A Covenant Christmas: Covenant with David

Good morning, family. It is good to see you. I bring joy and welcomes and greetings and tithes and joy for Reconciliation Church, your brothers and sisters in Christ. It is a delight to be here and I love to simply open God's word and be with people who actually love to do the same thing.

Today, I have the joy and delight of opening God's word to continue your Advent series of Christmas—Covenant Christmas. Let's dive into God's word.

If you have a copy of God's word, out of reverence, would you stand with me? We're going to do something different today. We're going to read the word together. You'll be coming out of Second Samuel, chapter seven, verses one through 17. It is in your worship guides or on the screens.

When the king lived in the house and the Lord had given him rest from all surrounding enemies. Ways are fulfilled and you lie down with your fathers. I will raise up your offspring after you, who shall come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He will dwell in the house for my name, and I will establish the throne, his kingdom forever. I will believe in father, and you will be to me his son. When he commits iniquity, I will discipline him, the rotten man and the stripes of his son. But my steadfast love will not depart him. And I took from Saul, will not put away from Saul. In your house, your kingdom, and shall be made forever. Forever. And in accordance with all these words, in accordance with. — 2 Samuel 7:1-17

Family, let's pray together. Precious father, thank you that we get to call you that one more time. One more Lord's day, we get to come together and read together your precious word. I pray right now as we dive deeper into your word. I pray that you will have mercy in our hearts, our ears, our minds, our soul that we may know you more. May the words of my mouth, the meditations of my heart, be acceptable to you, for you're my Lord, you're my rock, you're my redeemer, and this is all for your glory and advancement of your kingdom. I pray. Amen.

BC, the family. So for those who are the note takers of this group, I would like to give you the main points of today's sermon.

The heart of the Davidic covenant is centered around one thing: the Emmanuel principle. It's all about a covenant. It's about a dynasty. It's about a kingdom of God that he will establish and carry out from beginning to end by Emmanuel, meaning God with us.

I want to show you this through our text today by using four points, and they all start with the letter P, so hopefully they'll be a little easier to understand. The four P's go as this: permission, perspective, preservation, and promise.

Point One: Permission (Verses 1-3)

When the king has settled into his palace and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies. The king said to the prophet Nathan, "Look, I'm living in a cedar house, while the ark of the covenant is inside a tent with curtains." So Nathan told the king, "Go and do all that is on your mind, for the Lord is with you."

Let me set the stage for you as we dive into this text. A civil war has broken out between the house of Saul and the house of David. It's kind of like a Game of Thrones situation. We see fights breaking out between older men. We see young men's blood being spilled on the battlefield, and while there are attempts of peace trying to be brought between the two houses, assassination attempts happen that kind of break the peace talks. That's kind of chapters three through four of Second Samuel.

When the dust settles, eventually God allows David to be established king of Israel, and David makes Jerusalem the permanent location, the capital city of his throne. Then eventually, we see the new crown, King David, bring the ark of the covenant to Jerusalem in chapters five and six.

When we turn the pages of time in our Bible to chapter seven, verse one, it reveals that the king has settled into his palace and God has given rest from all his enemies on all sides. Now, this type of rest that we see can be described as shalom—a peace that's given from God. This shalom reveals that it's a complete, sound stillness that has been granted from him with all external and internal struggles. This peace comes from God and God alone. Not from the world, not from anything David did, but this peace comes from God.

Now, when you have this type of peace from God, I ask the question to myself: What does naturally someone do when you have peace, when you have rest? For me, I take multiple naps. When I can take a nap, your boy is blessed.

After I take a nap and I wake up, I begin to ponder on some things, and naturally what I ponder on is the one who gives me rest from all that chaos. The shalom that the Lord provides allows me to think about what the Lord has done. We can even see this in today's text. The king thinks about the life that he has and the one who provides it. The king comes to his conclusion that all his victories and all his triumphs only occur because of the faithfulness of the Lord.

