Trusting God's Timing

 “Trusting God’s Timing”

 Message @ Jericho Ridge Community Church – Sunday, July 5, 2015

Text: 2 Samuel 1 // Series: Divided Kingdom

Good morning. Welcome to Jericho Ridge as we launch into summer!  Now, if you are new or visiting with us, I want to let you in on the plan for our summers here at Jericho… Our goal during the summers is to take you on a journey through the Old Testament.  The Bible can sometimes feel like a long and confusing book and so we want you to have a handle on where to find people, places and things in the Big God Story.  Now, kids you guys often do this better than we do as adults so you are here to help us and keep us on track, OK? J.  This is a format we call Family Inclusive which means that everyone from grade 2 and up is in together it is highly participatory through object lessons, videos, skits and more.  Speaking of skits, I want to give fair warning – I am looking for three volunteer actors to read parts this morning for our Scripture text.  I need someone to play the part of David, someone to read the part of a soldier, and someone to be a reporter.  No previous acting experience necessary.  If you want to volunteer, put your hand up and I’ll come around with the script so you can read ahead.  Anyone?  Another fair warning: at the end of our teaching time today, I’m going to give you an opportunity to say yes to Jesus.  If you have come today and you are seeking, thinking, wondering, today may just be the day everything changes for you.  So now you can stew on that for the next 3o minutes.  While I’m handing scripts out, kids, there are busy bags at the Welcome Centre with activities and items in them so parents, those are available for pick up at Coffee and Connection time (otherwise parents are done the word search by the time I start preaching).  Welcome to summer at Jericho Ridge.  It’s always fun – Mike Ryder & Ruth Ellen and I are excited to teach through the 10^th book of the Bible, 2 Samuel. 

A few summers ago, we started [sung] at the very beginning, a very good place to start.  We looked at the book of Genesis – which is so intriguing that it took us two sermon series to tackle it J.  Then we did the book of Exodus where we explored the amazing power and provision of God as He rescued His people from slavery and oppression in ancient Egypt.  Then we did a series called “Crossing Over” where we combined Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy and Joshua. Now, just to keep it confusing, we taught through the book of Judges actually the summer BEFORE we did Genesis and at some point we’re going to save the book Ruth for its own series cause there’s lots of goodies in there.  But last summer we did a series called Games & Thrones where we explored the book of I Samuel.    

And this morning, we pick up right where we left off and jump in with a series called “Divided Kingdom: A Summer Series in 2 Samuel” (say that 5 times fast).  What’s the book of 2 Samuel about?  I’m so glad you asked let’s watch this short video to help us get a sense of things.

VIDEO – The Fabulous Bentley Brothers Sing 2 Samuel (Jelly Telly)  

Oh, you’ll be singing that when you go to bed tonight won’t you?  “2 Samuel / the book that tells of the reign of David king of Israel / he had some highs & he had some lows / Read 2 Samuel to learn about those”

So let me take a minute to remind where we are in our Big God story.  I Samuel is the story of the very first king of Israel, a man named Saul.  But we discovered midway through last summer that Saul had stopped listening to God and God had rejected him as king.  Instead, God chose a young shepherd boy named David to be the next king.  David grew to prominence by being a man who listened to what was on God’s heart and acting in faith so God helped him to do amazing things like slaying the giant Goliath.  But Saul got so jealous that he tried to have David killed.  The last part of I Samuel is the story of the struggle between Saul & David. 

Saul hunts David down like a criminal.  But David has two separate opportunities to take matters into his own hands and kill Saul.  In I Samuel 24, David and his men are hiding in a cave and Saul comes right in. And David’s men say “you should kill him!” but David spares Saul’s life and says to him “Saul, I will never harm the king – he is the Lord’s anointed one.  The Lord will judge between us!”  Then again in chapter 26, David has an opportunity to sneak right into Saul’s camp right up to where Saul is sleeping and one of David’s men says “psssst, Dave. Look!  God has handed your enemy over to you – let me just run him through with my spear.  I won’t need to strike twice.  We could still make a clean get away!”  But David acts with honour and integrity and says “No!” Don’t kill him. For who can remain innocent after attacking the Lord’s anointed one? 10 Surely the Lord will strike Saul down someday, or he will die of old age or in battle. 11 The Lord forbid that I should kill the one he has anointed!” 

You see, David trusts God.  And more specifically, David trusts God timing.  I don’t know about you, but I am so tempted to take things into my own hands.  To make things happen.  But David trusts God’s timing.  He respects God’s timing.  He leaves it to the Lord to deal with Saul on God’s timeline and in God’s way.  And today we’re going to discover how that turns out for David.  This is the main point in our time today in 2 Samuel chapter 1…  You and I can trust God’s timing.

But before we get there, let’s explore this concept of timing together.  Let’s do some brainstorming… I want you to shout out situations or areas of life where timing is important.  Shout them out and you can see how poor my handwriting really is.    

