Episode Transcript
WEBVTT
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If you're able, please remain standing
and let's hear God's word from first chronicles
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chapter seventeen. This is now the
second half of this chapter and the first
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half of the chapter. Last week
we considered God's covenant with David, his
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promises, and now we hear David's
response, the prayer that he prays to
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God, response to the promises that
he has received. So this is first
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chronicles chapter seventeen versus sixteen to the
end. Let's give our attention to God's
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word. Then King David went in
and sat before Jehovah and Said Who am
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I, Oh Jehovah God, and
what is my house? That you have
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brought me thus far? And this
was a small thing in your eyes,
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Oh God. You have also spoken
of your servants House for a great while
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to come and have shown me Future
Generations, Oh Jehovah God. And what
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more can David say to you for
Honoring Your Servant, for you know your
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servant, for Your Servants Sake,
Oh Jehovah, and according to Your own
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heart, you have done all this
greatness, in making known all these great
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things. There is none like you, Oh Jehovah, and there is no
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god besides you, according to to
all that we have heard with our ears,
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and who is like your people,
Israel, the one nation on earth
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whom God went to redeemed to be
his people, making for yourself a name
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for great and awesome things, and
driving out nations before your people, whom
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you redeemed from Egypt, and you
made your people, Israel, to be
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your people forever. And you,
Oh Jehovah, became their God. And
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now, O Jehovah, let the
word that you have spoken concerning your servant
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and concerning his house be established forever. And do as you have spoken,
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and your name will be established and
magnified forever, saying Jehovah of Hosts,
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the God of Israel, is Israel's
God, and the House of your servant,
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David, will be established before you, for you, my God,
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have revealed to your servant that you
will build a house for him. Therefore,
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your servant has found courage to pray
before you. And now, Oh
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Jehovah, you are God and you
have promised this good thing to your servant.
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Now you have been pleased to bless
the House of your servant that it
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may continue forever before you, for
it is you, Oh Jehovah, who
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have blessed, and it is blessed
forever. May God bless his word to
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us. Please be see you kids, you know that when God speaks,
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you are to respond, because you
know, as the adults know, that
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when authorities speak to you, you're
supposed to respond. If mom or dad
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says, Hey, I want you
to go clean the dishes off the table
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and you just look at them and
you don't respond and you don't say anything.
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You don't say a yes or an
okay, or can I finish this
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up first, you know you're going
to be in trouble. You know you're
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going to get something like have you
heard me? Did you hear what I
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said? Well, this is true
for all of us. When an authority
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speaks to us, we are supposed
to respond and we're supposed to respond appropriately
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and fittingly. Sometimes that's a command. If someone who is in charge of
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you says you need to do this, you say yes, I will do
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this. That's an appropriate and fitting
response. But there's other kinds of things
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that people say, other kinds of
ways in which we respond. Sometimes somebody
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may give you a gift. Imagine
somebody gives you a really great gift,
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something you've been waiting for, something
that you've really been wanting. It's been
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on your list for some time and
you get it, they put it into
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your hands and you look at it
and you just turn around and walk away.
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That's not an appropriate response, is
it? Where's the thank you,
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where's the wow, I really appreciate
this, or how did you do this
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or how did you know? When
people speak to us, especially when authority
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speak to us, especially when somebody
WHO's an authority over US gives us a
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gift, we're called to respond and
to respond in an appropriate way. But
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when it comes to God, many, many people, including me, fail
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to respond or we fail to respond
in a proper way. Perhaps some of
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these things are familiar to you.
A God speaks, he offers something to
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you, he promises something to you, and you act as if it's kind
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of an automatic thing, as if
you deserve it. It was. I
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was reminded recently. Elder for a
reminded me recently how often we we pray
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for things and then we don't return
thanks for them after we've received them.
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We Act as if it's automatical.
Of course I deserve this, of course
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I get to have this thing.
We have this kind of presumptive thing,
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presumptiveness about us, like we deserve
this, so God must give this to
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me. Of course he offered it
to me. I'm that kind of guy.
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Well, no, that's not right. This is a poor response to
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assume and or act as if the
things that God gives us are automatic or
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that we deserve them. That's a
that's a poor response. Others don't respond
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to what's offered, but respond to
something else. God gives them one thing
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and they respond as if he's given
them another, failing to actually pay attention
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to what's been given. Others fail
to respond properly by fearing receiving. God
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says here's a gift, it's for
you, and they say no, couldn't
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be for me, I don't believe
you get it away from me. I
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don't deserve that. I'm a sinner, I'm unholy, I'm not good enough
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to get a gift from God.
