Greetings in the Name of the Lord, Jesus Christ!

 

Many thanks to all of you who helped out with Trunk or Treat last weekend! It was a wonderful time of sharing the Bible message with many who had never heard it before. The ministry is as much to parents as it is to their children. One parent told us, "I have never heard the story like this before." May God bring a rich harvest from all the seeds we scattered!

This Sunday, we finally reach the story of David becoming king over all Israel. Thirteen chapters have elapsed since last week and David's confrontation with Saul at the cave in En Gedi. If you have time, I encourage you to read from 1 Samuel 25 through 2 Samuel 7. It reads like an action novel, as Saul and his armies are defeated, and David rises to the throne. Unfortunately, his rise is almost as bumpy after Saul's death as it was before. David's own tribe of Judah immediately accepts him as king, but the northern tribes want one of Saul's remaining sons on the throne. Civil war breaks out and lasts for seven years before peace is finally established and David is accepted as king for all the tribes of Israel.

As David finally settles in Jerusalem and brings the Ark of the Covenant back to where it should be, he has one remaining desire: "Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent" (2 Sam. 7:2). The Lord's response to David, via the prophet Nathan, turns the tables on David. "The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you" (2 Sam. 7:11). It is not David who needs to build a house for God. It is God who is building a house for David. The Lord has chosen David and his offspring in an everlasting covenant: "Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me; your throne will be established forever" (2 Sam. 7:16). David did not know at the time, but now we can see that this was a prophecy pointing straight to the Messiah, Jesus, the Son of David and Son of God.

Why does God pick out David, one very imperfect person, to fulfill his covenant and promise? Lesslie Newbigin explains in his book The Open Secret that the Lord has always used a particular people. Newbigin writes, "From the beginning of the Bible to its end we are presented with the story of a universal purpose carried out through a continuous series of particular choices... [God] chooses one to be the bearer of his blessing to the many." God selected Abraham and made a covenant promise that he would be the father of many nations (Genesis 17). The Lord blessed Abraham to be a blessing. The blessing was not directed at Abraham, the blessing was to be through Abraham. In the same way, God chose specific people, like Jacob the grabber, Ruth the Moabitess, and, here, David the shepherd boy. All of them were unlikely people selected to bring the Lord's message of redemption to the world.

The ultimate particular person God chose was His own Son, Jesus Christ, the One who took on flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). Now, through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, the Church is the particular people God has chosen to reach the broken world. Each local church is an outpost of the Kingdom of God in the cities and neighborhoods where the Lord has placed us.

You are one of those particular people. You are part of the covenant that the Lord made with David and fulfilled in Jesus Christ. As ambassadors for Christ, dearly beloved adopted children into a royal family, it means that we are now the ones to live out that legacy and promise - not for our own sakes but for the sake of the world around us.

What would it look like if the house of every MLEPC member was a house of the Lord? If each place became a sacred space of welcome for those who are far from the Lord. And it's not just our homes that can be sacred spaces - it is we ourselves who are temples. Paul reminds the Corinthians, "Don't you know that you yourselves are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in your midst?" (1 Cor 3:16). Wherever you go, you bring with you the House of the Lord, the space where people can encounter the presence of the Almighty. How might that truth change the way you engage a shop clerk, a colleague, or your child's soccer coach?

God has chosen you, anointed you, and empowered you to bring His light to the world, all through the sacrifice and victory of the Son of David, the Son of God, Jesus the Christ. May His throne reign forever and ever, Amen.