Good morning. Today's reading is from verses
in 2nd Samuel 12 15 to 25. Then Nathan went home, the Lord,
struck, the baby that uriah's wife had born to David, and he
became ill David pleaded with God for the boy.
He fasted went home and spent the night lying on the ground,
the Elders of his house, Stood Beside him to get him up from
the ground, but he was unwilling and would not eat anything with
them. On the seventh day, the baby
died, but David servants were afraid to tell him the baby was
dead. They said look, while the baby
was alive. We spoke to him and he wouldn't
listen to us. So, how can we tell him that the
baby is dead. He may do something desperate.
When David saw his servants were whispering to each other.
He guessed that the baby was dead.
So he asked his servants, is the baby dead.
He is dead. They replied then, David got up
from the ground. He washed anointed himself
changed. His clothes went to the Lord's
House and worshipped. Then he went home and requested
something to eat. So they served him food and he
ate his servants asked him. What did you just do?
While the baby was alive. You fasted and wept.
But when he died, you got up and ate food.
He answered while the baby was alive.
I fasted and wept, because I thought, who knows the Lord may
be gracious to me and let him live, but now that he is dead.
Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again?
I'll go to him, but he will never return to me, then, David
comforted his wife Bathsheba. He Went and slept with her, she
gave birth to a son and named him Solomon.
The Lord, loved him, and he sent a message through Nathan.
The prophet who named him Jedidiah, because of the Lord.
This is the word of the Lord. To remain standing looking to
pray. We believe that as scripture
says that Jesus walks in the midst of his church, so that God
himself is present with us and already actively working in your
lives. Let's take a moment just to be
silent. What comes up for you, what
prayer requests come up for you. Right now is your silent and
still in the presence of God? Just be honest with God about
that. Our Father, we thank you that
there is nothing hidden in your sight.
Our desires, our habits, our instincts, our dreams, our
hopes, all of them are before you.
And right now, we ask, as we are here in your presence.
We've been in your presence all week and we are uniquely aware
of that presence. We ask that you take our minds
and you'd reform them udrih Story.
The ways that we tend to grasp for identity in success and
image and followers and blah blah blah.
We asked Jesus that you would feel Our soul this morning that
when we walk out of here, we'd be filled with joy and peace and
hope and life. And that that would be what
emanates from our own lives to the world around us.
We ask this in the name of the father and son and holy spirit.
Amen. Please be seated.
Well, it's good to see you guys. We are wrapping up a summer time
series, which means summertime is also wrapping up, but we are
very thankful for some cool air in this room.
And are we not? Okay, do not make me work this
hard today, please. My name is Al if you haven't
already met. I have the privilege of speaking
most Sundays and this past week, our staff watched a video of
Anderson Cooper. Interviewing Stephen Colbert.
Maybe some of you saw it this to begin their conversation with
Cooper relating to Colbert. They both lost their father at
the age of 10 in tragic accidents and Cooper said it
changed. Changed the trajectory of my
life. I'm a different person than I
feel like I was meant to be. He says, and then he's visibly
holding himself together. He's trying not to break down
these, trying to hold on to his position as a journalist and he
turns the Colbert and he said you once said, what punishment
of gods are not gifts, quoting Tolkien Lord of the Rings, which
Colbert admits to being the biggest fanatical nerd of Lord
of the Rings there ever were. And he says, do you really
believe that what punishment of the gods are not gifts.
Do you really believe that in Colbert classically pauses for a
moment? A long silence.
And he smiles, almost smirks. And he says, yes, it's a gift to
exist and with existence come suffering.
There's no escaping that. Colbert says, I don't want it to
have happened. I want it, the death of my dad
and my brother at an early age, not to have happened.
But if you're grateful for your life, and I'm not always
grateful, then you have to be grateful for all of it.
And you know what? I appreciate that.
He didn't look through Rose Colored lens.
Like hey, look it, we suffer. Look on the bright side.
God works all things together for good.
You didn't do that. I appreciated that.