Well, that may be true, but
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if God desires to give a gift, surely he's figured out a way to
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make you worthy or to make his
purposes worthy. So acting as if it's
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automatic, not responding properly, responding
in fear there's probably a bunch of other
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ways. We can list bad ways
to respond to God giving a gift to
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us. But here in first chronicle
seventeen, in David's prayer, we have
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this very wonderful example, a great
example of how we ought to respond when
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God gives us something. We have
this holy example of what it means,
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in particular, to pray. This
is how we respond to God, by
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praying to him. We're told here
and for or we're given this example in
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first chronicles seventeen how to respond to
the Lord, a holy way to respond.
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But more than that, God also
teaches us in this passage the why
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we ought to respond or the what
we are responding to. So I want
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to think about David's prayer this evening
with you and will do so under three
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points. First, a covenant for
David, Second, a prayer for God
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and third, an example for us. So three things, a covenant for
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David, a prayer for God and
then an example for us. Those are
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our headings. So First, a
covenant for David. If you want to
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understand the prayer of David, if
you want to understand why it's a good
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example of a of a prayer,
you have to understand the thing that he
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is receiving, and this we considered
last time, but you'll notice it's also
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embedded here in the prayer itself.
It's a good reminder that David's prayer is
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actually responding to a particular promise.
So, for example, in Verse Twenty
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Five, and there are other places, but in verse twenty five we read
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for you, my God, have
revealed to your servant that you will build
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a house for him. Do you
remember what David's talking about here? Do
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you remember what happened in the first
part of first chronicles? Seventeen? David
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is in his palace, his beautiful
palace made of Cedar Imported Wood, majestic,
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standing there and he looks out on
the Ark of God, which he's
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gone through a lot of trouble and
and and and a lot of pomp and
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circumstance and other things. That's not
the exact what I want to use,
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but there's been a much ado about
bringing the arc to Jerusalem and he looks
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out on it and he says,
is it right for God to dwell in
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a tent? And he goes to
Nathan, remember, he goes to Nathan
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and says, I'm going to build
a house for God. I'm going to
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make a temple so that I'm not
in this great palace and God's in a
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tent, but so that God can
be in a palace as well, a
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temple. Nathan says, Go David, do what's in your heart. But
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then God comes to Nathan and says, don't tell him that. Chell him
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the opposite. Tell Him, don't
build a house for me, because I'm
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going to build a house for you. That's the good that God gives,
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that's the present that God gives to
David. He says, you want to
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build me a house? No,
because I'm going to build you a house.
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And when he says a house like
that, he doesn't just mean this
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a palace that David already has built, although God has certainly given him that,
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but he means this great family and, in particular, a son that
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will come and establish this family of
David and the throne of David forever.
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You remember how many times that word
forever is used in God's promise to David,
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over and over and over again.
If memory serves it's something like eight
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times. He says forever, I
will establish this forever, forever, forever.
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God doesn't just want another king to
come after David. He wants to
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establish a dynasty through this servant of
his forever, a throne to rule over
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his people and over the nation's for
all eternity. This is what God promises
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to David. David says I should
build God a temple and God responds by
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saying I'm going to build you a
house, a kingdom of throne for all
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eternity. Well, that's the promise, that's the Covenant for David. So
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what's David's prayer for God or to
God was? We Look at David's prayer,
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you can see different ingredients. You
could think of it as ingredients,
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like ingredients for a cake. A
good cake will be made up of,
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you know, sugar and flour and
eggs and probably some other things. I
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don't really cook, but this cake
takes ingredients right, and a good prayer
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has certain ingredients to it as well, and we see several of those here.
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The first thing you see is humility. That's the first ingredient of this
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prayer. Notice how David Starts.
He's been given this amazing promise. God
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has made this covenant with him.
And what does he say? Well,
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of course I'm a king after all. No, he says, who am
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I? Who Am I, Oh
Jehovah, God, and what is my
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house that you have brought me thus
far? You See, even before considering
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the future promises that God has just
said he will give it to David,
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David says, even what you've already
given me I don't deserve. You remember
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what God said and the first person, first part of first chronicles, seventeen,
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he says, you were nothing,
you are a shepherd and I've made
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you a king. You remember,
too, how that shepherd boy was chosen.