(ideas: video games – jump at the right time; relationships – asking a person to marry you; financial transactions – like buying real estate or stocks; sports – golf, baseball; music – timing is critical; news…

Speaking of the News, I need my three acting volunteers to come forward.  News reporter, I have a suit jacket for you.  Solider, I need you to hold this crown. And David, you get a shield because 2 Samuel 1:1 says you just got back to you hometown after rescuing your people from raiders.  If you have you Bibles, turn to 2 Samuel 1 follow along.  This is a dramatic reading – based off the Voice transliteration of 2 Samuel 1.  Alright, once you hear the breaking news music, it’s time to begin

VIDEO: Breaking news clip      

Slide - Dramatic Reading of 2 Samuel 1 (photo of voice bible cover).

Let’s thank our readers / actors, shall we?  What an intriguing story…  One of the intriguing things we find out from reading the end of I Samuel that the Amalekite solders’s account of what happened was simply not true.  Some of it was true – he had likely come upon Saul’s body before the Philistines did and so acquired the crown and armband.  And he gets away from the battle field.  And as he lets out a sign of relief, I can see him thinking to himself ‘how can I make this amazing series of events work for me?’.  I know what I’ll do.  I’ll find Saul’s biggest enemy, David, and I’ll bring him the great news that Saul, the man who was trying to kill him is dead.  That should bring me a reward!  At the very least, David will probably throw a good party because he’s free from Saul’s terror.  Yeah, I’ll go find him and I’ll concoct a good story and I’ll be a hero.”  But his lie sentences him to die.  Perhaps he forgot that Jonathan, David’s best friend, also died on the field of battle that day.  Perhaps he forgot about God’s advice in Proverbs 24:17-18 that says “Don’t rejoice when your enemies fall;    don’t be happy when they stumble.  ¹⁸ For the Lord will be displeased with you.”  This is a hard thing for us in our lives isn’t it?  Have you ever paid attention to what happens inside of you when someone you dislike is having a hard day? When the neighobour who you can’t stand is or that kid at school that you don’t like has a problem?  Sometimes insides we do a little happy dance.  Na na nah na nah nah… you’re getting what you deserve!”

But not David.  When his enemy dies, which open up the way for him to become the next king, he rips his clothes in grief, he cries, he fasts or takes no food all day, and he writes a song about Saul and how great of a king he was called the Song of the Bow (you can read that in 2 Sam 1).  David acts with honor toward Saul because he trusts God’s timing.   

God has told David that he will one day be the king and David doesn’t need to rush out and take matters into his own hands.  To force that to happen.  He rests in God’s timing.  He rests in the fact that God is in charge and that God will open the way up for David to become king when the timing is right.  How about you?  Do you trust God’s timing?  I have a hard time with this because I am a person that likes to make things happen.  I like to move quickly and expediently and sometimes when things take a long time, I have a hard timing being patient.  For example, when a conflict comes up, sometimes we want to fix it quickly by helping the other person see where we are right and they are in the wrong instead of letting God work in ours hearts to bring reconciliation on His timeline.  When God makes a promise to us, we often want it to happen TODAY and if it doesn’t, we want to jump in there and make things happen.  Maybe help God along a little bit.  But just like timing is important in all of the things we have listed up here, trusting in God’s timing is important in your life and my life as well.  If we say we trust God, but we don’t trust God’s timing, we’re not really telling ourselves the truth. 

The band is going to come and I want to illustrate this for us so you’ll remember today’s main point: you and I can Trust God’s timing.  The band is going to play a song for us about trusting God. And as they do so, band, can you humour me?  I want you each to play it in whatever time signature feels right for you.  Just choose your own timing – when to begin, how fast to play, all that – and we’ll just see how it goes.  [band to play]

OK, stop.  I can’t take much more of that.  Now, I want you to do what you were doing so well in the first set of music this morning.  I want you to trust David’s timing.  He’s leading, he is guiding and has the best interests not only of you as musicians, but also us as participants in his mind. 

In a minute, I’m going to ask you to play that song again.  But just before you do, the prayer team is coming - Dab Jarvis, Aaron Franson, and myself – we are here to pray with and for you.  Many of you are facing things in your life today where you had doubts and fears and you are actively questioning God’s timing.  But prayer is that place where the mess of our doubts and fears is welcomed into the place of mysterious, glorious grace.  Today God wants to remind you that He knows all about you and the situation you carry in your heart.  He cares.  We would love to stand with you in prayer today for a need in your own life or the life of someone you care about for faith to grow in your heart. 

If you are here today and you have never trusted God but you feel a stirring in your soul today, I want you to come and we’ll pray with you to open your life to Jesus and say yes to Him today.  It’s the best decision of trust you will ever make. 

I invite you to stand with me as David and the band lead us in two songs of worship response and come for prayer as we worship a God who is worthy of placing our trust in.  Let’s worship together! 

Receive your benediction. “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, and as your trust in His timing, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”