us to join in prayer. Lord Jesus, we come to you this morning. We are so thankful that we can freely gather in this place. That we can sing your praises, that we can reflect on the sacrifice that you made for us.
For the new covenant that we share in, and Lord, we thank you for the time that we are born into, the time that we are in now. That we didn't have to wait hundreds of years to see your arrival, but we get to read back through your amazing testimony through the witnesses that we get to read. Jesus, we thank you. That we can enjoy, cherish, and worship you as our heavenly Savior.
In your name we pray, amen. A little bit about myself. For those who don't know me, I am originally from Manitoba, and there are some significant pieces to my life story that God's brought me through. Coming out of high school I wanted to join the medical field, and before you make any judgments or whatnot, there is a deep reason for this.
I had cancer when I was younger, from ages 2 to 5 and a half. I had acute lymphoblasts in leukemia and went through chemotherapy. It was a really hard time for our family. They say often that those who survive cancer want to go into the medical field, whether it's the gratefulness for what the doctors and nurses have done or whatever it might be, and we are very thankful for our doctors and nurses out there for all the work that you have been doing.
I felt God saying no. Saying no, be patient. There's something better. That's not comparing careers or anything like that.
But intently listening on God, what do you want for my life? Well, after going through this time, not sure of what to do, God led me to BC. I was in Manitoba at the time, and BC, it's gorgeous. There's a mountains in the background.
The ocean comes up, as we're very familiar with with funding and everything, and it puts these logs inside the rocks and whatnot, and what a place to do devotions, what a place to enjoy God's glorious creation. And yet, still, God had not given me an answer where to go, what to do? Got to sail on a ship, got to go mountain climbing, do all these wondrous things within his creation. But why did God say no, be patient?
Is not healing and caring for the sick something that God wants us to do? Is not enjoying his creation something that we could do, absolutely. For those who teach adventure training and all that, that's a great occupation. Fast forward four years from that, still, God, what do I do?
I joined a music degree and did many musicals and operas and studied to become an opera singer. And after some time, we were not sure, still, God, what do you want me to do? Many of my friends that were in these operas and musicals and different productions still have gone on to do great many things. They've been a part of American and Canadian opera companies are in some of the top of the world.
But God patiently said, no. God, I don't understand. Isn't singing praises to you? Something that we see time and time again in Scripture.
Isn't being a part of showing your gospel message, showing your incarnation, something that we should do? Absolutely. Should we sing? Absolutely.
That's what we've been doing for the majority of this morning, which is a wonderful thing. We were led to a church over in Mushja, where I pastored for the past couple of years. And there were many times that we said, God, is this where you want us to be? There are really great times within a church because a church is a family and there are very many hard times.
And still, God said, no. Be patient. Wait. How would you respond to God if he said no to the one of your greatest ambitions, something that you were sure would please him?
How would you respond? Some of us here might be making investment deals or we might feel like there's something within our life that's a little shaky and we're not sure, God, what are you doing? God, I'm patiently waiting. What's next?
God, I want to do this for you. This will better my marriage. This will better our business that is sharing your word or this might be our street evangelization. God, where are you leading us next?
And he says, no. Be patient. And we struggle to know what God are you doing? Some of us today have spent our lives devoted to a skill or a job that we want to do more and more because we know that God is in it, but we consistently find miraculous difficulty within it.
Is God saying no or be patient to us this morning? And why would God say this? Is not what we have tried so hard to accomplish? Something that he wants us to accomplish?
Sometimes yes and sometimes no. Some of you might be looking at the clock already this morning and you're saying, what time is lunch at? What are we going to do after this? And I would personally just say, no, please be patient.
We will not be here all afternoon. Some of us today have great hopes and plans for the great things that God wants. And that is a fantastic thing. And we as believers want to encourage one another in these great things.
And have you prayed about it? Have you prayed about it? But you might feel God say no or be patient. And this is where we find our narrative today.
I want to give a little bit of a quiz. Five great covenants in the Old Testament. That's right. Today we're going a little bit back.
