Dove Creek Bible Church's Podcast

Last time we observed that false teaching does not, for it cannot, produce orthodoxy or orthopraxy. False doctrines, myths, and meaningless talk...no matter how confidently asserted, nevertheless remain unorthodox. This week Paul explains to Timothy the false teachers also misunderstand the nature and purpose of the law.

At one time or another we have all probably given some thought about what we would say if we knew we were going to die soon. If we knew we were going to see our loved ones only a few more times at best...what things would we want them to remember…what wisdom would we want to impart? When Paul wrote this epistle he is nearing the end of his life and although he had no children of his own he did have spiritual children…two sons of the faith known as Timothy and Titus. It was with these two young men he would share his final thoughts.

The Bible records David's triumphs and David's transgressions. He was both a man of faith and a man of failure. It has been suggested that there were four cycles in David's life and in each cycle we find a moment of great failure which followed a moment of great faith. This sermon examines these four cycles and offers a summation of David's life.

The next chapters describe conflicts David has to deal with after Absalom’s rebellion, David’s Song of Praise which is an overview of the Lord’s faithfulness to him, and his last words meaning his last divinely inspired words not the last words he ever spoke. The author of 2nd Samuel has, as he nears the end, put together a number of other incidents from David’s reign.

If you have significant dysfunction in your family...have you ever tried to trace it all back to where it originally began? David's relationship with his sons is dysfunctional. What went wrong between David and his sons and who or what is to blame?

The ministry and resurrection of Jesus offered people something new. If they accepted His offer they became something new. Becoming something new meant a whole new way of life. Some people were attracted to this newness of life and others wanted to quash it. This Easter we will discuss what’s new because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Elizabeth O’Connor once wrote, “Despite a hundred sermons on forgiveness, we do not forgive easily, nor find ourselves easily forgiven. Forgiveness, we discover, is always harder than the sermons make it out to be.” In this text, David struggles with forgiveness. David received forgiveness from God, but would he grant forgiveness to someone else?

The bitter fruit of David’s sin, begins to blossom in Chapters 13-15 beginning with troubles in David’s family. David tore Uriah’s family apart and now his own family will be torn apart. David sowed sexual sin and murder in Uriah’s family, now he reaps sexual sin and murder in his own.

When is it appropriate to confront? Our struggle as to "when" is two-sided. How do we determine "when to confront" in the sense of is this something we should be confronting someone about at all...is confrontation even necessary in this situation? Second of all, "when" in the sense of timing...Is now the best time to confront the person or should we wait for a better, more opportune moment? In today's passage the prophet, Nathan, must confront King David over his sin with Bathsheba, but the Lord has him wait for a year before he confronts David...why?

In 1st Peter 5:8, Peter wrote "Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." In today’s text that devil lion finds David unprepared and unguarded so he devours him. In truth, the devil actually presented David with the bait of lust at the age of 30, but he doesn't set his hook until David is 50.

Some people have a "No-Face". Some people have a "Yes-Face". If you have ever stood at the side of the road or in a parking lot with some jumper cables in your hands you have looked in desperation for a "Yes-Face" amongst a sea of "No-Faces". Are you a "Yes-Face" or a "No-Face?" Today we see King David showing a “Yes-Face” of grace and kindness to Jonathan's disabled son, Mephibosheth.

William Carey said, "Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God." Today we see that David wants to attempt a great thing for God, but God says "No, instead I want to do a great thing for you”.

Today we see how David learns a terrible lesson concerning how God is good, but He isn’t safe.

Have you ever had a time in your life when you finally achieved some lifelong goal and then the thought occurs to you...now what? In these chapters David finally becomes king...now what? What kind of king will he be?

When someone dies...how do we evaluate their life...how do we encapsulate it? Do we consider it as a whole? Or should we focus on the last few years? Or if their life ended badly do we only remember the early years? I think of this whenever I read an obituary...where a person’s entire life is summed up in a few paragraphs. Do these few paragraphs really give us the essence of the person who has passed? David is faced in today’s text with the dilemma of how to remember Saul? Where should his focus be? On Saul’s unjustifiable and unnecessary pursuit and persecution...or on Saul being the father of his best friend?

Today we finish 1st Samuel with the death of Saul, but before we examine the final product of Saul's life, the fruit; we will look at the seed that gave life to that fruit. Saul proudly planted seeds of defiance and he consequently reaped the thorns of destruction...he should have known what fruit would spring from the seeds he planted.

David’s life appears to be running smoothly since he made the decision to defect to the Philistine camp. He doesn’t have to wander all over the desert anymore hiding in caves, in fact, a whole town has been given to him. Saul had even given up his pursuit of him. The Philistines give him so much personal freedom that he can even go out behind their backs and raid the enemies of Israel...and after all isn't all of this God's will? However, the other shoe is about to drop in two significant ways. David’s deception of the Philistines has painted him into a corner where he may be tempted to keep up the ruse to save his own hide! He will be rescued from this temptation by the mercy of God only to walk from the frying pan into the fire.

Guest Speaker Dave Champness takes us through the thread that connects the entire bible.

One of mankind’s greatest wishes is to communicate with the dead and there are popular "psychics" today that skeptics refer to as “grief vampires”. They find people who are trapped in a place of non-acceptance concerning the death of a loved one and then they provide reconnection and reassurance...and all for a modest fee. In today’s text King Saul seeks reassurance from a person who claimed to be able to speak with the dead.