unable to feel high or low relationships?  Have you seen that in someone or in yourself?

4. When have you prayed, "How long, O Lord?"  

5. What situations in the world or in your life could you pray that about now?

6. List some losses you have experienced in your life.  The list could be quite long.  How have you reacted to them?  Are there some you haven't yet given yourself time to grieve? One way you might do this is to write a letter to the person or "thing" that has been lost: to the one who has died, to the one who has gone away, to the job you lost, or?

The Risk of Friendship

Read  I Samuel 18-20 (The story of David and Jonathan)

Jonathan and David by Rembrandt

Reflect on 1 Samuel 18:1-9, John 15:12-17

When David had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was bound to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.  Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father’s house.  Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul.  Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that he was wearing, and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt.  David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him; as a result, Saul set him over the army. And all the people, even the servants of Saul, approved.  - 1 Samuel 18:1-9

Jesus said to his disciples, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.  No one has greater love than this, to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.  You are my friends if you do what I command you.  I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from my Father.  You did not choose me but I chose you. And I appointed you to go and bear fruit, fruit that will last, so that the Father will give you whatever you ask him in my name.  I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another."  - John 15:12-17 

Questions for Reflection from Dr. Steve Sweet

1.      Have you ever felt like someone or something was “out to get you”.  Was it real, or was it just your mind playing some tricks on you?

2.      When was the last time that you felt like a challenge in your life was “insurmountable, overwhelming or maybe even personal’?

3.      What tends to be your first reaction when challenging times come your way?

4.      Can you think of a time when God provided you with a friend at just the right time?  Who was that friend?  How could you tell that it was a “God send”?

5.      Steve said that “True friendship will always entail some risk”?  How have you seen that play out in your friendships over the years?

6.     Read John 15:12-14.  How has Jesus been the perfect friend?  What does his friendship mean for you? 

A PRAYER:  “The Servant Song”

Brother, sister let me serve you.  Let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I might have the grace to let you be my servant, too.

We are pilgrims on a journey.  We are friends here on the road.
We are here to help each other walk the mile and bear the load.

I will hold the Christ-light for you in the night time of your fear.
I will hold my hand out to you; speak the peace you long to hear.

I will weep when you are weeping. When you laugh, I’ll laugh with you.
I will share your joy and sorrow Till we’ve seen this journey through.

When we sing to God in heaven, we shall find such harmony
Born of all we’ve known together of Christ’s love and agony.

Brother, sister let me serve you. Let me be as Christ to you.
Pray that I might have the grace to let you be my servant, too.

Richard Gillard of New Zealand
1976-77