New Sermon Series: The Life of David

Dear Redeemer Family and Friends,

Christ is Risen! Alleluia! As we continue to rejoice in our shared life in the Risen Christ, the seasons of Easter and Pentecost are times to celebrate our growth and transformation through the gospel of Jesus, as it works its way down into our souls across the long journeys of our lives. So, David – the eighth-son, shepherd-boy who becomes king of Israel – is the perfect life in Scripture to consider. We will spend our spring and summer preaching on “The Life of David”. David walked and ran with God; he stumbled and fell before God on more than one occasion, then got up again, all the while being utterly dependent upon the grace of the Lord. He became a man after God’s own heart because he was a man fully dependent upon God’s mercies being new to him morning by morning, year by year, decade by decade.

No life, in terms of the breadth and depth of personal detail and the exposure of the interior being, gets more play in Scripture than David’s. Not Abraham’s, Moses’, or Elijah’s; not Peter’s or Paul’s; not even Jesus’! We know more about David’s personal journey with God than anyone else. And it is full of brokenness, failure, and sin, as well as faith, hope, and love. Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector of England during the British Interregnum, said to his court painter Peter Lely: “I desire you would use all your skill to paint my picture truly like me, and not flatter me at all, [with] roughness, pimples, warts, and everything.” David is painted by the writer of Samuel, “warts and all.” And we will consider David’s story as recorded in the Samuel scrolls. The writer of Chronicles also tells us the story of David. He cuts out all the bad stuff. He seems to be giving the official royal chronology of David. But the writer of Samuel doesn’t redact any of the ugly, the embarrassing, or the tragic. Why? So, we can have our hearts captured by God’s compassion for David, which gives us a window into his compassion for us.

We will begin this series on David this Sunday, April 26th. The big idea in the David cycles is meeting, or being reintroduced to God, through David's story. As you hear David’s story, our prayer is for you to encounter God in fresh ways. God is so active and present throughout this whole story – for David, for Israel, and for the world. David’s story is one about God. He was an unfortunate parent and an unfaithful husband. From a purely historic point of view, he was a barbaric chieftain with a talent for poetry. But David’s importance isn’t in his morality or his military prowess, but in his experience of and witness to God. Every event in his life was a confrontation with God. (Eugene Peterson, Leap Over A Wall) May God meet us through David’s life and bless us, and deal with us as he dealt with David, as One full of grace upon grace. Amen.

In Christ,

Pastor Paul

RPC Lead Pastor