The king realizes that when he takes a look at his majestic cedar home and sees splendor, he begins to think about what he has. I speculate a little bit myself on what this house will look like, and to me, the closest thing I can think of is the Biltmore House back in Asheville. Have you ever been there? It's a very splendid thing to see. I walked there for my anniversary with my wife and we saw the great halls, these places where people got to eat, massive marble bathrooms and king-size beds, and I was like, "Only if I had the money to sleep one night at that cot. That would be a blessing to your brother." But the reality is, as I picture these things, I can see that the king also thinks about the cedar house that he dwells in. When he thinks about the splendor and all that he has, it will rival any house that was on MTV Cribs. But the king was dwelling in splendor while the ark of the covenant was dwelling in a small, worn out towel tent, and this bothered the king. It bothered him so much that he went to the prophet Nathan and asked for permission to build a physical house for the Lord to dwell in.

The Prophet Nathan

Let me take a side note about this man named Nathan that we get to see for the first time in today's text. The prophet Nathan plays a crucial role in the life of David. In Hebrew, Nathan means "God gives," and I think this is something you should not gloss over in the Bible. Names have meaning. They have value. When God gives David a prophet to speak on God's behalf throughout the king's reign, God is giving a gift through this man. God gives a man of God for counsel during the high points of his life when he is crowned king, and during the low points of life when he murders, when he has adultery with a young lady. God gives a man of God to be with him as he walks out his calling to be king. Nathan is a special person. It's just not something to gloss over.

Some of us today even have that mentality, sadly, that we can do everything on our own. We don't need anyone to help us in life. You can interact with a lot of people in your workplace or in your neighborhood. They have that mentality: "I'm good. I can do bad all by myself." But the Bible teaches that companionship and community are crucial for the believer.

So David goes and asks permission from Nathan, the prophet. The prophet allows him to go and do all that's on his mind, as the word of the Lord says.

The Lord's Perspective

But that night, the word of the Lord came to Nathan. Let me read this for you:

"Go to my servant David and say, 'This is what the Lord says. Are you to build a house for me to dwell in? From the time I brought the Israelites out of Egypt until today, I have not dwelled in a house. Instead, I have been moving around with a tent as my dwelling. In all my journeys with all the Israelites, have I ever spoken a word to one of the tribal leaders of Israel whom I've commanded to shepherd my people Israel, asking, "Why have you not built me a house of cedar?"'"

The king goes to the prophet and asks if he can build a place of dwelling for the Lord. The prophet says, "Go ahead and do as your mind desires." But the difference is that the Lord shows up and speaks to Nathan and commands him to go to David and speak to him.

Now, the Lord actually comes and asks two rhetorical questions to his servant David. Before we dive into these questions, let's talk about the verbiage of this title. If you study the first three verses, David is never referred to as David. He's referred to as "the king." But when the Lord speaks to David, the Lord actually changes the title from "king" to "servant." At this moment, the Lord is removing this worldly tired title of king that has been given to him and provides him a better name, a better title—one that provides true perspective of who David is before the Lord, before Yahweh. You can see this intimacy also when God calls him by name—David.

As a father calls to his son, we see this heavenly father call his child by his name. He says, David. While we hear David be called king by men, we see God give him a title of servant. It is both a special honor to have this title because a few people in the Bible actually had the title servant tied with their actual name. But also this is an identity marker of who he is. He is not just king, but he's of the most high God. He's also the servant of the most high God, Yahweh. And this changes everything for David.

For example, when a president becomes a president, there's a title that becomes part of his name. He's no longer, for example, Barack Obama who's a lawyer from Chicago who decides to become an actual candidate for presidency. When he becomes president of The United States, that title now is before his name. There's a different respect, a different awe and honor that we give to the president.

You can think about Princess Catherine. When she met Prince William at school, she was once walking down an aisle doing a charity fashion show that caught the eye of Prince William. And William decided to pursue her. When eventually he pursued her and married her, she was no longer simply this girl he went to school with. No, she became Princess Catherine, who became a role model of royalty in England. The title means something.