He said, I don't want it to have happened.
I want it to not have happened. But I'm also grateful for the
gifts that have come from it. There are probably events in
your life that you are saying to yourself.
I don't want it to have happened.
I wanted it not to have happened.
And you know what? Quite honestly there are
probably things that God would look at in your life and say, I
didn't want that to happen. I wanted it not to have
happened. In fact, when God created the
world, he created everything and he said, looked at it and he
said, it's very good. It's very good.
Good, that's how he created this world.
And certainly we see that in Jesus.
For example, Jesus groans over the pain of others.
He weeps when he sees a family mourning, the loss of a loved
one at the gravesite and he warns his disciple in this world
because it's fallen and it has the broken effects of sin gone.
Wrong in this world. You'll face trouble.
And because we live, in a world where we can expect trouble, the
question that you and I often have to answer is, how can we
find the gifts in the midst of the trouble?
How can we find the gifts in grief?
So, in order to address that question, I think we need to
look at the story in two phases. The first is, I want to look at
the work of grief in David's life.
And then I want to look at the gifts of grief and then we will
talk about how do we access those gifts.
So first, The work of grief, most of you are familiar with
Aron Ralston, the guy, you know, the guy who was trapped in the
canyons. He was hiking climbing.
He's stuck underneath the Boulder and an order for him to
escape in order for him to live. He has to cut off one of his
limbs. He has to cut his arm off with a
pocket knife. David has been trapped beneath
the boulder of his own decisions.
From a young age, his life moved from Victory to victory until
now. He's been climbing the ladder of
success. But how many of you know that at
some point when you climb that ladder you look and you're at
the top and you realize oh my gosh, this ladder is against the
wrong wall as a warrior. He achieved military success as
a worship leader. He had sheep spiritual success
as a king. He achieved political success,
but success has a way of blinding me.
To the shadows in my own soul. I can I can hide in the cracks.
The character can hide beneath the covering of success.
So when David sees a beautiful naked, young woman, bathing
outside of his Palace window. He's overcome with desire.
He sends for her. He's the king.
So he seduces her. And then he sleeps with her and
she conceives a child the culture calls.
It just a moment of weakness in the chapter.
God, calls it wickedness. The Scandal David knows will be
enough to wreck him enough to kill him.
Maybe so he does what we'd all be tempted to do.
He covers his tracks. He brings the husband of the
best Sheba back from war Uriah. He tries to make it look like
your Raya is the one who impregnated his own wife.
But Uriah is not willing. He's too loyal to the team and
he's too loyal to go home and enjoy a night with his wife.
When his friends are out on the battlefield.
David realizes this plan is not working.
So when he can't make it appear like it's uriah's baby.
He decides to have Uriah killed for a year, David lives with
this secret. The boulder of his guilt is
crushing his bones. He thinks that he's getting away
with it until one day. His Pastor, a man by the name of
Nathan comes to visit him. And he confronts him.
And in that moment, David learns that what he thought was done in
secret is naked and open before the Living God.
God speaks to his people. Prophetically speaks to this
man. Nathan.
Nathan tells him some random story about a rich man who
steals a lamb from a poor man only lamb.
He has then, he kills it to slaughter it and give it to his
dinner guests. And David says, that man should
be killed. Ethan says, David son.
You're that, man. And so in verse 13 of chapter
12, David responded to Nathan and says, I have sinned against
the Lord, then Nathan replied to David.
The Lord has taken away your sin.
That's the beauty of the Gospel in is that through the blood of
Christ, the lamb slaughtered for us.
Our guilt is washed away. Here's the rub sin has
consequences. Has in the consequences are
significant. Nathan replied to David, the
Lord has taken away your sin. You will not die.
However, because you treated the Lord with such contempt.
In this matter, the son born to you.
He's gonna die and then Nathan went home.
Sometimes when you're trapped beneath something crushing you,
you need Extreme Measures to be set free, but David's about to
have more than just his arm cut off.
