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Episode 525: In this episode, Jeff and Chris delve into the heart of 2 Samuel 7: God's covenant with David. We explore how David, after achieving peace and prosperity, reflects on his blessings and feels compelled to build a temple for God, contrasting his luxurious life with the humble dwelling of the Ark of the Covenant. This moment of humility and gratitude prompts God to respond with an extraordinary promise: not only will He establish David's kingdom, but He will also ensure that David's lineage will endure forever.
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You're listening to The Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun, in practical ways. Hey, everybody, welcome to The Bible Guys. Today is Friday, Friday, Everybody's favorite day, TGIF, buddy, because not only TGIF, but because on most Fridays on this highly esteemed show, is it most is many Fridays. Many Fridays, our. Listeners are waiting, hoping for Everybody's favorite segment. True, which is what made Chris mad this week? What mad? And if you are a new listener, the thing you're going to discover about just how incredible of a person Chris is because he's not mad for himself, thank you, Jeff. He is mad on. Behalf of all of the rest of us little people, and he's ready to tell us about it, and he never even has to think about it. When I ask what made you mad this week, Chris, You're like, oh, I know. Well, usually usually I had to think for a minute this morning, but it happened Monday night, So it's what's today. We're recording on a Wednesday, right, Yes, Okay, So two nights ago I had stopped in a place for a Capriezy salad, right, And I was only there for a very short time, and it was a place where I was eating outside because they had an outside area on a porch and I only had I just had to run somewhere. And I was by myself because that's I know, that's odd to a lot of people eating at a restaurant by yourself, but I actually I'm a high extrovert and I'm always with people, and I find that going to a movie by myself or eating at a restaurant by myself are sort of the only two things that I do that are sort of loner things. And I find that those that's my time to get away. So I and people wouldn't dare do and either of those things, right, but I do that all the time. And so and people always say like, uh, I say just one, what do you have two seating for two? Just one? And they're like, oh, just one anyway, and then. They're like this is this is awesome. I'm just kidding. I'm just away from people. So anyway, I'm sitting there outside and I see a truck very meticulously try to back up into a parking space because people who drive trucks have a tendency to back up into a space. And so it's because we can look on the camera, it's way easier to get into. Yes, yes, So anyway, this truck backs up and uh and uh, you know, just trucks are big, right, So this person gets out of the truck and smacks the bright white Cadillac right next to them on the door. So his door swings wide open. His truck doors are big, and smacks this uh car. But I couldn't see whether or not it made a mark or anything. It just looked it was like and it just hit like really bad. So the guy notices, he gets out, he looks, and then he gets back in his truck and then moves his truck across the parking lot, parks in a different spot, and then gets out and goes inside. So now I'm facing. I'm mad this one now. Yes, yeah, So here's a guy who dinged. Actually it wasn't a ding, it was it was a scrape. And it wasn't even like us. It was probably a scrape that could be buffed out because I used to work at a car dealership and those things can be buffed out. But anyway, so anyway, but you know, I don't think most people know that. It was a clear mark on the side of his door. So this guy gets up and moves rather than you know, wow, you know doing something about it. You know, you could there's not that many people in places. Well, there's probably at the most ten people in this entire establishment, which means you could easily walk in and be like, hey, who is the Cadillac? Right? So anyway, he walks into the place, and I'm outside just because I'm meeting out there, and then I get a phone call. So I get this phone call, and there was a couple other guys outside. I didn't want to disturb them, so I sort of walked beyond the perimeter of the seating area and I was sort of talking on the phone while I decided to walk over while I'm on the phone, and look, and I see this thing on the Cadillac door, and I'm like, you've got to be kidding me. So I get done and I walk over. I look at the guy behind me after I got the phone, and I said, hey, you didn't drive a Cadillac, did you. He says, no, No, no, I didn't. I said, Okay. So I walk inside and I'm talking to the server, and I just couldn't help myself. I'm thinking, I have to I have the t is tattled the right word, I guess it isn't. So I just needed to let somebody know. I just teacher, teacher. I just think to myself, this guy is a piece of garbage. So I said, hey, what do you guys didn't drive away Cadillac? Do they? Oh? Yeah, yeah, yeah I do. I drove the white Cadillac. I said, yeah, I think somebody pulled up beside you and uh and uh, you know, bumped your door and then moved their truck. And they're like, are you kidding me? And they're like, who was it? And I said, well, it's it was God, no, I said, I said, I said, uh, I said, we All you have to do is look at the color that's on your Cadillac and look at the colors of the vehicles in the parking. There's not that many, right, I said, So you can figure it out. Oh okay, So you gave him, You gave him enough hints, you left some breadcrumbs for him, and then but you didn't point it that. I conveniently paid my bill and left, so I didn't stick around for the aftermath. Okay, I don't want to say his name, but his initials are right, Bob Johnson. This Bob Johnson. I didn't know the guy obviously. Anyway, all that that was a big, long explanation, obviously, but