We're going into the Old Testament. Raise a hand. Just thoughts or if someone knows their covenant theology. One, just someone, if you've got to go ahead and pull.
Abraham. Absolutely. Abraham a covenant. Idea of what it might be or kind of what it's about.
Absolutely. Genesis 12. Verse 1 to 3. God says, I will bless those who bless you and I will curse those who curse you.
Another one. Absolutely. Rainbow. We see a lot of rainbows today.
And unfortunately it's kind of tarnished what we have as a biblical view of the rainbow. But the rainbow absolutely. Noah was given a great covenant with God. And as you know, it was the only one that there was no partnership back that Noah had an expectation.
God just gave him a promise that I will never destroy this world. I will never destroy the animals of this world as I did in this great flood. I will never destroy the people of this world as I did in this great flood. And as a sign of my covenant, I will put a rainbow in the sky.
Another one. Pardon me? The Davidic covenant. Absolutely.
Yeah. Second Samuel 7, right? God's given David a Davidic covenant which we may or may not be diving in more today. But it's a little play on words with houses.
God working with David on the house that David wants to build and God ends up building him a house. Another one. We got two more. Moses.
Absolutely. Moses and Israel. They're given a covenant. Exodus.
Well, a large portion of Exodus. We can go to multiple chapters. I believe 19 to 32 somewhere in there. And they're given a new covenant.
They're given the law. They're given this is the way I want my people to be. You not only is Abraham being a blessing to all the nations, but now Moses is instructed that by God that I will make you a nation of priests. I will make you my people.
Last one. Sometimes we add, sometimes we don't. And it's kind of like our new testament. It sounds very similar.
The new covenant. Right. There we go. Jeremiah 31.
I invite you to turn to second Samuel 7 versus 1 to 17. And as you're flipping there, yeah. We are just reflecting on these five major covenants. So we got Noah with the rainbow.
We got Abraham. Stars are kind of, you know, I'll make you as great as the stars in the heavens. Moses and Israel. David.
And then our new covenant which is definitely hinted in Jeremiah as well as many other places within our Old Testament. And as we're flipping to within your Bible is to second Samuel 7 versus 1 to 17. We are met with the character of David. The promise won't be quizzed the whole morning or anything like that.
One more question. What for some of the kids? Who is David? What story about David do we hear about so often?
David and Goliath. Absolutely. And this is for everyone. Where did David take Goliath's head?
Where did David take Goliath's head after Stonehidum took Goliath's sword? Not to be too gruesome. Anyone have a guess or no? Brought to Jerusalem.
Amen. Absolutely. Until that point, Jerusalem was just another city. David after defeating Goliath through God's power took Goliath's head and he dropped it down in Jerusalem.
As a little bit of a hint of this is my down payment, I'm coming back. We see in 2 Samuel 15, David comes back and he takes the city. Jerusalem has now been called the city of David. David is victorious.
And not only that, then we read in chapter 16 of 2 Samuel that David brings the Ark of the Covenant. This Ark that Moses was instructed to build and carry around in the desert. That we see the Israelites continue to be blessed as God's presence goes with them as they set up the tabernacle in the wilderness wherever they go. God is with them.
And David wants to bring God's presence into this newly conquered city. What is intentions were? Maybe aren't 100% clear. We know that David was a man after God's own heart.
Potentially this could be selfish because he's got this new city and he wants it to be blessed. It's the city of David. There's a bit of an ego that could be built up here or it could be an honest God, I want you to be with your people in the capital city in this place that you have brought us to, this place that you guided me to all those years ago. Now that you have made me king, I want you to be where I am and I want to be with you.
David's character is that of someone that finds himself in impulsively driven moments. Anyone remember what David did when he brought the Ark of the Covenant into the city? He danced, absolutely. We don't need to maybe get into all the details.
There's kids here this morning. But he danced in front of the Lord, in front of all the people. And people made comments, but he didn't care. He was so, so grateful that God, as close as God was able to be for them in that time because they were also in sin as we have found ourselves before knowing Christ.