He's about to have his soul ripped out.
Verse 15, the Lord struck the baby that uriah's wife had born
to David and he became ill. These are hard words.
I don't want them to have happened.
I want them to not have happened.
I don't want to believe that God's goes to Extreme Measures
to get my attention. But as we saw last week
consequences of sin are still significant.
And David story follows the progression of sin that James
describes in his letter. Look at James 1, verse 14.
Each person is tempted when they're dragged Away by their
own evil or over desire. And enticed, then after desire
has conceived, it gives birth to sin and sin when it is
full-grown gives birth to death. We like to think that we can
talk our way out of most anything or at least I do.
Which is why, as I mentioned last week, when I was telling a
friend at one point in my life early, in my following Jesus
phase. Hey, I know God's word says
this, but here's where I want to go.
Here's what I want to do, and my friend who loves me, who is a
Nathan in my life? Looks at me and says out.
I've thought about that all day long.
When you told me that and I want to tell you, there's nothing
there for you, but death. Galatians 6 says, don't be
misled. You cannot mock the justice of
God. See we all want Justice.
When it benefits us or when it's in, you know, it's cool.
It's in Vogue. It's the Hipster thing to do.
But he says, you will always reap what you plant.
Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will
harvest Decay and death. From that sinful nature, but
those who live to please the spirit.
They're going to harvest everlasting life from the
spirit. It's the law of sowing and
reaping. It's just the way it is.
David needs the work of grief. He needs also to do the work of
grief and he needs grief to do. Its work in him.
It's two sides of the same coin. What do I mean if all you know
is spiritual achievement without Affliction you run the risk of
being very religious. But not living a life of love.
If all, you know is spiritual achievement without some type of
Affliction, you run the risk of being a very condemning person,
very critical person, very self-righteous smarter people
than I have broken down the life of faith and to six phases.
The end goal of these phases is always a life of love, but it is
necessary to be interrupted to get their say just one two and
three. David.
Already experienced. He's already experienced a
life-changing awareness of God at a young boy, 16 or so.
He's out in the fields with the shepherd.
His discipleship, period was real.
He could tell you all of the right answers on the Bible test
and then he serves, right, he serves in the Kingdom.
He even becomes king. He's serving God's people and
profound ways, but at some point, if David is going to
really experience love and extend life, giving love.
Of, he's got to experience what the mystics call the sacred
wound. The Dark Night of the Soul.
A crisis of faith. And that wound forces us into a
journey inward. Where were forced to face the
choice of doing inventory in our own soul, about the addictions
that we don't want to admit to. I'm talking about even things
like critical attitude. Gossip slander.
We have to face the idols that we hold onto.
And I'm forced to ask myself who God really is, and what God,
really wants of me. And what I really want of God.
Do I really want to love God with all my heart or do I want
God to just bless my life and hold on to it.
I'm forced to face my own inner fears.
And where I'm really putting my trust.
Well, I'm finally being transformed by love so that I
can really love others. If all, you know, is spiritual
achievement without spiritual Affliction, then you'll likely
have a very rigid religion, not gospel spirituality.
If David doesn't allow grief to do its work, he still going to
take advantage of people. He's still going to abuse power.
He still going to see himself as better than others.
He'll forever. Have the shadow side of the
king, the patriarch, the evil Tyrant who uses power for his
own pleasure, but for David to passively allow grief to do its
work. He has to actively do his grief.
Work verses 16 through 18, gives us a clue as to what that
involves three things in order to do the work of grief or for
grief to do its work and you it requires a few different things.
First, the work of grief involves tears.
It involves emotion and Falls crying.
It boss. What David is doing is pleading
and fasting and spending the night on the floor.
His child is about to die course.
He's on the floor. Of course.
He doesn't want to eat food. He's dependent on the Living
God, in a way that he hasn't been for several years.
Good grief. Work requires us to open our
emotions and shed our tears. But, secondly, good of grief
work, not only requires tears. It requires truth.
