The Grace Attitudes

Passage: 2 Samuel 7:18-29

Intro: Those who believe that God exists are divided generally into three categories.

1. first, those who see God as a angry tyrant whose anger might be calmed through good works. His love must be earned.

Il) Islam fits this picture for the most part.

2. second group sees God as the Pillsbury Dough Boy, filled with good humor and incapable of wrath.

Il) we hear people say, “My god would never send anyone to hell.”

5. third group is comprised of those who understand through experience and revelation the true gracious nature of God.

6. David was such a person, and this tender scene in 2 Samuel lets us look into the heart of a person who understands God as He has revealed Himself to be.

7. David had just suffered the rejection of a plan he had to build a temple for God.

8. but also been promised that someone from David’s line would always be the king. V16

9. David’s response is powerful, and a wonderful example of the attitudes that characterize the person who understands and experiences the gracious nature of God.

10. in the trials of life, this makes all the difference.

I. Be Humble.

1. the proud person expects and even demands treatment in accord with his own exalted position.

2. but not David! He was overwhelmed by God’s work in his life.

3. at what God had already done.

4. shepherd boy, youngest son, Saul’s enemy.

5. yet here he was, the king of Israel!

6. “who am I”, not “what do you expect from a person of my caliber?”

7. no surprise that David wrote this is Psalm 8:3-4

PP Psalm 8:3-4

8. humility begins with God’s greatness, and then stands in awe that He would even care that I exist.

Il) SS class, we are discovering that God is “other”, Uncaused Cause of all that is, yet loves us.

9. when we lose this perspective, we will begin to argue with God as His equal.

10. but if we have it, then another attitude will be apparent.

II. Let God Be God

1. our tendency is to put God in the box we design for Him.

2. in that box, He is usually a person with oversized human characteristics

3. and since we treat each other based on what we deserve, we expect God to do the same.

4. David had just received an amazing promise from God. V16

5. v19, David’s jaw drops.

6. “Is this your usual way…?”

7. God was working outside the normal parameters we might expect

8. the whole Bible shouts this same truth; that God is not a man! V22

PP Numbers 23:19

PP Isaiah 55:8

9. if we want to know grace, experience grace, then we have to let God define what that is.

10. because sometimes it doesn’t look like grace.

Il) certainly when David was living in caves, running from Saul, eating survival food, he might have wondered what he had done wrong.

Il) when we suffer trials, our first instinct is to ask, “What did I do?”

11. even discipline is the grace of God, because we deserve to be ignored

PP Hebrews 12:7

III. Focus on the Eternal Above the Temporal

1. here is one of the toughest things for us to do.

2. we cry out for physical, temporal things.

Il) study the life of Jesus, the crowds generally came for the free medical help and free food. May see the same on TV!

3. David here was thrilled by deeper things.

4. beginning in v24, count the “forevers.” 5!

5. David’s focus had changed from temporal to eternal.

6. and that change always involves as well as shift from the physical to the spiritual.

7. if we focus on the physical and temporal, we will miss God’s grace, which is most often seen in the spiritual/eternal. Why?

8. God is interested in our very best, not in just giving us stuff.

Il) how often have you heard people tell of a childhood full of toys and things, but no time.

9. our Father wants to give us things that are really good, and that means things that last for eternity.

IV. Do Everything For God’s Glory

1. when a person understands grace, God’s glory becomes his desire.

3. when David confidently asks for God to keep His promises in v24, notice the reason in v25

4. “so that your name will be great forever.”

5. David’s only goal is that he might be used to magnify and glorify God.

6. this is why David is confident to ask God in v29 to bless David’s house

7. it will show God to be a promise- keeper, and be a blessing.

8.I wonder if David had an inkling about the Messiah that would come from His house.