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Hendersonville Seventh-day Adventist Church, NC

A Man After Gods Own Heart: King David

David Wright

01 The Nobody Nobody Noticed

02 God’s Heart, God’s Man, God’s Ways

03 Giant Lessons Worth Remembering

04 Aftermath of a Giant Killing

05 Every Crutch Removed

06 How to Lie to Your Pastor

07 I Hate To Wait

08 Is This God’s Will or Mine?

09 Living Above Retaliation

10 Lying Appearances

11 When Seeing is not Believing

12 When Your Enemy Falls

14 Pulling Down Strongholds

13 Power Grab And Civil War

16 When God Says No

17 When Grace Calls You By Name

18 A Perilous Thing to Lose Dependence On God

19 Restore To Me The Joy

15 But God Knows My Heart

Our scripture reading today is going to be found in Titus chapter 3 verses 3 through 7 and it says, For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating 1 another.

But when the kindness and the love of God, our Savior, toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by his grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Scott Shipley, I don't know if you recognize the name, he was a kayaker that leading up to the 1996 Olympics had won every race that had taken place there in the Ocoee River Gorge.

And so he was favored to win the gold medal.

I don't know where you were in the 96 Olympics.

I know we went down to watch a few of the games.

We went up there to the Ocoee River Gorge to watch some of the preliminary stuff.

But with every Olympic Games, there is lots of ceremony and fanfare, pomp and circumstance as all the countries are represented.

And for many of these countries, especially the poor countries, just to be there is a huge deal.

And they're just so proud to be able to represent their country.

So after the opening ceremonies, this group went approximately 2 hours away to this Ocoee River Gorge.

This is a place that we drive by regularly anytime we go visit Collegedale and go that direction.

Unfortunately, this building is burned just recently that you see there in the top right.

Something happened, but the road was widened.

I remember when they did that, they created some parking.

It's a pretty tight valley, and they actually constructed this whole part of the river for these games, creating various rapids and so on, so that they would be in a tight space.

And essentially the way that this runs is, they put cables across the river, and they hang down these poles, and you have to make it through the course.

Sometimes there's double kayak but this was for the single kayak and you have to go down through all of these without touching.

If you touch any of the poles there's certain penalties and so on.

Some you go through straight, others you have to turn around in an eddy or something and go backwards through them.

And so as you make your way through all of these different things, then they clock the time and that's how they determine.

Well, there were various people there, but I wanna speak about these 2.

He was representing the Bosnian and Herzegovina group, and he went through all kinds of things just to get there.

On 1 occasion, just to train, he had to sign a liability release to get a helicopter to ride over what was then a war zone.

Just 2 months later, that same helicopter carrying somebody else was shot down and people died in that accident.

Also, 1 of the rivers that he liked to train on was right in between the line and so it was a very challenging thing for him to train but even just to get there and when he arrived, his kayak was in very sorry shape.

There were sections where there was duct tape on the sides and other things and as he was training and going down the river, he bumped a rock, which is not uncommon when you're kayaking, but it was too much for his kayak, put a hole in his kayak, the kayak sank, and now here is this guy who's traveled all this way and doesn't even have a boat to compete in.

That's when Scott Shipley stepped in, And he says, I just knew I had to do something.

I couldn't let this guy come all this way, go through everything that he'd gone through and not even be able to compete.

And so he went to his vehicle and on his vehicle he had strapped an extra kayak, but it wasn't just any kayak.

This was the 1 that was specifically designed for Scott.

In fact, he won in this very boat in the World Cup in the trials just that spring, and so this had real special significance to him, but he says, I knew what I had to do, and he unlashed the boat, and he took it over to Samir.

Obvious language barrier, not able to say or express the things that you want to say, but he gives him this boat.

And to those looking on, and I wish I had a picture of this moment, but they said it was an incredible moment, an emotional moment, as Samir took this kayak, I think it's the 1 you see him racing in, this red 1 now, and used that to compete.

You know, there's something beautiful about stories where somebody helps the underdog, The individual that has been marginalized or overlooked or perhaps is even undeserving at times.

But when somebody takes notice, takes interest, says I'm going to do something, I'm gonna say yes.

It can be powerful, a powerful witness, and really can be largely what life is all about.

Today we're gonna continue this series, David, a man after God's own heart.

We're in part 17 when grace calls you by name.

We are in 2 Samuel and we're gonna begin and pick up our story in chapter 9, 2 Samuel chapter 9.

And as you're turning there, I'll give you a little bit of context to today's piece.

You will recall that the last time we met, David spent some time thinking about his past and all the blessings that had been his.

And I would imagine, it's not here in the text, but I would imagine as he thought about his past, as he thought about how he came from the pasture to the palace, I imagined he also thought about that close friendship closer than a brother, his friend Jonathan.

And I imagine perhaps in those moments of recounting, he remembered a promise made years ago.

Again, that's not recorded, but that's what I imagine and think as we travel into chapter 9, beginning verse 1, and we read now, David said, is there still anyone who is left of the household of Saul that I may show him kindness for Jonathan's sake." That word kindness can also be translated grace.

Is there anybody that I may show grace to?

Grace, this unconditional acceptance in spite of the other person.

Grace, a demonstration of love that is undeserved, unearned, unrepeatable even.

So David wants to show kindness, to show grace, and he remembers 2 promises that he made, and I'll just put them on the screen for you.

The first 1, 1 Samuel 20, verse 13 and 14.

It says, the Lord be with you as he has been with my father.

And show me the kindness, show me the grace of the Lord while I still live that I may not die.

Because he sees the handwrite on the wall, David's going to be the next king, And the thing that you do, the way this works, is that when a new king comes in, the old king and his family and his children, anyone that could be heirs, the only safe thing to do is to wipe them out.

Because somebody along their line may raise up a rebellion, if you will, and they'll overtake the new king.

And so the thing to do is to take everyone out of the picture.

And so here he's asking of David that I not die.

This is when David could have killed Saul, I think the second time.

And he says, and now I know indeed that you shall surely be king, this is Saul speaking, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand.

Therefore, swear now to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants after me and that you will not destroy my name from my father's house.

And so he makes the promise both to Jonathan and to King Saul, and I think this comes back to his memory, and so when we get to verse 1, he says, who may I show kindness for Jonathan's sake?

He doesn't ask, is there anyone qualified?

And there was a servant, verse 2, of the house of Saul whose name was Ziba.

So when they had called him to David, the king said to him, Are you Ziba?

Then the king said, Is there not still someone of the house of Saul to whom I may show the kindness of God?

And Ziba said to the king, there is still a son of Jonathan who is lame in his feet.

Notice as of yet, the verse does not call him by name.

You may not need to be concerned with his name.

In fact, King David, you really need to think twice.

Because, well, he doesn't really fit into this environment of yours.

But this guy, he has a serious disability.

But notice what King David says in verse 4.

Maybe someone could go take pictures and bring them back and report.

Series

A Man After Gods Own Heart: King David

17 When Grace Calls You By Name

Transcript

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