When David Son actually dies, the elders, come to David to ask
him, why he's fast. And when the baby was sick, but
now that the baby's dead. Why won't why are you eating
now? Why are now you taking a shower?
Why are you now getting ready to go out and do your work?
David's response to the words of these men with the doctrine of
the Resurrection. He needs tears and he needs
truth. He's holding onto the truth of
scripture, the truth of a coming New Creation where he will see
the baby again. Most of us lean toward one of
the other. Conservatives usually are good
at the truth. Part of grief work, liberals
tend to lean towards the tears, part of grief work in the Gospel
of Jesus. And in David, we see the need
for both, Grief work is both passive and active.
Meaning, grief work. Does it work in us?
If we're willing to do the greet, the work of grief, David
needs this grief work to work in him if he's ever going to be a
king. Who serves others.
Thirdly, lastly we don't just need tears and Truth in grief
work. It involves others.
Look at verse 17, the Elders of his house.
They stood beside him. To get him up from the ground,
but he was unwilling and he wouldn't eat anything with him.
Listen. I am learning at the age of 42
about to be 43 next month on September 21st, and I would love
an Apple Watch for my birthday. I am learning.
Preach it. That I need a community of
people around me to help me work through the works.
The areas of grief. Because listen, if I don't learn
to transform my pain, I will transmit my pain to others.
It'll come out in the form of bitterness and I know because
I've done it. We need to do the necessary work
of grieving. So grief can do it's necessary
work in us. If we are to journey through the
wall, beyond the initial stages, and into a life of life-giving
love. That's the first thing, the work
of grief. But secondly, I want to look in
the story at the gifts of grief. Colbert says, there are gifts in
grief. What are they?
Well, by the end of the chapter, David has a renewed sense of
purpose. He has a renewed identity.
We begin to see the transformation and his character
and his confidence. And I see at least a few gifts
in this grief, that happens to David first.
I see a redirected faith in verse 15 through 17.
There are many of you in here. Who have had your faith
redirected? What I mean, is Faith is what we
all possess? All of us are trusting
something. All of us are holding onto
something to make life, a life of meaning significance value.
And at some point in your life, your faith was taken from that.
To that it was redirected from a lesser thing to.
God, whether it was that you hit rock, bottom, or you ascended to
the very top of your class or your profession.
No matter what it was, doesn't matter.
If you reach the top of the ladder, or your fell to the
depth of Despair. One of the gifts of grief is a
redirected Faith. David is pleading fasting
weeping. Why?
Has his faith. His trust is being redirected.
Faith is how David ended up in the situation.
I'ma say it again. Faith is how David ended up in
this situation in the first place.
Why? Because beneath his adulterous
affair with Bathsheba. Do you know what he was really
doing? He was misplacing his faith.
Faith is simply trust. I'm trusting in someone or
something, maybe myself over God and God's word to bring me an
identity security or to bring me an ultimate sense of value and
worth and satisfaction. That's the essence of sin.
The essence of sin is we often say is not that I'm doing wrong
things. It's I'm trusting the wrong
things. So when David sees Bathsheba,
and then he kills Uriah and then he lies to cover it up, beneath
it. All.
He's really trusting something to be his, ultimate salvation to
save him to free him. To be as covering sin is
idolatry. It's misplaced, faith and
idolatry. I don't know about you, but for
me, it's always appealing. But we'll always let me down.
That's why Dallas Willard, says, anxiety worry, fear.
They occur only as a hangover of bad habits establish.
When we were trusting things like human approval, wealth, and
security things that were certain to let us down.
Someone might say, well, I'm not a religious person.
I'm not sure. I even resonate with all your
faith talk. One Theologian said if, at the
very least faith is what you trust in than everyone has faith
in something. If you are a child of God,
through faith in Jesus, there's a promise that you have when you
begin to trust in other things, lesser things, there's a
promise. That's yours that you might not
want to actually. Hebrews chapter 12 says and have
you forgotten the encouraging words?
