Sunday Morning Bible Study

April 7, 2002

Introduction

I came across these really great resolutions for good parenting:

Illustration

Mother’s Resolutions!

1. When I forget to go to the grocery store, I will not boil the macaroni necklaces my children made for me in preschool.

2. I will resist the urge to explain to strangers why my son is wearing winter boots, a bathing suit bottom, and an inside-out and backward pajama top. I will be grateful to the child that dresses himself.

3. I will always protect the rights of my children, especially their right to remain silent.

4. I will be more flexible about children's nutritional requirements by counting the green crayon as a vegetable.

5. I will be a good, fair and loving parent to our children. I will provide them with enriching experiences and opportunities. With my husband's help, I will give them a solid foundation on which to build a useful life. After all, these people will eventually choose our nursing homes.

6. I will learn to accept the outbursts and tantrums as a part of life. After all, I promised to love my husband for better or worse.

As I find myself trying to grow to be a better parent, I am finding that some of the same skills involved in helping my children grow up are the same skills that God, as my Father, is using to help me grow up.

One of those “skills” is learning to say “no”.

A good parent is one that says “no” when they need to, and sticks to it, even when the child responds with a tantrum.  A child who never learns to accept the word “no” is a spoiled child.

What do you do …

When God says “no”

2Samuel 7

:1-3 David wants to build God a house

:1 And it came to pass, when the king sat in his house, and the LORD had given him rest round about from all his enemies;

David had a custom palace built as a gift by Hiram, the king of Tyre (2Sam 5:11).

:2 That the king said unto Nathan the prophet, See now, I dwell in an house of cedar, but the ark of God dwelleth within curtains.

Nathan – Nathan – “giver”. He is one of the prophets that ministered during David’s reign as king. He’s someone that God uses in order to speak to David.

The Ark was currently in a tent that David had set up for it in Jerusalem (2Sam. 6:17).

Lesson

“No” doesn’t mean it’s evil.

God is going to say “no” to David’s request to build a temple for God.  But David’s heart is in a good place.

He is comparing his own house to God’s house, and he feels that he needs to build God a better place.

There would be a day when the Lord would rebuke the people for caring more for their own houses than for His house.

(Hag 1:3-8 NLT) So the LORD sent this message through the prophet Haggai: {4} "Why are you living in luxurious houses while my house lies in ruins? {5} This is what the LORD Almighty says: Consider how things are going for you! {6} You have planted much but harvested little. You have food to eat, but not enough to fill you up. You have wine to drink, but not enough to satisfy your thirst. You have clothing to wear, but not enough to keep you warm. Your wages disappear as though you were putting them in pockets filled with holes! {7} "This is what the LORD Almighty says: Consider how things are going for you! {8} Now go up into the hills, bring down timber, and rebuild my house. Then I will take pleasure in it and be honored, says the LORD.

What David wants isn’t bad by itself.  Sometimes God saying “no” isn’t because the thing is bad.  It’s just not for us.

:3 Go, do all that is in thine heart; for the LORD is with thee.

Lesson

Follow your heart

There is a principle here in living our lives that we can follow as a general rule.

If God is “with you”, if He is the one you are following, then just “do what is in your heart”.

Nathan is giving David advice based on what is normally a good principle.

This was the advice that Samuel had given to Saul as he was teaching him how to act as a king:

(1 Sam 10:7 KJV) And let it be, when these signs are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion serve thee; for God is with thee.

This was after the Holy Spirit was to have come upon Saul, and Saul was to just “do as occasion serve thee”.

David wrote,

(Psa 37:4 KJV) Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

If God is your greatest delight, your greatest joy, then you will find that the desires you have in your heart have come from Him, because He has placed them there.

Solomon wrote,

(Prov 3:5-6 KJV) Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. {6} In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.

If your heart is trusting in the Lord and acknowledging Him, then you will see Him direct your life.

Jesus said,

(John 15:7 KJV) If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

If you have a living, trusting relationship with Jesus, and His words are living in your heart, then you can ask for whatever you want because you’ll be asking for the kinds of things that Jesus wants as well.

But it is only a general rule, and there will be times that God will direct you otherwise.

:4-11 God responds to David

:4 And it came to pass that night, that the word of the LORD came unto Nathan, saying,

God didn’t seem to like Nathan’s advice.  God doesn’t always go along with our advice either.

:5 Shalt thou build me an house for me to dwell in?

The writer of Chronicles records God’s word to Nathan in a slightly different, more direct fashion:

(1 Chr 17:4 KJV) Go and tell David my servant, Thus saith the LORD, Thou shalt not build me an house to dwell in:

Initially, it seems that David isn’t told exactly why he isn’t allowed to build the temple.  He would find out at some later time one of the reasons why.

David told his son Solomon about it:

(1 Chr 22:6-10 KJV) Then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build an house for the LORD God of Israel. {7} And David said to Solomon, My son, as for me, it was in my mind to build an house unto the name of the LORD my God: {8} But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight. {9} Behold, a son shall be born to thee, who shall be a man of rest; and I will give him rest from all his enemies round about: for his name shall be Solomon, and I will give peace and quietness unto Israel in his days. {10} He shall build an house for my name; and he shall be my son, and I will be his father; and I will establish the throne of his kingdom over Israel for ever.

David was not to be the temple’s builder because he was a man who was responsible for much bloodshed. God didn’t want His temple to be tied to David’s reputation as a bloody man.

David’s life of warfare wasn’t a sin.  It was his “ministry”.

Lesson

Sometimes it’s just not our place

David had been obedient to the Lord in fighting the battles of the Lord.  You could say that he had a “ministry” of “killing Philistines”.