Same thing happens with David. When he becomes servant David, my servant, there's relationship. There's deeper meaning between God and man. David's title was king over Israel in the world's eyes, but in the eyes of the Lord, he was a servant of the Lord who was to do the bidding of God.

The Rhetorical Questions

With that, the Lord comes to his servant David and asks two rhetorical questions. One, are you to build a house for me to dwell in? Two, why haven't you or any leader before you been requested by me to build me a house to dwell in?

Let's talk about the first question. God is asking his servant, his creation. Remember, perspective is his point. If David is qualified to build him a house or a temple to dwell in—does he even have the right to tell Yahweh, the God of all creation, what God can and cannot do?

David is saying in his heart, "God, since I dwell in this house of cedar, I'm gonna build a house for you so you can dwell there, so you can have a permanent place to dwell in." To me, this doesn't sound like a bad idea, right? Lord, you've done all this for me. Let me do this all for you.

But many commentators say that the attitude, the posture that David has before the Lord has a wrong perspective. The problem with David's mindset—and if we could be fair, you and I had the same mindset at times—is that we approach God with the wrong perspective and attitude in telling God what we are gonna do for him.

The Wrong Posture Before God

David is saying, "I am building a place for you so I know where you are at all times. So that when I have an issue or I have a problem, I can know where I could find you so I could come to you ultimately and you could do whatever I need for you to do. Or you could do whatever I ask for you to do."

Because in our postures, in our hearts sometimes, all we really want from God is what we want, not really what he has for us. This contractual relationship that we have sometimes with God—if I scratch your back, you'll scratch mine. If I do this for you, you'll do this for me. And the problem here is that we box God to become a cosmic genie instead of what he has revealed himself to be in God's word. He becomes a genie that we can ultimately control. That's actually what we want at times in our hearts, rather than having the deep, loving relationship that a father has to his son, that a father has to his daughter. We'd rather have this cosmic genie we control.

And when this false genie that we design in our mind to control and craft fails us or doesn't keep his end of the bargain, we deny God, seek idols, and curse God in our hearts.

Some of you might say, "Yo, fam, it's a little bit intense for him. This is Sunday. It's supposed to be about joy. This is an advent series. This is the perfect weather for North Carolina because, you know, it's a roller coaster every week for some reason. I don't need to hear this stuff."

But fam, if God's word is true, we need to hear the truth of God's word. Sometimes we'll seek idols and cast God out of our lives because he's not doing what we want. But the reality is that sometimes we seek God to do things that he never said he was going to do. That's hard for us at times. I know, as me growing up as a Christian, there's times I projected what I wanted God to do and God's like, "I never said that." And that was hard. But sometimes we try to box God into something he's not.

And the sad part is that we also do that to other people. To our brothers and sisters in Christ, we put expectations that they were never called to do. And our relationships get torn and ripped apart. It's because we're trying to control ultimately these idols that are within our hearts. Because sometimes when we come in, we don't get these expectations. As we walk in and out the doors of CTK, we actually run away within our hearts because God is not the God we want him to be—the one that we can control. For when he fails our standards, then we become the one who is not worthy of praise.

The problem we have today, family, is that when we have the wrong perspective, we think we are God and he is our servant. This is warped. This is broken. This is a false vision of ourselves, not God, ultimately. And because of our arrogance and pride and sin, we come to tell God what to do, and this is wrong.

This is why I asked the question, and this is why God asked the question to David. In this moment, are you to build a house for me to dwell in? Are you the one to tell me what to do?

The second question he asked to David: Why haven't you, the leaders before you, been requested by me to build a house to dwell in? This is a question that God is asking again to give even more perspective—what he has done and what he is doing since day one.

From the time I brought you, the Israelites, out of Egypt until today, I have not dwelt in a house. Instead, I had been moving around with a tent as my dwelling. — 2 Samuel 7:6

From the Exodus to the time of the wilderness until the time of the arrival that we have today in Second Samuel, God is saying that he has never asked to have a place to dwell in because God was always content. Say it: content. Content. Some of you guys are still awake. Good. Stay content.