God spoke to you as his children.
He said my child don't make light of the Lord's discipline
and don't give up. When he corrects you for the
Lord disciplines those, he loves and he punishes each one.
He accepts as his child. David's faith is being
redirected and B being redirected by a God who is so
good. And so committed to his
flourishing that he'll Faithfully do, what needs to be
done in our lives so that we are free from the boulder of
idolatry. You get me.
Just yesterday. I had a chastening moment.
There are these moments as a parent.
Will I have to enter in as a as a moment of chastening and I
don't always do it. Well.
But I feel like yesterday. I'm pretty much crushed it.
actually, I had my wife there just to make sure that we did it
the right way and we looked at our daughter one of our girls
and she's not in this room and we said If we want to give you
everything that you ever wanted. Everything that you want.
That's not going to wreck you and make you feel entitled.
And right now, you're wanting something more than wanting to
listen to what we're saying to you.
With tears running down her face.
We wiped her tears. And when he said, but the thing
is, when you assess obsess over, what you don't have to the point
that you don't listen to us. And onerous as your parents,
we're going to do all that we can to help you listen because
we're interested in your flourishing ultimately as an
adult. I can personally count two times
in the past year where I was sure that either the fine I had
to pay or the apology that I had to give was the direct result of
God's chastening work in my life.
One of them was so clear that I was walking and I had this thing
I had to pay or apology. I had to give us a result.
And I was so angry that I said, God.
Are you bleeping chasing me right now?
And I'm not saying that so that you can try that just saying
that. So you can see that.
I'm in the same boat. The next morning I read through
scripture. Am I normal scripture?
Reading? I read these verses.
This is no lie. Lamentations 3:25 through 26.
It was just my normal Bible Bible reading.
The Lord is good to those who wait for him to the person who
seeks him. It is good to wait, quietly for
deliverance from the Lord. Let him sit alone and be silent
for God has disciplined him. I was like, oh, you are chasing
me. I get it and I'm sorry.
Help me to learn this lesson. Help me to Love Like You Love.
Well, someone might say how good can this Lord be when he strikes
a baby. Let me first say that the Hebrew
genre of writing is sometimes written in the form of exalted
prose narrative. So sometimes there is an
exaggeration to prove a point, but let's say in this case.
It seems like the death of the baby isn't just a loud.
It's intentional, please please please hear me.
I am not saying that God removes everything to get good to get
our attention. Nor am I saying that everything
good that's been removed. You have, please listen.
Nor am I saying that everything good that's been removed from
your life has been removed by God because of a work of
chastening. I'm not saying that and many
times, we will not know until the other side of this life.
What was truly at work there? What I am saying is that God is
a good father, far better than me, who does whatever it takes
for his kids to be free when they're trapped, beneath the
boulder of idolatry. He'll even cut off an appendage
so that their faith can be regrown.
And redirected. It's what old translators of the
Bible in Romans 11 called the goodness and severity of God.
We were in deep Waters now guys, We're In It Together right here,
okay. There's a section in CS Lewis is
novel called The Chronicles of Narnia where one of the main
characters, a young girl named Lucy and counters to talking
beavers as you do from them. She learns that the king of
Narnia who was to put all things right is on the loose.
He's a lion by the name of Aslan.
And she asked mr. And mrs.
Beaver is, is he a man? A salut.
See as land a man misses. Mr. Beaver sternly says,
certainly not. I tell you he's the king of the
wood and the son of the great emperor, Beyond the Sea.
Don't you know, who is the king of beasts?
Aslan is a lion, the lion, the great lion.
Is, is he quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous
about meeting a lion. Safe said, mr.
Beaver. Who said anything about safe.
Course, he isn't safe, but he's good.
He's the king, I tell you. God is so good that he's
redirecting. David's faith in the goodness
and the severity of God. That's the first gift of grief.
The second gift of griefed is a resurrected.
Hope. What do I mean by a resurrected?
Hope? Verse 16?