it. Just made you. Man, you're out there protecting all of us. So if Chris Evert comes and tells you, hey, I'm not going to say the name, but just go look at your door, Go look at the. Color the windshield. Man, just leave and just say just say, hey, this may only cost you thirty bucks to get this buffed out, but please call me and let me know. I'd be more than happy to pay for it, because I believe this isn't a bad scratch. Right, But you can take it to mister C's autosh which is near us, and you can buff that thing out for thirty bucks. Yeah, just do that, right. Don't drive off and park in another space. It's kind of a coward move, yes, Just be have integrity, be a kind human being. He's driving that big pickup truck because he's compensating for his cowardice. Well, you drive a pickup drug, I know everybody. I would go tell him that's what I'm saying he doesn't deserve to drive that pickup trucking. Take it away from him, right, you should be in a yarist right, a little prius prius, that's right. What are you doing in the trucks? Take it away from you. You're disgraced the truck owners everywhere. Although I'll be honest with you, the front end of my truck so big I can't see if it weren't for the little camera in the front. Do you have a front a front facing camera. I do, but I never use it. Yeah. Oh, I do it all the time because I can't get in a parking spot if I because I can't see the where So. I did see this reel on Instagram the other day. This is just near here, here nor there. Okay about men being men, This guy is interviewing two women and he walks up to them. It's like a man on the street type thing, and he goes, hey, let me ask you a question. He goes, is a man less of a man if he doesn't know how to change a tire? And both women are like, you know, maybe in their twenties. They're very pretty, you know, and they go absolutely and he goes and they both agree, and he goes, Okay, he goes, is a woman less of a woman because she can't make a meal from scratch, and he puts the microphone to them and they both go it just cuts off. It's terrible, all right, you just waded into it. That's gonna make other people mad. Yeah, you're gonna Yeah at the Bible guys dot com. That's all you have to send it to him. That's all right, let's move on. Let's move on. That's funny though. That's a riot. Yep. Okay, so we are in. I lost my page. I think it's four nine. Okay, yes, you are correct. Thank you. You saved me once again once again. Yeah. Oh, I'm looking at the wrong thing. That's why. Right, we're talking today about the Lord's Covenant promise to David. Yeah, so David is making this promise to God based on the fact that God has blessed him. And we'll unpack it all but here here's what it says. In Second Samuel chapter seven, verse one, it says, when King David was settled in his palas and the Lord had given him rest from all the surrounding enemies, the king summoned Nathan the prophet. Look, David said, I'm living in a beautiful cedar palace, but the Ark of God is out there in a tent. Nathan replied to the King, go ahead and do whatever you have in mind, for the Lord is with you. But that same night, the Lord said to Nathan, go and tell my servant David, this is what the Lord has declared. Are you the one to build a house for me to live in. I've never lived in a house. From the day I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until this very day, I've always moved from one place to another with a tent. A tabernacle is my dwelling. Yet no matter where I have gone with the Israelites, I have never once complained to Israel's tribal leaders, the shepherds of my people Israel. I've never asked them, why haven't you built me a beautiful cedar house. Now go and say to my servant David, this is what the Lord of Heaven's armies has declared. I took you from tending sheep in the pasture and selected you to be the leader of my people Israel. I've been with you wherever you've gone, and I've destroyed all your enemies before your eyes. And now I will make your name as famous as anyone who has ever lived on earth. And I will provide a homeland for my people Israel, planting them in a secure place where they will never be disturbed. Evil nations won't oppress them as they've done in the past, starting from the time I appointed judges through my people Israel, and I will give you rest from all your enemies. Furthermore, the Lord. Declares that he will make a house for you, a dynasty of kings, for when you die and are buried with your ancestors, I will raise up one of your descendants, your own offspring, and I will make his kingdom strong. He is the one who will build a house a temple for my name, and I will secure his royal throne forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. If he sins, I will correct and discipline inim with the rod, like any father would do. But my favor will not be taken from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I removed from your sight. Your house and your kingdom will continue before me for all time, and your throne will be secure forever so Nathan went back to David and told him everything the Lord said. And then I'm reading through. What well, I think first chronicle seventeen chronologically takes place. Is the next piece, but the same that's. The same story. Yeah yeah. And then after that, David just in verse eighteen, yeah, he gives a prayer of thanks. Yes. He says, who am I Sovereign Lord? That your yeses for me? Yeah, yeah, which is a humble response. Right, yeah, that's really good. And then and then you know, you could let me just read the last sort of like the last part of his prayer. His response prayer first number twenty seven, It says, O, Lord of Heaven's Armies, God of Israel, I have been bold enough to pray this prayer to you because you have revealed all of this to your servants, saying I will build a house for you, a dynasty for your kings, for you, or God's sovereign Lord, your words are truth, and you have promised these promised these good things to your