We're in sin. He has just come out of this extremely victorious time in the previous two chapters and now he is sitting in his palace. And I'll invite you to look at your Bibles here this morning. After the king was seated in his palace, starting at verse 1, the Lord gave him rest from all his enemies around him.
If we remember David's history and we know that this isn't the end of his enemies. But he had a lot of enemies. And he overcame insurmountable odds through God's power. God had given him rest all around him.
He said to Nathan the prophet. He said to, do you remember Nathan from before it was Samuel? And now it's Nathan is the current prophet in Israel advising David. And David has a close relationship with the Lord, but yet he still pauses and he says, who is relying on God just as much or maybe even more than me?
Who can I rely on to be that solid voice in my life that is living with me right now? That's Nathan. Nathan the prophet. So he goes to the best person that he could go to for advice.
This is great. He says, here I am living in a house of cedar, which for some of us may be a log cabin. Isn't the most ideal thing? But in this time we think of Israel, we think of the area.
Cedar is actually a kind of hard thing to come by. It's not very common. When we read about Jesus' father, Joseph being a carpenter, carpenters, we think of him in Canada. Yeah, there's lots of wood to work with in Israel, not so much.
It's not something that's in abundance. And so it's interesting that we read that characteristic about Joseph's father, or about Jesus' father, Joseph. But here David is living in a house of cedar, a royal palace, if we will. He says, here I am living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent.
My wife and I, we love tenting. We worked on tenting. Quite a few of the different campgrounds around here. Tenting is great.
Wind is the worst. Rain, even more awful. We have hurricanes. We've got all sorts of different things that could trouble us here, absolutely, as we've seen with fires and floods.
And there's been many great things. Being in a tent is not the safest place. Being in a log cabin, maybe a little bit safer. David, I think is wholeheartedly thinking while he sits in his palace that maybe it's raining that night, as it rained two nights ago, when we had all this rain that came through our yards.
And yet God, someone greater than I, someone greater than the king of Israel, someone greater than God's anointed king at this time. God, the one with all the power, majesty and glory. All the greatest things that he's given us. His presence is in a tent.
Sure, it's made of a porpoise skin and it's got all these protective things about it, but it's in a tent nonetheless. And I am here in my glorious palace. So you can imagine some of the thoughts that may have been going through David's head. This is where God dwells in this tent.
David asks Nathan for his, David asks Nathan his best advisor in communicating with God. And what does Nathan say? He says it's a great idea. Nathan replies to the king, whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it.
For the Lord is with you. How could Nathan not say this? David, I've been with you this whole time. There's a lot of odds that you've gone against God is clearly with you.
How could this be something that is not for God's betterment? How could this not be the thing that God wants? David had great intentions. There are some that might point to David and say he's wanting to become like all the other nations.
So many of the other nations they talk about, the kings and rulers would make up stories about their culture and their religion of why they had to build this great palace for their gods and why they deserve to also be in a palace and all this. And there's all this justification and to an extent manipulation of their peoples. I don't think that that's David's intentions. David wants to show God the honor and the glory that God deserves.
For instance, we ask those individuals, we most respect on advice for things that will benefit everyone. And everyone involved in the conversation believes it is a great idea. But as we see the day and as we'll read on, without prayer, we should not prepare. Without prayer, we should not prepare.
The same day that David inquires about this, that Nathan gives him the advice, Nathan is answered by God and God, well, let's read on. Verse 5, go and tell David, my servant, David, promise I won't stop at every verse, but my servant David, this is a huge moment. David has never been called servant, my servant from God until this point. And we spoke about some of the other individuals that were called my servant by God, Moses, being a huge key figure that God referred to as his servant.
Not in a slavery sort of way, but that this is a man that is doing my will that has my full intentions on his heart. He wants to do the best for me that he is able to. And so this is a big moment that we might just brush off, but go and tell my servant, David, not King David, my servant. This is what the Lord says.