He has always been content to be Emmanuel with his people. Emmanuel—God with us. That's why the principles woven throughout the entirety of the Davidic covenant: God has been pleased to be with his people. It didn't matter where they're dwelling. All he wanted to be was with them. Not because they were special, it's because God has this intimate relationship with his people that he constantly wants to be with. He was never frustrated that, after a while, they dwell somewhere and they have to pick up their bags and move to another location.

As Israel sojourned, God sojourned with them. As Israel lived in tents, God lived in tents with them. Where they went, he went with them. He has always been Emmanuel. He has always been Emmanuel to his people. God is their God. They are his children. That is the concept he has always been saying.

In all my journeys with all the Israelites, I have ever spoken a word to one of the tribal leaders of Israel whom I've commanded to shepherd my people, asking, "Why have you built a house for me of cedar?" — 2 Samuel 7:7

It's because he never desired anything else but to be with his people, to be their God—the Emmanuel principle.

The Emmanuel Principle in Relationships

I had to learn this real quick in marriage. When you get married, there's another person who lives with you, another person who dwells with you, and they don't go away. My beautiful bride, Shamika—one thing I learned real quick with her is that all she wanted to do was experience life with me. And I thought that was a beautiful thing at first until day two happened and she was still asking to experience.

And the biggest way she does this is through food. If you go out for dinner with a girl, like, "I wanna taste what you got," and I'm like, "No. Order your own. Get your own stuff." She's like, "Don't you want my taco?" I'm like, "No. I got this steak for a reason because I didn't want a taco." But my wife just wants to taste and experience everything with me.

So naturally, if you ever go out to have food with me and my wife, I just get my food and say, "Thank you very much" to the server, and I'm like, "Here, Shamika, eat what you want." Or I get my drink, and it's not a bad thing. It's just like she wants to experience things with me. It's a beautiful thing—until my steak is gone and I haven't had a bite.

But this constant experience—I wonder if we had that with God. I wonder if we just opened God's word and we just did a Proverbs a day, if we even make it before we fall asleep, and we just do that so it's just enough. Are we opening God's word? Are we opening the relationships that we have with God and asking him, "I wanna experience this word with you. I want the word of the Lord to come alive within me. I wanna see this word go to people, even within this pandemic, and bring hope, bring joy, love, freedom"?

I'm asking you, brothers and sisters in Christ, are you experiencing God's word as it's alive today? Or is it just another checklist throughout your week so you eventually get to this weekend to watch some football or hopefully open a present?

Point Three: Preservation

Yahweh speaks to his servant again, David, that he's gonna bind together the concept of the perspective that he has with the preservation that Nathan is providing. When Nathan says, "This is what the Lord of armies says" in verse eight, Nathan begins reminding David that God is the one who brought him out as a shepherd boy to become a valiant warrior, to also become a king of Israel one day. That in all David's journey, Yahweh has been Emmanuel, God with him, at every step of his journey. And this is all the Lord's doing.

We then see verses nine through 11 that God continues to preserve David in order for God's promises to come true. See this in the word of the Lord, verse nine:

I have been with you, David, wherever you have gone and I have destroyed all your enemies before you, and I will make a great nation for you like the one the greatest of the earth. And I will designate a place for my people Israel to plant them so that they may live there and not be disturbed ever again, and evildoers will continue to oppress them as they have done ever since the day I ordered the judges to be over my people, and I will give rest from all your enemies. — 2 Samuel 7:9-11

Let this be a reminder to us today, that God is the one who has given you this life, this comfortable life that we have today in the West. God is the one who has granted us prosperity—not just financially, but like your marriage, your job, even the community you dwell in. It's all because of God. God is the one who holds all the things in your life together.

I know to some extent, hearing these words is counterculture to what has been preached today. That sometimes every fiber of your body is finding this mindset that you have earned something. But the reality that the word of God says is that God is the one who gave it to you, and God is the one who's giving it to you, and God is the one who's holding it all together—not you or I.

