04122015DoSomethingSpecialForGod2Sa7DonRuhl

Do Something Special for God and God Shall Do Something Special for You 

Second Samuel 7

Don Ruhl • Savage Street, Grants Pass, Oregon • April 12, In the year of our Lord, 2015

Scripture Reader and Reading: Tim Braden – Psalm 50.23

Song Leader and Song Suggestions: Phil Joseph – Anything that honors God

Prelude: 

  1. When you think of God, 
    1. do you think of what you can do for Him, or
    2. do you think of what He can do for you?
  2. David shows the beauty of a heart modeled after God’s heart. 
    1. David did not think of what others could do for him, but
    2. of what he could do for others.
      1. That included God.
      2. David wanted to do something special for God.
        1. However, God decided that He did not want David to do this thing,
        2. rather God would have someone else do it, but
          1. God then revealed what He would do for David, and
          2. in doing so, God showed what He thought of David’s selflessness.

Persuasion: 

  1. Second Samuel 7.1–3 – David Wants to Do Something Special for God

    1 Now it came to pass when the king was dwelling in his house, and the Lord had given him rest from all his enemies all around, 2 that the king said to Nathan the prophet, “See now, I dwell in a house of cedar, but the ark of God dwells inside tent curtains.” 3 Then Nathan said to the king, “Go, do all that is in your heart, for the Lord is with you.”
  2. Second Samuel 7.4–17 – God Will Do Something Special for David

    4 But it happened that night that the word of the Lord came to Nathan, saying, 5 “Go and tell My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Would you build a house for Me to dwell in? 6 For I have not dwelt in a house since the time that I brought the children of Israel up from Egypt, even to this day, but have moved about in a tent and in a tabernacle. 7 Wherever I have moved about with all the children of Israel, have I ever spoken a word to anyone from the tribes of Israel, whom I commanded to shepherd My people Israel, saying, ‘Why have you not built Me a house of cedar?’ 8 Now therefore, thus shall you say to My servant David, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts: “I took you from the sheepfold, from following the sheep, to be ruler over My people, over Israel. 9 And I have been with you wherever you have gone, and have cut off all your enemies from before you, and have made you a great name, like the name of the great men who are on the earth. 10 Moreover I will appoint a place for My people Israel, and will plant them, that they may dwell in a place of their own and move no more; nor shall the sons of wickedness oppress them anymore, as previously, 11 since the time that I commanded judges to be over My people Israel, and have caused you to rest from all your enemies. Also the Lord tells you that He will make you a house. 12 When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his Father, and he shall be My son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the blows of the sons of men. 15 But My mercy shall not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 And your house and your kingdom shall be established forever before you. Your throne shall be established forever.”’” 17 According to all these words and according to all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.
  3. Second Samuel 7.18–29 – David’s Humble Prayer