Because of God’s calling on David’s life, it simply wasn’t David’s place to build the temple.  This was something that God would reserve for another, for Solomon.

It’s like this in the church.  We all have different “gifts” and different “ministries”:

(1 Cor 12:15-19 KJV)  If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? {16} And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? {17} If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? {18} But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. {19} And if they were all one member, where were the body?

Sometimes God says “no” simply because He wants someone else to do it.

Lesson

Don’t let the “no” stop the work

Even though God didn’t want David to actually build the temple, God didn’t prevent David from getting everything ready for Solomon.

David would eventually play a huge role in the temple. In a sense he would provide his son Solomon with a “do-it-yourself”, ready-to-assemble temple kit.

He was the one who drew the plans for the temple.

(1 Chr 28:11-12 KJV) Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of the houses thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlours thereof, and of the place of the mercy seat, {12} And the pattern of all that he had by the spirit, of the courts of the house of the LORD, and of all the chambers round about, of the treasuries of the house of God, and of the treasuries of the dedicated things:

(1 Chr 28:19 KJV) All this, said David, the LORD made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern.

God gave David the design for the temple. He just didn’t build it.

David also donated most of the materials that would be used for the temple.

(1 Chr 28:14 KJV) He gave of gold by weight for things of gold, for all instruments of all manner of service; silver also for all instruments of silver by weight, for all instruments of every kind of service:

The writer of Chronicles goes on to describe how David provided the materials for everything in the temple. He just didn’t build it.

It may be that at one time you had a great dream to do something for God, but for some reason it seems that things came to a halt. Perhaps God said that you were not to do this any more.

That’s no reason why you can’t be a part of helping others with the same ministry.

Maybe you can’t go to the mission field, but you can help others go. Maybe you won’t be a pastor, but you can help others to do so.

:6-7 …Why build ye not me an house of cedar?

It’s not that David’s idea of building a temple is wrong, it’s just that God had never complained about the tent thing, and God had never commanded anyone to build a temple.

:10-11 I will appoint a place for my people Israel

God’s view is that the land belongs to Israel.

There would be several times when the nation would be scattered because of their sin.  But God always views the land of Israel as belonging to the Jews.

I came across a quote the other day from Yassir Arafat, where he was claiming that his people lived in the land before even Abraham.  His point was to try and show how the Jews didn’t belong in the land.  What I do not understand is just who does he claim to represent?  He apparently claims to be a “Palestinian” born in Jerusalem. Yet apparently his father was a merchant, and he was actually born in Cairo.  Before the Jews were given the land of Palestine by the British in 1948, the Jews who lived in the land were called “Palestinians”.  But when Israel was born, they became “Israelis”, and then the Arabs adopted the name “Palestinian”.

I just don’t get it.

But God gets it, and He has promised the land forever to the Jews.

:11 Also the LORD telleth thee that he will make thee an house.

Here David has been telling God that he intends to build God a house, but God instead turns things around and tells David that He intends to build David a house. God is promising that all future kings would come from David’s descendants.

Eventually, even the Messiah, God’s ultimate King, would come from the line of David.

Jesus would be the very Savior of the world.  He, being God, would one day take on human flesh, being born in the lineage of King David, and would humble Himself by dying on a cross to pay for our sins.

The very best thing in the entire world would come through David.  But it wouldn’t come from David building a temple.

All the good would come from what God would do for David, not what David would do for God.

Lesson

It’s all for you

We often get all caught up in what we’re going to do for God, but God is more concerned about what He can do in you.

John F. Kennedy said in his inaugural address, “Ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do for your country.”

We might say, “Don’t ask what you can do for God, but what can God do for you?”

God's way is to build us before we build

(Eph 4:11-13 NLT)  He is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. {12} Their responsibility is to equip God's people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ, {13} until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God's Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ.

First comes the equipping, then the ministry.

When Jesus sent out those 11 disciples to change the world, it was only after they had spent three years living with Jesus, and even then only until the Holy Spirit had fallen upon them.

We would like to rush out and conquer the world, but God is more interested in first building us up.

Edward McKendree Bounds (1835-1913) wrote several books on prayer. In his book, Power through Prayer (ch. 1), he wrote,

This trend of the day has a tendency to lose sight of the man or sink the man in the plan or organization. God’s plan is to make much of the man, far more of him than of anything else. Men are God’s method. The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. (pg. 11)

In talking about pastors, Bounds writes,

The man, the whole man, lies behind the sermon. Preaching is not the performance of an hour. It is the outflow of a life. It takes twenty years to make a sermon, because it takes twenty years to make the man. The true sermon is a thing of life. The sermon grows because the man grows. The sermon is forceful because the man is forceful. The sermon is holy because the man is holy. The sermon is full of the divine unction because the man is full of the divine unction. (pg. 12)

Sometimes we get so caught up in doing the work of God that we neglect the fact that God’s greatest work isn’t what we do for Him, but what He does for us.

We can get saddened by what we call “failure” in serving God, but it’s only a failure if we aren’t allowing God to continue to teach us and shape us.

Sometimes the best thing that can happen to us is to experience a time when we go through pain and disappointment, when God says, “no”.

(Psa 119:67 KJV) Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word.

(Psa 119:71 KJV) It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes.

(Psa 119:75 KJV) I know, O LORD, that thy judgments are right, and that thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me.

God can teach us when He says “no”.

(Heb 12:11 KJV) Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.

If I will learn the lessons of the “no” times in my life (am “exercised”), God will produce “peace” and “righteousness” in my life.

God isn’t finished with you.

(Phil 1:6 NLT)  And I am sure that God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on that day when Christ Jesus comes back again.