The word of the Lord tells us that if God is the one who appointed and designated and prescribed all the blessings of the life of David that we have seen today, this also rings true for you and I today: that God is the one who's preserving your life for this Lord's day. God is still doing a work. It is not your bank. It is not your job, your family, your kids, your singleness, your education, your ministry, your skin tone, your political alignment, not even your State Carolina Duke affiliation. None of that matters because everything's been held together by our God. Amen. And nothing else. It is the Lord of creation, the Yahweh of the Bible, the one who has done all the things you have today at your feet. The Lord is one who preserved and sustains the life of David from beginning to end.

This is why that famous childhood song written is as true for us today: that He has the whole world in His hands. And there's no greater hands for our world to be held into but with the God of the Bible.

I wonder if this is something we struggle with personally today. That when you get home, when you sit on your couch, when you lie on your bed, you wrestle with the concept that I put blood, sweat, and tears into getting what I got. Instead of having the true proper posture and perspective that all the things you've been given has been given by God, I ask you to wrestle these things within your heart. Because if you do have this posture constantly in your heart—that you're the one who earned everything—you still have the perspective that God, to some extent, is a genie in your life. You're not really seeing God fully as the Bible depicts Him to you and I, as the one who provides all things to you.

If you have a problem wrestling with this, I ask you and I encourage you: talk to your brothers and sisters in leadership of this church. And if you got a problem with anything I just said right now, that is perfectly fine. My email is at JamesSutton@ChuckNorris.com.

Point Four: Family Promise

Now, there's this new phrase going along right now. This new thing that the kids are saying is "it is hot glory." Say "hot glory" with me. Hot glory. There you go. Someone said it right. Some people are like "hot glory?" No, say "hot glory" with your chest. Hot glory. There you go.

This text today is hot glory because it is something new, fam. This is not something that because we have the Bible now that we can just look back like, "Okay, the Lord said X, Y, and Z." No, when David first hears this word, this is something fresh. This is something new, because this is revealing something deep about the nature and the character of our God. It is beautiful and glorious because the promises that we hear, we see, respect of God—it's hot glory. It's not just a phrase that we get to toss around because it's just two words that kind of blended together. It is hot because it's spicy. It is fresh. It is new—like you go to the farmer's market new, you know what I mean? Like getting those vegetables to cook a meal.

This is something brand new that David's never heard, but at the same time, it is glorious because God is still being faithful. Think about that when you receive God's word. This is Second Samuel. There's been a bunch of history before this point that God has continued to be faithful. And those who doubt in this world like, "Will he be faithful through this pandemic?" Look at God's word to see how he's still been faithful to his people, to his children. How much would he do that for you and me today? This is why his word is glorious. And I ask you to think about even when you go and study God's word: Do you see the freshness of God's word still today?

I know a lot of my friends have this beautiful thing that they get to post on social media: "I finished the Bible in a year." I'm like, bet. Good for you, bro. And I was like, "How many times have you done that?" He's like, "Man, I've been doing this for seven years straight." I'm like, word. You read the Bible seven times beginning to end the whole time? He's like, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, word, has that Bible changed you? Are you still reading the Bible just as a textbook to get through so you get a little Boy Scout badge saying I've read the Bible? Nothing wrong with Boy Scouts, in my opinion. But I'm saying, if you've been reading the Bible, has it become dull to you? Has it become something that you're just trying to get through? But do you read God's word and see how fresh it is? How beautiful it is that God is still being faithful even though we're three thousand years later from this point?

God is still being faithful to his people. The Bible begins with a covenant of works with Adam. And Adam fails. And God institutes a covenant of grace from Noah to Abraham to Moses, even to David. The covenant of grace continues to be built brick by brick for the predicted coming, the arrival, the last and final step of the covenant of grace, which is Christ, which we get to celebrate this week. As we are now in a season of Advent, celebrating Christ's birth, we are anticipating that Jesus' second coming, a greater advent, where he makes all things new. When he restores, he reconciles, he fulfills the promises of the covenant of grace with his return. That is why in this point, this verse, this Bible is glorious. The promises of grace have never failed. The promises of grace will come true. If he did it before, he'll do it again.