servant. And now may it please to bless the house of your servant so that it may continue forever before you, for you have spoken, and when you grant a blessing of your servant, O sovereign Lord is eternal blessing. So you know David's response is total humility. Who am I that he should bless me? You know, this promise is a covenant from God. And there's a little note in the Life Application Study Bible that talks about covenants and it says a covenant is a legally binding obligation or a promise. Throughout history, God has made covenants with his people that he would keep, that he would keep his side if they would keep theirs. And here are seven covenants from the Bible talks about God's covenant in the Garden, God's covenant with Noah, God's covenent with Abraham, and then with Moses. I'm outsinai the priesthood. Aaron's descendants would be priests forever to Aaron. Then David's covenant, and then the New Covenant, which is what Jesus made. To his people forgiveness and salvation available to yes, everybody through faith and Christ. And you know what's cool about a covenant is that it is defined as a as a until death. When a covenant is made, it is made until death. So whenever God made a covenant with his people. It's his intention that the people should keep it forever. So it's not a you know, timed promise agreement that type of thing is. It is a promise for the rest of your life. And the cool thing about God is that his promises go forever because he lives forever. Like for instance, when he made a covenant with his people, well with Noah, excuse me, which is with you know, the world. But he made a promise with Noah, and he made his covenant and he put a rainbow in the sky as a sign as a symbol of the covenant in Genesis chapter nine, and it says that, hey, here's my promise to you again. After the flood came, he said, I will never again destroy the earth with rain and so therefore as a sign he puts the bow in the sky. Now, scientists can look at a rainbow and tell you how droplets of water reflect and they cause light, you know, and they'll be able to explain that to you. Right, yeah, you even knew more than me. And then you know, there are other people that just say, oh, look at how pretty. But you and I know that here it is thousands of years later, and that rainbow is nothing more than absolute proof that God is keeping his promises. Why, because he comes after the rain. It comes in the presence of water. Even sometimes there's a rainbow in the mist right from Niagara Falls, right, because God is reminding his people of the promise that he made so long ago. Don't worry. This is water, But don't worry. It's not going to overtake you. It's not going to kill or destroy the world as it has done in the past. You know, one of my favorite things about this passage is david Is has basically vanquished all of his enemies. If you turn the page a couple more pages. He goes to Gath and wipes out Gath, and that's kind of the end of him having any more enemies. So he was thirty years old when he ascended to the throne. Finally thirty. He was chosen as a teenager, estimated somewhere around fifteen years of battles and running and hiding, he finally sends to the throne at thirty. He has a little window of time and it doesn't take him long. He defeats all his enemies. Now he's got one hundred and twenty thousand soldiers and thirty thousand elite fighters. He's ready to go. Man, and he just defeats all of his enemies. And then he's sitting in his beautiful palace and it's cedar and fancy, and he has all this privilege that people love him. He's passing out raising cakes and you know, they're having celebrations and the worship is great, and then he goes, you know, God deserves better. I've got such a good life, and his good life. Contemplating his good life leads him to start thinking about God again, which is really phenomenal. You know. In a previous episode, I think one of the little challenges that we were doing, I had mentioned that I'm relatively content person. Yes, right, I don't have super highs or super lows. I'm pretty leveled that way, and I'm fairly content, so I don't spend a lot of time thinking about, Man, I want this thing or that thing. I don't have a whole, big, long list. But a while back we heard about somebody getting a whole bunch of money all at one time. So then it starts turning into this little conversation of man, if you had that kind of money, what would you do? And it doesn't take you long to figure out. Well, I would move to that neighborhood. I'd probably go on this vacation and sure, right, you start kind of working things out. It's kind of funny if you had it, what would you do with it? Right, David's got all of it right. And David says, you know what, I only have it because of God and man. God shouldn't be living in a tent, right, it's unreasonable that I would live so well. And I'm leaving the arc of the Covenant in this tent. So it's not that God lived in a tent, but the presence of God and the worship of God was in this tent, the tabernacle. And so he goes, God, I want to go build you a great temple. And I love that. Again, it shows the heart of David that he's humble. He has all these insane blessings, and it's in that humility of saying God, I want to build a temple for you, that God goes, No, let me do something for you. You're not going to build a temple for me, but I'm going to establish your kingdom forever. Yeah. It was when David said, with everything I have and all the accomplishments I've got. I'm not taking credit for it. God deserves better than I've already given him. Right, and God goes you win. Right, You're the winner. I'm going to not only bless you in this life, I am going to establish a kingdom from you that will last forever. Yeah. And it's just another reminder that when we have an attitude of worship and obedience and humility, that God honors those things. Yeah. I pull out my phone because you were talking about how if we had a bunch of money, it wouldn't figure out how. It doesn't