Are you the one to build me a house to dwell in? I have not dwelt in a house from the day I brought the Israelites up out of Egypt to this day. I have been moving from place to place with a tent as my dwelling, wherever I have moved with all the Israelites that I ever say to any of their rulers whom I commanded to shepherd my people Israel. Why have you not built me a house of cedar?
Reflecting back on their time in the desert, on their time with King Saul. God has never asked for this. Now then tell my servant, David. This is what the Lord almighty says.
I took you from the pasture, from tending the flock, and appointed you ruler over my people Israel. I have been with you wherever you have gone. I think sometimes we need to pause and we need to reflect that this is the same God that we serve now. God has been with us wherever we have gone.
In our greatest failure, God has been with us. In our greatest triumph, God is our number one support. He has been with us wherever we have gone, just like he's been with David. I have been with you wherever you have gone, and I have cut off all your enemies from before you.
Now I will make your name great. Like the names of the great men on earth, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Adam. I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore as they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel.
I will also give you rest from all your enemies. Now this is where it gets really, really rich. If it wasn't already rich already, the Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you. David says, I want to build you a house.
The Lord says, no, I will establish a house for you. When the days, when your days are over and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, your own flesh and blood. Think of what this might have meant. Saul is their first king that Israel wanted to appoint.
God never asked them to. God graciously gave them a physical king. God was always their king. And God still is their true king.
He is our king. Jesus is our king to come at the second coming, right? And now David, the second king of Israel, the first one didn't end up so great. His son handed over the throne to David.
And Saul's son never got to rule. Jonathan, they're dead. The second king is now promised by God. I will give you someone, your own flesh and blood.
And I will establish his kingdom. We think of Solomon, of course. He is the one to build, oh, sorry, sorry. He is the one who will build a house for my name.
And I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will punish him with a rod wielded by men with flogging inflicted by human hands. We can see the foreshadows as well.
But my love, but my love will never be taken away from him as it was taken away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. And this is the richest verse of this covenant. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me. Your throne will be established forever.
Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation. Your throne will be established forever. God went on to show David Israel's journey with him and then David's journey from a shepherd to a king and how God was continuously with him. And this covenant that God makes with David, it's very similar to the Abrahamic covenant that we had talked about earlier.
That Abraham from you, many nations will come. And now David, not only will you have many generations, but they will be kings on this kingdom throne. Is God holding David back from something better? I think it's quite obvious.
God listens to David's words, just as he listens to ours today. And he doesn't say David, you're all wrong, you're off, you don't know anything. He does ask him some questions and maybe think about if I wanted my people to build me a house or to be in right holy relationship with me, I probably would have specified that with Moses in the Israelites so that the priests could be in the temple making sacrifices so that we can be in unity with one another. But God does something even better.
He makes a covenant with David. This Davidic covenant does not impose legal conditions, but it offers a gracious promise of an unbroken succession of kings upon the throne of David. Although we know unfaithful kings will be chastised when they behave badly in their office, God will not retract the covenant promise of grace he made with David. And with each of these covenants, we see God pointing more and more specifically to that new covenant promise.
We see that from Noah, God will not destroy, it sounds actually more like God's going to bring life and bring life in a more grander and greater way than what we could ever imagine. Perfect peace and unity with him. So as we reflect on Noah's story, as we see a rainbow in this guy, we're reminded not only of the gracious promise that God gave Noah, but of the life that God allows us to live. The choice that we are able to make, that God doesn't force us to worship him, but that he says, I want your heart and I want you to come willingly to me in worship.
I am not a God of tyrannical vengeance and hatred towards people that don't worship me, but I am a God that loves you wholly and wants the best for you. And then we say in Abraham that God is going to bless all the nations who bless Abraham, that it's not just the Israelites specifically, but that God is going to show a blessing to all the nations who bless Abraham. And those who reject the promise, they're going to face the justice because God is a just God. Then we see in Moses and Israel that there was a law, there was a way because we were so fallen in our sin that to be in right relationship with him, we, he made a way for us.