And I want to reveal with my closing time the promise of grace with four points.

Point One: God is Building a House

The first particular point is that God is building a house. Verses 11b through 12:

The Lord himself will make a house for you. When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I, meaning God, will raise up after you your descendants, and I will establish his kingdom. — 2 Samuel 7:11b-12

Now, I want to be careful with this verse because in the Hebrew to English translation, we can get lost when we look at God's word. The word "house" here is not a physical house or physical home. The word "house" here means dynasty. Say it: dynasty. Dynasty. So the Lord himself is saying, "I will make a dynasty for you." Like Abraham, David receives a promise concerning a son yet to be born to be the fulfillment of God's promises. Just like Abraham in Genesis 15, David's receiving that today. And with these promises and covenants, God will continue to be Emmanuel through those promises and those he covets with. God is saying, "After you die, David, your descendants will come and I will establish a kingdom through him." God be Emmanuel. God be faithful. God continue to have the covenant grace filled out.

Point Two: A Kingdom That Will Last Forever

Point two: a kingdom that will last forever. Verse 13:

He is the one who will build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. — 2 Samuel 7:13

Now, this one commentators and scholars agree with is David's son, Solomon. And this house is no longer a dynasty. It's actually referring to an actual physical temple or house for the Lord to dwell in. The adventures see happen in Second Chronicles seven. And the throne and the kingdom will last forever. And God is saying, "No matter what happens to this throne that I establish, I will be the one who sustains it from beginning to the end."

Point Three: A Father and Son Relationship

Point three: we see a father and son relationship. Verse 14:

I will be his father and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with the rod of men and blows from mortals. — 2 Samuel 7:14

What God is saying is that he will have a father-son relationship with the descendants of David because of the covenant he is making currently with David. In this relationship, there are defined roles. With relationships that we have with our Lord, there are defined roles. God is going to be this good, caring, loving Father and the descendants will be obedient sons to do the will of the Father.

There is a distinctive relationship in nature. God is godfather, descendants will be sons. Unfortunately, history tells us that David's descendants were not obedient sons. They didn't do the father's will but sinned against the father. From David's first son, Solomon, and to the next and all who were following him and the descendants, they all dealt with evil in the eyes of the Lord.

But again in verse 14, when David's descendants do wrong, I will discipline him with a rod of men and blows of mortals. When you take time to read First and Second Kings and see the lives of the descendants, you will see God disciplining his sons with the rod of men and blows from mortals. It's heavy. It's not easy to read through sometimes. But the reality is that the God of the Bible still remains the God of the Bible who keeps his word and remembers his covenant with David and continues to lavish grace on the descendants of David.

The question I ask sometimes is why? Why does God continue to love his children, the descendants of David despite their sin against him? The answer is point four: He has a covenantal love that declares that will never be taken away.

The prophet Nathan reaffirms this truth of this father-son relationship that he decrees with this covenant love verses 15 through 16.

But my love will never leave him as it did when I removed it from Saul, whom I removed from you before you. Your house and your kingdom will endure with me forever. Your throne will be established forever. — 2 Samuel 7:15-16

Verse 17: Nathan reported all these words and entire vision to David. Because God is all knowing, God knows that the descendants of David would stumble and they will fall and they will sin. And despite their sin, the Bible declares that God will never leave them and the dynasty will endure forever because of the promises of God.

And we see this promise kept fully when Christ finally arrives on the scene as a little baby boy in a manger. Romans 1:3 tells us that Christ is actually a descendant of David. But this descendant is not like any other descendant of David that's come before him. This Christ that we believe, this Christ that we study, this Christ that we call King is this Emmanuel who comes to Earth and lives this perfect, sinless life that no descendant before him could do.