Through 18. David is desperately pleading
with God, on their behalf of the baby.
He knows that the child is suffering, as a result of his
foolish choices that he's misplaced, his faith in 47 days.
David doesn't eat, doesn't Get up off the floor.
He does the work of grief. He's in such a desperate
condition that when the child does die.
Verse 20 says, then David got up from the ground.
Washed anointed himself changed. His clothes, went to the Lord's
House and worship and then he went home and requested
something to eat. So they served him food and ate
his servants asked him. Why did you just do that?
While the baby was alive? You fasted and wept, but when he
died, you got up and ate food. David responds in an interesting
way. He says, in verse 22, while the
baby was alive. I fasted and wept because I
thought, who knows? Maybe the Lord will be gracious
to me and let him live. But now that he's dead.
Why should I fast? Can I bring him back again?
I'll go to him, but he'll never return to me.
David has a resurrected hope or put more accurately, David has a
hope that comes from the resurrection.
It doesn't take away the pain of his loss.
In fact, probably as long as he's alive, and I know this
having walked with friends who've lost their children.
He will always have the wound. And therefore, he'll always need
to hold on to Hope first. Peter. 1:3 says blessed, be the
God and father of our Lord, Jesus Christ.
According to his great Mercy has caused us to be born again to a
Living Hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
From the dead. About a year ago.
My good friend named Bruce was updating me on the status of his
six-year-old. Nephew named Samuel.
Samuel had been battling a cancerous tumor for about six
months. But as the summer Drew near and
his seventh birthday passed, it became clear that Samuel to
Wood. Us.
Just before Samuel died. I received this message from
Bruce. It's been a while since I've
updated you on my nephew. At the moment.
Sammy is at home with my brother and his wife by his side
constantly. They stopped giving him steroids
as it was not having an impact. Things have deteriorated rapidly
over the last few weeks. I had a chance to briefly Skype
with him yesterday and see Sammy.
He opened his eyes a few times while I read to him from Psalm
23. And the last paragraph of Cs
Lewis's book, the last battle and then I prayed for him.
Darryl told me that he had started reading the final
chapter of the last battle. You read it too Sammy recently,
but he had not managed to finished.
It. It was lovely that I got to read
it to him. I'm grateful for such a small
Mercy. In the email, my friend included
those words from the final chapter of Louis's last battle.
It's a chapter called farewell to the shadowlands.
It's a fictional fantasy about the new heavens and the new
Earth. And when I read it, I wept I
wept because of the pain of a family about to lose their child
and I wept because I long for the home that Lewis described in
the words from Saint, John in Revelation and the hope that's
coming and the healing that's coming and the heavens that are
coming to this earth, mean that The Best Is Yet To Come.
And if we believe that the best is yet to come that we can have
hope in the midst of our heartache.
Here's the ending to the chapter that my friend Bruce read.
In the chapter Aslan, the lion gives the children's shocking
news. He says, there was a real
accident. There was a railway accident
Aslan said, softly your mother and your father and all of you
as you used to call it in the shadowlands are dead.
The term is over. The holidays have begun.
The dream is ended. This is morning.
And then he says, and as he spoke, he no longer look to them
like a lion, but the things that began to happen, after that were
so great and beautiful that I cannot write them.
And for us, this is the end of all the stories and we can most
truly say that they all lived happily ever after.
But for them, it was only the beginning of the real story, all
their life in this world. All of their adventures and
Narnia had only been the cover. And the title page.
Now, at last, they were beginning chapter, one of the
great story which no one on earth has ever read which goes
on forever in which every chapter is better than the one
before. Well, someone might say, if all
you do is hope and Resurrection for life.
After this one. How will you be any Earthly
good? You see in this chapter after
David goes, through his work of grief and grief Works in him.
He resumes his role. As a man who's bringing
restoration to the world and he does it so imperfectly that the
rest of his life is going to be marked by pain and death.