take you long for you how to spend it, how to spend it? So my daughter who lives in Florida, was trying to get us to buy a Mega Million's ticket last night. It's like eight million dollars. Yeah, it's eight million currently right now. Somebody wanted, Oh did they okay? Texas Okay? So anyway, it says, She says, I know it's mostly a waste of money, but you should go buy ticket. Blah blah blah. And so my wife writes back and says she goes, oh, she goes, Uh, I don't get caught up in that. The last time I bought what ticket, which was years ago, she said, made me crazy. And then and then and then there's a time that goes by like an hour or not quite an hour, and then she writes back, and she goes, but dot dot, I do want to buy Christo's a plane, which is our future son in law, and Torri and arts studio, and pay off all our debt, and pay off Sarah's loans for Sarah and Brandon, then buy them a big house. And I want to buy Steven a big truck to pay for school, and then to buy him everything he needs to own his own company, and also buy new cars for everyone ever, model my entire house, and get a new kitchen also by dad, a new truck, and a fancy sports car. And I may just buy myself a fun Bronco, you know, just those things. As she said, ten million dollars worth of the eight hundred million, isn't it funny? So it doesn't take you long to make even the insane blessings of God, because you know, there's there were people praying, oh God help me win the lottery. Oh God helped me win the lottery. Oh God helped me win the lottery. But then they had a list like that. Right, David did win the lottery, yes, right, and took and it took him forty years to do it, by the way. Yes, so think about that. But he winds up, you know, a shepherd kid in a little tiny family or in a family in a little tiny village and a little tiny tribe, and God goes, this is the guy because God could see all the way to a point like this. When when David had everything, he wasn't trying to figure out how to get more, and he wasn't taking credit for it, right, he was saying, God did this for me, and I owe God. You know, as a part of the Timothy Initiative, chairman of the Boarder organization, we plant churches around the world. You start a church for like four hundred bucks, right, yeah, So we're training right now one hundred and sixty thousand church planters around the world. And there are lots. Of people individuals who, hey, you know, thirty four dollars a month does a church or whatever, and that's great. There are lots of churches who give thousands of dollars a year. But we have a significant number of millionaires and I've sat in their offices and listen to them talk as they pour in hundreds of thousands, or some of them millions of dollars, saying God gave it all to me, and I don't deserve any of it, and I live in my fancy house. I've had guys quote this passage. I live in my fancy house. I travel wherever I want to go. I have everything I want, and at a certain point, enough is enough, and God deserves my very best. And so I've seen many of them say I've set up investment mechanisms so that for forever our family will be able to give millions of dollars a year to Kingdom work right where they're just spending the interest off of that. I've seen people do all kinds of incredibly creative things with outrageous resources, saying I didn't do this, God let me do this. God provided these things, and it's God's And you know what I had one guy tell me. He said, you know, when I'm a conduit, I'm able to receive. And he said it flows through me to the kingdom. He said, I have all I need when it's flowing through me. He said, when I decide I'm going to start hanging on to it. That's when everything's gonna start spelling off the sides. I'm not gonna be able to keep it. But when I let it flow through, he said, I have everything I need and more, and God keeps expanding it. And I love that idea. So, you know, maybe you're not a millionaire. I'm not. Maybe you don't feel like you're the richest person in the world. But whatever God has sent to you, let it flow through you to His kingdom, and you'll never run out right. Give God the credit. You're never going to run out of your resources. When you choose to let God and put God first with what you have, he will not be a debtor to you. So when David steps up and says, God, I have everything, and you've been a blessing to me, and I want to build you a permanent temple and it's going to be extraordinary. God goes, David's not going to outgive me. That's nothing, David. I'm going to establish your kingdom forever, and I'm going to give you peace from all of your enemies. So God always one ups whatever you try to do for God, he always goes one more. He always goes a little further. And there's something to this that I think it's a big part of the extraordinary impact of David's life. You can see it when you really look underneath the surface of what's going on in his details, you look at the heart. And not only did God one up it, he up did more than once, he up to at several levels. Why because the promise that he was making was that one day salvation would come through through David's lineage and that one day his house would be established forever. Because Jesus is called the son of David. Even though that Jesus is established that he's lord over David, well, both Joseph. And Mary had lineage back to David. That's right, that's what Jesus was. Born in the family of David. And not only that an heir to the throne, but he's going to rule forever. That awesome. Yes, well, hey, that is a that is a great place to end, and what a great story. Uh, you know, God making his promise to David and then us you know, here we are, uh you know, on on the on the back end, still talking about his fame, still talking about his household, and and uh, you know, just really honestly sort of fulfilling the promise and the covenant that God made right here that he would be famous forever. Right, so all right, we'll see you hopefully Monday on the Bible, guys, h