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Samuel, when he comes to annoint
him, goes and goes and he
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he looks at all the brothers and
and he thinks, will surely it must
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be one of these. And David
sort of left left, left alone,
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until finally says to Jesse, is
there anyone else? He says, well,
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there's my son and my son David, and that was the one,
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this shepherd boy, this boy God
would turn into a king. But this
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great thing that's happened to David,
David says, and this was a small
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thing in your eyes. Oh God. This is a good reminder, by
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the way, of events and things
that happen in our lives. These things
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happened to us which are cataclysmic,
life changing. Maybe it's a great thing,
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maybe it's a great turmoil, whatever
it is, but to God,
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David says it was a small thing
in his eyes to do something so great.
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You, here is humility. Who
Am I, he even says in
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verse eighteen. He you finds himself
a somewhat speechless. And what more can
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David say to you for Honoring Your
Servant? Have you ever felt like that
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before God, to simply not have
the words to express your thankfulness, to
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be somewhat speechless at the goodness of
God's grace? That's humility, and you
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notice that the humility is not a
focus on himself. Sure, David says
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who am I, and he reflects
on his weakness, but it's all in
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the context of God's greatness, of
what God has done for his servant,
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the great things God has done,
how small it was in his eyes.
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When David speaks in this way,
he's humble, yes, but he's humble
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and it's true humility because he's focused
on God. It's not a false humility
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where he's focused on himself, and
in that he's not obsequious. That's a
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word that means like in genuine groveling, this kind of flattery or way of
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puffing up someone who's an authority over
you, over you so that you can
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be thought of as being better.
That's not what's going on here. David
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is truly humble, but this humility
has another ingredient mixed in with it.
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It's a humility that's mixed with courage. Remember that example I gave before,
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where the person is given a gift
and refuses to Receive Says No, I
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don't want it because they're afraid of
give it getting the gift. That's not
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what happens with this piety of David, this godliness. He is humility,
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this who am I is mixed with
courage. Listen to verse twenty five again.
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For you, my God, have
revealed to your servant and that you
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will build a house for him.
Therefore, your servant has found courage to
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pray before you. Have you ever
thought about that? What gives you,
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in all of your sins and all
of your failures and all of your hostility
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toward God, what gives you the
right to go before the Almighty God and
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say anything, to ask him for
forgiveness, to praise his name. I'm
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what would make you think that you
would be worthy to go before God?
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Well, David has courage to do
that. He has courage because of the
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promise. We go to God and
we ask him for forgiveness, because he
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says, if you come to me
for forgiveness, I will forgive you.
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You See, when we do that, we're trusting in God's promise more than
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we are in our sinfulness. And
that's what David does here. He says
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you have revealed this thing, so
I have found courage to pray before you
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and to ask that your will will
be done. If God hadn't said it,
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we wouldn't have a right to respond
in the way that we do.
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But because he says it, we
can go and courage, with boldness and
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confidence, before the throne of God
and say I'm going to ask you,
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creator of the heavens and the earth, to do something because you have said
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you will do it. That kind
of prayer, that humility and courage prayer,
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is a prayer of faith. So
we have humility in David's prayer.
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We have humility mixed with courage.
We also notice that this humility is is
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not a flattery. It's the praise
that he gives God is not undeserved or
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excessive, but it's truly genuine.
We might say that the flip side of
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this is praise. Our prayers should
be filled with the praise of God.
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Notice some of the things he praises. In Verse Nineteen, he praises God's
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will. He says, for Your
Servants Sake, Oh Jehovah, and according
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to Your own heart, you have
done all this greatness, in making known
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all these great things. You See, God wasn't pressured into doing something.
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David didn't manipulate him into building in
a house. God did it because he
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wanted to do it according to his
own heart. This is David. One
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of the David's ways of praising God. He says, he praises him for
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the for the greatness and the goodness
and the authority of his will. That's
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verse nineteen. He also praises God
for his uniqueness. That's in the next
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verse, Verse Twenty. How about
this? There is none like you.