It's a tragic story here on but David still is the man after
God's Own Heart. And he still is working
co-creating with God, which is why NT Wright says, people who
believe in the resurrection in God, making a whole new world in
which everything will be set right at last, our unstoppably
motivated to work for that new world in the present.
Dang. There's only one.
Final gift left for David to experience.
It's a gift that will change everything.
You remember he opened the gift of a redirected faith and a
resurrected hope but now he opens the gift of real love.
Verse 24, and 25 verse 24, then David comforted his wife
Bathsheba for the first time in this section.
Bathsheba is called David's wife.
Until now, she's been your riyas wife, David saw her, David saw
Uriah David saw joab, the commander all as objects until
now. As instruments for his success,
but it took the wall, it took the sacred wound.
It took the Dark Night of the Soul.
It took the crisis of faith. It took the ability to look in
the mirror and see his own Frailty in order for him to,
really begin to love like he was made to love, like God loves.
And now he sees the heartache that he's caused verse 24.
Says David comforted his wife. He's forgiven.
The consequences are significant.
But God's forgiving. Love is so extravagant and David
is learning to comfort others. Psalm 103 says the Lord is
compassionate and gracious. Slow to anger and Rich and
faithful love. He will not always accuse us or
be angry forever. He is not dealt with us as our
sins deserve or repaid us. According to our Answers David
will forever have the wound, but he's journeying into that six
stage of Faith, the journey into love and I have to tell you from
experience. I have found that every time God
chastens me. There's a work of redemption
that almost always follows. Doesn't remove the wound.
But it allows me to see real love.
And this case, God gives another son to David and Bathsheba verse
24, then he went and he slept with her.
She gave birth to a son and named him Solomon, and the Lord
loved him. And he sent a message through
Nathan. The prophet who named him
Jedidiah, because of the Lord. How is it that David is learning
to give real love. It's because David received real
love. The lord.
Gave David a son named Solomon or Shalom, a meaning.
Peace, the Lord love this child and gave him.
The throne name Jedediah the Beloved of the Lord and through
it. All God, love David and he would
continue to love David. Although his life would never be
the same. the consequences of sin are significant, but God's
love is extravagant how so You enter this world and you and I
have lived lives trapped beneath the boulder of sin beneath the
boulder of idolatry. We tried to cut ourselves away,
several different ways through success and fame and money and
power status, more insta, followers.
Whatever. The only way for us to be free
was for another beloved Son to be cut off.
So Jesus, the prince of peace entered, the world spreading
Shalom. Our punishment was placed on
him. He bore our shame, he was struck
down for our spiritual adultery, or for loving other things, more
than God, who was blessed for Evermore?
Jesus was smitten for our idolatry.
Which is why Colbert ends his interview this way.
What do you get from Los? You get awareness of other
people's loss, which allows you to connect with other person
which allows you to love more deeply and understand what it's
like to be a human being. If it's true that all humans
suffer. At a young age.
I suffered something so that by the time I was in a serious
relationship in life with my friends, or my wife or my
children, I understood that everybody is suffering and
however, imperfectly acknowledge their suffering to connect with
them and to love them in a deep way.
That not only accepts that all of us suffer, but makes you
grateful for the fact that you have suffered.
So you can know about other people.
It's about the fullness of your her man.
Do what's the point of being here?
If you can't be the most human, you can be.
I want to be the most human eye can be and that involves
acknowledging and ultimately being grateful for the things.
I wish didn't happen because they gave me a gift and this is
how he ends and it drops the mic with these words.
In my tradition, that's the great gift of the sacrifice of
Christ. The sacrifice of Christ.
Is that God does it to you really not alone?
God does suffering too. That's the gift that David is
learning. God does it to, he gives his son
who has struck down so that we can be free from the boulder of
what's holding us down. Let's pray.
We'll ask the Holy Spirit to begin to speak to us, to reveal
to us, how we are to respond to him doing our own work of grief,
Our Father. We thank you for your words to
us. Thank you for your mercy.
That is new here this morning. Dear God.