    18 Then King David went in and sat before the Lord; and he said: “Who am I, O Lord God? And what is my house, that You have brought me this far? 19 And yet this was a small thing in Your sight, O Lord God; and You have also spoken of Your servant’s house for a great while to come. Is this the manner of man, O Lord God? 20 Now what more can David say to You? For You, Lord God, know Your servant. 21 For Your word’s sake, and according to Your own heart, You have done all these great things, to make Your servant know them. 22 Therefore You are great, O Lord God. For there is none like You, nor is there any God besides You, according to all that we have heard with our ears. 23 And who is like Your people, like Israel, the one nation on the earth whom God went to redeem for Himself as a people, to make for Himself a name—and to do for Yourself great and awesome deeds for Your land—before Your people whom You redeemed for Yourself from Egypt, the nations, and their gods? 24 For You have made Your people Israel Your very own people forever; and You, Lord, have become their God. 25 Now, O Lord God, the word which You have spoken concerning Your servant and concerning his house, establish it forever and do as You have said. 26 So let Your name be magnified forever, saying, ‘The Lord of hosts is the God over Israel.’ And let the house of Your servant David be established before You. 27 For You, O Lord of hosts, God of Israel, have revealed this to Your servant, saying, ‘I will build you a house.’ Therefore Your servant has found it in his heart to pray this prayer to You. 28 And now, O Lord God, You are God, and Your words are true, and You have promised this goodness to Your servant. 29 Now therefore, let it please You to bless the house of Your servant, that it may continue before You forever; for You, O Lord God, have spoken it, and with Your blessing let the house of Your servant be blessed forever.”
  4. Do Something Special for God 
    1. We think of what we want God to do for us.
      1. We expect blessings.
      2. We make most of our prayers requests.
        1. God, does this for me and
        2. when you are done with that, I have something else for you to do.
    2. It seems that David had been thinking about this for a while.
      1. He loved God.
      2. That moved David to want to bless rather than just waiting to be blessed.
  5. God Has Done Something Special for You 
    1. Some people do not realize how much God has done for them already.
    2. What special things has God done for you?
      1. He created you.
      2. He spared you after you sinned.
      3. He supplies all your needs.
        1. He feeds you.
        2. He gives you a place to live.
      4. He listens to you.
      5. He works salvation for you.
        1. Jesus gave His life for you.
        2. The Father gave His Son for you.
          1. We had a sister in Klamath Falls who had only one son.
          2. He was a Cobra helicopter pilot in the first Persian Gulf War.
            1. The thought of losing him in the war haunted her.
            2. She told me that she would have gladly taken his place.
              1. She talked to me of the pain of letting her son go.
              2. She wondered how the Father suffered at the crucifixion.
  6. He Will Do More Special Things for You 
    1. He recreates you when you are saved.
    2. He continues to forgive you.
    3. He supplies what you need in the body and in the spirit.
    4. He continues to listen to you.
    5. He saves you from this world.
    6. He blesses you with many things during your life.

Exhortation: 

  1. Should we be inward focused, or upward and outward focused? 
    1. People who focus inwardly are rarely content, rarely happy.
    2. People who look upwardly and outwardly
      1. find contentment, peace, happiness
      2. in all the issues of life they experience.
  2. Why should someone, 
    1. such as God,
    2. always be focused on doing something special for us?
      1. Should it not be our turn to think of Him?
      2. What can we do for Him anyway?
        1. Take your lead from David.
        2. He looked at how well he had it, and
          1. compared it with where the Ark of God lived.
          2. Is there something that the church lacks?
            1. Fill it.
            2. Start thinking of the special things God has done for you, and
              1. you shall start coming up with
              2. special things you can do for Him.
      3. David thought more of God than David thought of himself.
        1. That is the key to finding special things from God.
        2. For you see, we cannot out-give God, but it is fun trying,

          38 “Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you” (Luke 6.38).
  3. Look again at Second Samuel 7.11–16. 
    1. This is one of the great messianic prophecies.
      1. God said He would build a house for David.
      2. David’s seed would build a house for God.
        1. This has a two-fold fulfillment;
        2. first, in Solomon, and later in Christ Jesus.
          1. Hebrews 1.5 quotes
          2. Second Samuel 7.14 as applying to Jesus.
    2. Jesus did build the true temple of God.
      1. Jesus did and does sit upon the throne of David.
      2. Jesus reigns as our King right now in fulfillment of this passage,

        30 “Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, 31 he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see corruption. 32 This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses. 33 Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear. 34 For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself:        ‘The Lord said to my Lord,
        “Sit at My right hand,
        35 Till I make Your enemies Your footstool.”’

        36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2.30–36).

    3. Also, the prophecy of Second Samuel 7 built upon the promise to Abraham,
      1. that in Abraham the Lord would bless all the families of the Earth.
      2. With every generation after that,
        1. the Lord specified through whom the promise would come.
          1. For example, it would come through Abraham’s son Isaac,
          2. not Abraham’s son Ishmael or any of Abraham’s other sons.
        2. Of Isaac’s sons, it was Jacob.
        3. Of Jacob’s sons, it was Judah.
        4. Generations later, there was Jesse.
          1. Of his eight sons, the Lord choose David.
          2. Finally, we get to Joseph and Mary, and now
            1. God has done something exceedingly special for you.
            2. He has forgiven you of all your sins.