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There is no God besides you that's
unique. There is one God, David
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says, when he goes before God
to pray to him, to thank him
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for this gift he doesn't go before
a Pantheon, he doesn't make his choice
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among various options. He goes before
the one and only God and he praises
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God for being that one God,
that he is completely and entirely unique,
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that there is no one besides him, no one comparable to him. So
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he praises the will of God in
Verse Nineteen, he praises the uniqueness of
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God in verse twenty, and then
he praises the uniqueness of God's promises to
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Israel. In other words, he's
praising the Work of God in Verses Twenty
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One and twenty two. Who is
like your people, Israel, the one
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nation on earth whom God went to
redeem, his people, making for yourself
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a name for great and awesome things
in driving out the nations before your people,
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whom you redeemed from Egypt? David
Praises God's people because they are God's
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people. It's a way of praising
God. It's like if you went to
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a museum them and you were looked
at a piece of pottery and you said,
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wow, this is an amazing piece
of pottery. You're not just praising
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the pottery right, you're praising the
maker of the pottery. You'll look at
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the plaque next to the next to
the work, and you'll say, look,
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who's done this? Maybe you hear
a piece of music on the radio
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and you say who composed this?
Who wrote this? You desire to give
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praise to the maker, and that's
what David Does by looking at this work
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that God has done in Israel.
So he praises the will of God,
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he praises the uniqueness of God and
of his works and finally, he praises
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the goodness and greatness of God,
these works that he says are not just
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big, but they are good,
they are great. In Verse Nineteen he
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says they are great, these things
are great, and then in verse twenty
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six he calls them a good things. So these are ways in which David
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Praises God. This is a way
to respond to a gift that you've been
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given, to come humbly before the
one who's giving you a gift you don't
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deserve, to offer to them a
respectful attitude, a heartfelt attitude of thankfulness,
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but also praise for who they are, the goodness and kindness that they
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have done. That's a true prayer, a prayer that belongs only to God.
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So we have humility, humility that's
mixed with courage. We have praise
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and finally, we have, in
David's holy prayer, requests, things that
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he asks God. This is another
important ingredient of prayer. He says of
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various things, in verse twenty three, for example. In Verse Twenty Three
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He says, and now, Oh
Jehovah, let the word that you have
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spoken concerning your servant and concerning his
house be established forever and do as you
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have spoken. What is David asking
here? He's asking that. That a
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petition that Jesus mentions in the Lord's
prayer. He asks that God's will would
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be done. He says that he
that he asks that God that the word
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that he has spoken would be done, that God would do it. This
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is a way of really trusting in
God's promises and not doubting. If God
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promises to give you something, even
if you haven't yet received it, the
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right response is to say thank you, not well, we'll see how you
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do right. This is God we're
talking about. We're not talking about a
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fallible human being. We're not talking
about someone who breaks their promises over and
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over and over to you. We're
talking about God, who steadfast love is
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forever, whose mercy endures from generation
to generation. We're talking about God,
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who is the Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the end, whose word
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never fails. When God says,
David, I am going to establish your
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throne forever, David Responds rightly when
he says do this, I trust you
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to do this. So this is
what he asks God. He this is
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the request that God would do his
will. He also asks two other things.
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Briefly, in Verse Twenty Four,
he asks that God would be glorified
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in this work. He says it, inputs it in this way, and
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your name will be established and magnified
forever, saying Jehovah of Hosts, the
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God of Israel, is Israel's God, and the House of your servant,
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David, will be established for before
you see what David's praying. He's saying
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that God is you give me this
gift. I pray that you will do
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your word, the thing that you
have promised, and not only will you
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do it, but because this gift
is to be given and because this kingdom
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is to be established forever, that
you would therefore be magnified and praised forever.
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Does that ever figure into your prayers, that God would be praised and
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magnified, that he would be glorified
in the works that you have asked him
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to do, works that are according
to his word and to his promise.
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I hope so. These are good
ways to pray. And then, finally,
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his final request is that God not
only would be magnified or glorified in
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his work in building David this house, but also that his people and David
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would be glorified or blessed in him. David doesn't see himself simply as being
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separate from this work of God.
He sees it himself wrapped up and involved
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in it. So in verses,
in the final verses, he says this.
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Now you have been pleased to bless
this house of your servant, that
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it may continue forever before you,
for it is you, O Jehovah,
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who have blessed and it is blessed
forever. He has promised this good thing
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to David, and David Asks that
he would indeed find good in it,
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that he would find blessing in it. So what are the ingredients of David's
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prayer? What are the ingredients of
a of a prayer that rightly responds to
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a gift of God, humility,
courage, praise and requests. So this
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is David's prayer for God, to
God, and we've heard of God's covenant
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to David. But finally we realize
and see that this prayer is not just
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David's prayer, but it is an
example for us, and this is somewhat
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obvious, isn't it? These are
obviously good things, good and holy responses
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that we are to emulate, ways
in which we are also to pray.