In the beginning of Leviticus, we see that God called Moses from the tent, meaning Moses was outside the tent, and after they built the tabernacle, after they went through the things of Leviticus, Leviticus is an amazing book, I encourage you to read it if you, I know many of you probably have, but it is phenomenal. Chapter 16 and 17, best highlights of the whole book. But verse one, we see in Leviticus, God called Moses from the tent, meaning he was outside, and in numbers one, we see God called Moses from within the tent, meaning that Leviticus worked, that God's instructions to his people to be in right relationship with him, it worked, because they were able to commune with God. And so we see Jesus coming as a fulfillment of each of these covenants, that he is the one that brings life, that he is the one that blesses all the nations, it's not just for Israel, it is for all the Gentiles are grafted in to this promise, that Jesus is the one that not a dot, not a nyota will pass from the law, but he is the one who fulfills the law, he did not break any sin in his whole life.
And in the book of Matthew, the most red book in the whole world, because it's the first chapter, it's the first book in our New Testament, we see at the very beginning, Jesus is from the line of David. Jesus is the fulfillment of this forever kingdom. Jesus is from the Davidic line, that a little bit like Solomon, David's son, asked for wisdom, it didn't seem like a big thing per se, and God granted him so much more, God blessed him so much more, David wanted to do something great for God, and God said, no, I am going to bless you, no, be patient, I have something better for you. And then obviously in the new covenant, we see Jesus as the perfect lamb, we see this new covenant as something new, something that God had never done before.
Jesus is the best thing that there is, there is nothing better to wait out for, I know we've been talking a lot about patience and waiting out this morning, but Jesus is the one thing that is not something that we should be patient about, but I encourage for those who don't know Jesus this morning to accept him. There is no hatred, there is no, there is no thing that Jesus has in your worst interest, but he wants the best life for you, the best life for your kids, the best life for your parents, for your neighbor, whoever that might be. Instead of going into medicine, I ended up at a school where I learned music, and I shared a good amount of my journey this morning, and rather than healing people physically, God taught me at our school to heal people in a different way. If I continued on with music and continued on to the Master's programs in Germany, and I would have never met my wife, I would have never had our daughter, we would have never had our daughter.
There has been times in our marriage that we weren't sure when to have our next little one, something great, like God said, no, be patient. There have been times within Ivy's life that have been really hard in the hospital, as some of you know, and those times, God, what is happening? He says, no, be patient, wait, and we saw God do amazing things. We saw God tell more people about Christ in a more profound way, bring people back to church all through the hardship of seeing our daughter suffer in some pretty great ways, but she is here today without a scratch.
Through God saying, no, be patient. We participate in something better, and we can also think of it that we've already participated in something better, because he has said no. God called me to a richer life with him because I submitted to his will. And friends, I know that many of you have submitted to God's will as well in your life, and that we all have tough and difficult stories.
I would have never thought I'd be within the military working as a chaplain or working in the areas that God has put me in. But I want to encourage you this morning to read David's response this week. Don't have quite enough time this morning, but I encourage you to go to 2 Samuel 7 verses 18 to 29. Not exactly right now.
But later this week, at some point this week, mark it down in your calendar, I'm going to read through those verses. What did David do? And if you want some hints while you're reading, we can learn a lot of lessons from David. David wanted to do something great for God, and God did something great for him as we've read this morning.
But in David's response that you might see it says prayer, David submitted to God's will because he knew God had the best for him. I've got three questions for you this morning. Are we submitting to God's will? Is there something within us that is wrestling and turning?
And we say, God, I haven't submitted that to you. I need to bring it before you, God, because I know that you have the best in mind for me. Maybe you're brand new here, you're brand new to Halifax, brand new to Northbrook, Bible chapel, and you're just not sure of something within your life right now. There's a lot of uncertainty.
Have we submitted it to God? First thing, I want to encourage you to look for is submission. David's submitting. Second thing, we can see the three, so you can see where I'm going here.
I know that you see him as well. David listened to God's word. He listened to God's word. If God says no to something, it is so that he may say yes to something even better.