And he took the rod of men, and he took the blows from mortals for his sons and daughters, on behalf of his sons and daughters, so that the penalty of sin can be atoned for and the covenant grace can be fully realized by this true King, our Emmanuel.

A Personal Testimony

My friends, if this is the first time you're hearing this, I can understand this sounds a little bit weird. I'll be honest, when I first heard the gospel the first time as an atheist back in Miami, Florida, I was kind of weirded out. I was like, I'm good, fam. We can keep it moving. But the reality is God gripped my heart and God slowly pulled me in, drew me in by his grace, drew me by his love to show me that I needed a Savior because of my sin.

My sin just did not affect the people around me. My sin caused cosmic treason with our Father. And this promise that we find today in Second Samuel 7 that's fulfilled in the life of Christ is a promise fulfilled that I can be reconciled to God. I can be forgiven of my sins. I can be reloved. I can be restored. I can have all this emptiness and darkness that I try to fill with sin be restored and be filled by him and his love and Emmanuel. That is why this covenant is so beautiful.

My friend, if you're here today, if you're listening online, if you're outside, and you do not have this relationship—this father-son, this father-child relationship with God—I ask you to have a conversation. Because besides any decision you can make on your Amazon package or whatever you're trying to order for your family, it means nothing compared to your relationship that you have with your Father, with God, the Yahweh of the Bible. If you don't know, I ask you to enjoy the greatest present you ever could be given, because you do not earn this gift. It is a gift for a reason.

A Question for Reflection

Three thoughts, family, and a mouth of your hair. When we talked about David and how he was given a shalom from God, a peace from all things and worries of this world, this peace was an internal and external peace, a shalom.

Upon reflection of your life, what do you go to to seek shalom in this life? Where do you go for peace? Because we live in a time of fear, fam. Let's just be honest. We live in a time of worry. We live in a time of anxiety. And they're not just a simple miss. It's an all-time high type of anxiety at times for us.

But I ask you, who do you go to? Who do you run to? Are the things that you go to satisfy that peace that you need? Is it from these things of this world? Is it your money? Is it your family? Is it your job? Whatever you want to fill the blank with—is it those things or is it God?

Point two: Do you have a posture of understanding, or have the right perspective, that all you've been given has been given to you? Everything that you have—all the possessions in your university, in your home, in your school, your job—has been given to you by God. To point back to him, but also to use what you've been given for him. Nothing you've earned is earned. It's all been given by the sheer grace and holy righteousness of God.

Last thing I'll ask you to think about: The Bible says the name of Nathan means "God gives." God gave Nathan as a companion to David as David walked out his calling that God has given him. Who is your Nathan today?

The Lord in his kindness has given us many Nathans. He's given us the church today at CTK, the word of God, the Spirit to be like Nathans for us. But I want to ask you: Who is your Nathan today, and how is your relationship with that person?

I know a lot of us at times struggle with having community. We're created for community, but sometimes we push so much community back instead of drawing closer to community. How are you doing community at CTK? How are you doing community with your elders? How are you doing with the community of the family and brothers and sisters you have? Is this just a thing that you're coming in and out of for a Sunday morning? Are you continuing to dwell together throughout the week?

God has been kind—kind to give us brothers in Christ who care about us. For real, God has given us the word to give you a healthy perspective of who you are, to give you companions to walk with, so you also can see the promises of God fulfilled.

Family, this is the word we have today. I do not bring anything new to you. I bring to you something that's been hot and glorious from day one.

Father, I thank you for your time and the ability to simply open your word and to study and to know it. I pray for those today who do not know you, and I pray for those who are continuing to figure out how to have relationship with you. I ask you: would you be kind to them to allow them to be like David, to come into a covenantal relationship with you, so that they can see the glory of God in the midst of his words?

And Father, for those who are struggling with anxiety and fears, I ask them to see what God has given to them: a church, a body of leaders who love and care, brothers and sisters in Christ who are dying to know them more. So that they can see the promises and the glory of Christ—Christ alone.

In Christ's name, I pray. Amen.