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When we ask how we should pray, what should be the ingredients in our
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prayers, these are the things on
that God would have us do. David's
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example was given a partly for this, but we have to remember that God's
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prayer are God's promise to David is
not just his promise to David, it's
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also a promise for us, and
this is important because it will affect the
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way that you pray. Let me
explain. If a friend came to you
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and said, Hey, I god
gave I was a God gave me a
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spouse. I really wanted a spouse. God has given me a spouse and
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I've prayed to him and I've asked
him and I've praised him and I've thanked
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him and I've asked that he would
make this a good marriage and these kinds
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of things. You might look at
that and let's say your friend is a
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good, holy person, a Christian
who is acting piously before God, and
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you hear their prayer and you say
that's good, I was a good prayer.
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I should pray more like that now. That would be a good thing,
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and in some ways that's what we
have here with David. God promises
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something to David, David Responds,
we get to hear that response and we
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should say that was a good response. I should pray like that. But
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it's more than that. God's promise
is to David. Are Not just this
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singular event in David's life which David
responded to and we learned this moral lesson
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from. God's promise to David is
a promise to us, because this House
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that he establishes is a house that
is established in Jesus, and Jesus is
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the one who is common and who
said, if you believe in me,
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you will belong to me, you
will be my brothers and sisters, you
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will belong to my house. The
inheritance that I earn I give to you
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so that means when God is making
this promise to David, we are called
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to respond not just in the way
that David did, but to the things
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that David did. Does that make
sense? David's covenant is not just David's
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covenant. It's Pete and Francis has
and Vanni's and mine. It's our covenant.
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It's the covenant that God has promised
to us. So we respond not
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just with the ingredients of prayer,
but we respond to the same gift.
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There is, of course, something
of a difference, and it's in this
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the David is praying about something that
is largely in the future. We are
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praying about something that we are very
much in the middle of. This would
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buy be like going back and reading
your your grandma's prayer journals or something,
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and you read and they're aligne her
praying for you and that one day such
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and such a thing would happen,
and you say, wow, that thing
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is happening right now. God is
answering Grandma's prayer from fifty years ago.
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Here I am in the middle of
it. It's like that, only the
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generations are not fifty years, it's
hundreds of years. God made this promise
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to David and we are in the
middle of the fulfillment of it. God
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has sent his son, Jesus,
the son of David, to come and
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build this house, to build that
temple, and he's doing that living stone,
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as Peter Calls us after living stone, lock by block, brick by
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brick, God is building this temple
out of us, a place for his
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spirit to dwell and to dwell forever. So when we pray David's prayer in
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response to the promises God has given
us, we're not just responding in the
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way that he did, but responding
to the what that was given. We're
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not mimic merely mimicking a style,
but we're grasping hold of the same substance,
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which is who is Jesus Christ.
This is our hope and in many
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ways we get to pray a prayer
and make praises and ask things that are
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even much farther beyond what David could
even imagine. We can understand David's prayer
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in a way that he didn't even
fully understand, because we've seen how God
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has fulfilled these things. We're in
the middle of these, were in the
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middle of these. The fulfillment of
these promises. So you might put it
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this way. If David could have
confidence and courage to go before the Lord,
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will you be fearful? Will you'll
be ashamed? May It never be.
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We go before the Lord knowing that
God Godd Him, God has sent
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Jesus to die on a cross to
forgive us our sins. And that has
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happened. The Cross has happened,
the resurrection has happened, the ascension has
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happened, the pouring out of the
Holy Spirit has happened, the building of
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the up of the church, not
just in Israel but all over the world,
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is happening. We are happening.
And so how will we respond?
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Well, we stand before the Lord
and we say who am I? And
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we stand before the Lord and we
say I don't know what to say.
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And we stand before the Lord and
we go before him with courage and boldness.
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We praise him for the works that
he has done, the things that
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he is doing, and we say, may your will be done here on
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earth even as it is in heaven. We ask him to bring about the
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fulfillment of these promises. We look
forward to the resurrection of the dead,
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we look forward to Jesus is coming
and his promises being fulfilled. We look
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forward to all the enemies of God
coming under subjection to him forever and ever
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and ever. That's how we pray
and that's how we live. Let's go
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to the Lord in prayer.