He listened to God's word. And finally, David gave himself to worship. David gave himself to worship. One of my favorite things that I try to remind myself whenever hard times come is disappointments are God's appointments.
Disappointments are God's appointments. Because we know that he is with us wherever we go. When we do not understand the why in life, we can rest in God and praise him because he is the one in control. And now friends, how much better would our world be if we started every initiative with prayer, with waiting on God before we started it?
Lindsay and I we prayed for a safe trip while camping. And had we gone camping last week where we thought we were going to go, we would have been flooded out. And we did ask the question, oh man, you might have been something small, like where are we going to go camping? Oh man, Lord, we really wanted to go see your creation in a great way.
But God said no. And he brought us to an even more beautiful campsite that we just we got to have more time with family. We got to have more time enjoying his creation. Wow.
Thank you, Lord. How much better would our life be if we knew that there was a God that's been watching our journey from the very beginning. And he wants to take our burdens and our sorrows and give us peace and joy. We want to fully maybe take every burden and sorrow away.
Sometimes there is good reason for our sorrows and our burdens to stay with us, whether it's remembering a great memory of a man or woman in our life. But God gives us peace and joy. Peace and joy. Joy isn't like happiness.
I know many of you have probably heard this. Joy is a choice. Happiness is a feeling. And God is the one who gives us peace, true peace and joy, which helps us go through these burdens.
These sorrows, these hurts with a purpose and a mind that this is for the betterment of my character. This is for your glory, Lord. This is for the betterment of house, business, family, put in the blank. God does not leave us, but he gives us peace and joy in our struggles.
How much better would Dartmouth be if our next door neighbor knew that Jesus was the gift of salvation and that that was the best thing that was waiting for them? How much better would Dartmouth be if more people knew Jesus as their Savior? So friends, I'm going to invite us to pray together this morning. And as we pray, I just ask that you invite the Holy Spirit to put someone on your mind.
There's someone that's struggling or hurting or is making maybe a big life choice or is just uncertain about something. That you take out your phone, your piece of paper, whatever it might be, and you write their name down. And you ask, God, who is it that you want me to pray for? Because first we come in prayer.
Before we prepare, we pray. So I encourage you to write that down on a piece of paper or phone. And before next Sunday, this is the action part. Before next Sunday, if possible, please take them out for coffee or for tea, listen to their struggles.
Listen to their struggles. And if it's that kind of relationship, as you're praying through the conversation of whatever the struggle might be, maybe they're a non-believer, maybe they are a believer, that you pray with them or pray for them while you're in conversation with them. It is important that we gather together and that we encourage one another, that we be the light to those who only know darkness. Because friends, how long, how patiently long have those who don't know Jesus been waiting?
How long? So I'll invite Fola to come up as we pray. Lord, we thank You. We thank You for this time and this place that we are placed in.
We know that there is uncertainties. We know that there is things within our city that drive a questionable uncertainty within our minds. There are things that God, we know that we are not following You in, that we know others are not following You and Your will. We are not submitting to You.
They are not submitting to You. And God, I pray that we do that deep work within ourselves, that we submit ourselves to You before going to someone else. And God, as we meet with that individual, maybe it's a family member, a friend, a neighbor, somebody on the street. That God, that You continuously encourage us, You continuously guide us in those conversations, in those times that we feel uncertain, that we feel God, why are You saying, Be patient, why are You saying, no to this?
And what is that thing? What is that moment, that event that is for our betterment? For Your betterment? God, what are You saying, yes to?
Lord, we thank You. We thank You for Jesus for being our Savior to come to being the only one that could fulfill these covenants, that could be the one that You are continuously pointing us towards to be our Savior. We thank You that we look forward to a day when we will be united once again in Your Kingdom on Your everlasting throne. We thank You.
Thank You for the great sacrifice, for the great blessing that You have given us. And may we trust in Your Holy Spirit to give us the words to speak when we do not know what to say. In Your name we pray, Amen.