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2 Samuel 15-20

The Unraveling of David's House (Part 2)

May 24, 2020

Today’s message traced the insurrection lead by David’s eldest son, Absalom. This text presents a David who is deeply conflicted. He has a blind spot toward his son and he is blind-sided by the conspiracy Absalom mounts against the throne. This entire incident, which culminates in Absalom’s death, is a fulfillment of the punishment pronounced on David by the prophet Nathan for his sin with Bathsheba.

But even while God allowed the difficult circumstances to punish David, God consistently showed David mercy and kindness. We can observe this at several key junctures in the story. This led us to the big idea of the passage: God is both just and merciful and uses times of chastening to change our hearts.

2 Samuel 21-24

May 31, 2020 • Dr. Peter Radford

The final chapters of the Books of Samuel serve as an Epilogue to David’s reign, combining two narratives, two lists, and two poems. As we considered each of these elements in our message, we created five epitaphs that described David’s life: 1. “Here lies David: He sought the Lord in every circumstance.” (21:1-14) 2. “Here lies David: He worshipped the Lord with the deepest reverence.” (24:1-25) 3. “Here lies David: He was a mighty warrior for God.” (21:15-22; 23:8-39) 4. “Here lies David: He trusted in God completely.” (22:1-51) 5. “Here lies David: He knew that everything good comes from God.” (23:1-7) We arrived at a Big Idea that summarized David’s life: David was an imperfect man who loved and served his perfect God.

2 Samuel 13-14

May 17, 2020 • Dr. Peter Radford

This week, we work through two chapters that record some of the consequences of David’s sin as experienced in the lives of his children. We discover three life lessons in the wake of sinful choices: 1. The sin of one person clears a path for similar sins in the lives of those that follow. 2. When sexual desire is left unbridled, it leads a person to make rash decisions that will ultimately leave the person unsatisfied. 3. When anger is left unsettled it devolves into bitterness, and the slow burn of bitterness will erode a person’s moral compass. The Big Idea of the message was that one devastating effect of tolerating of sin in your heart is that you are less able to see and to deal with sin in the lives of people within your care.

2 Samuel 10-12

May 3, 2020 • Dr. Peter Radford

This week we study three chapters which detail David’s great sin with Bathsheba. In these passages, we discover three principles about sin: 1. You are never so spiritually strong that you cannot fall into sin. 2. The impulse to hide our sin is the enemy of true repentance. 3. Sin promises us the illicit bliss of secret pleasure mixed with the illusion of control; but, while we can choose when we sin, we don’t get to choose the consequences. The Big Idea of the message is that when believers give themselves to sin, God lovingly does whatever it takes to draw them back to Himself.