Undeserved Kindness

Posted by on August 23, 2009 under Sermons

Who is Building for Whom?

  1. David and Nathan – Did they ask God?
  2. David wants to build God a house
  3. God refuses

God’s Position and Promise

  1. I will do the building (Psalm 127)
  2. When did I ever ask for a house?
  3. This is not the time

God in a Box?

  1. God is wild and untamed
  2. God is on David’s side, but not in his pocket!
  3. We don’t take care of God, he takes care of us
  4. God cannot be contained in any box, temple, church, or idea

Annie Dillard in Teaching a Stone to Talk

“Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we so blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping God may wake someday and take offense, or the waking God may draw us out to where we can never return.”

Worship and Politics

  1. Worship must be central concern
  2. Worship should not be an adjunct to work/politics
  3. God brings Israel out of Egypt to worship Him
God Worship

God acts

we respond
Pagan Worship

god(s) respond

we act

David’s Response

  1. He sits and prays (v. 18)
  2. He submits to God
  3. He asks for a blessing (v. 29)
  4. Kindness to others (chap 9)
  5. The honor is undeserved

Mephibosheth

  1. David chooses to show kindness and loyalty
  2. Mephibosheth is crippled
  3. He becomes a guest at the King’s table
  4. The honor is undeserved

The Fate of Ammon

  1. David chooses to show kindness and loyalty
  2. Hanun is king after his father Nahash died
  3. Hanun humiliates David’s envoy
  4. David wars with Ammon, they surrender
  5. The fate is deserved