The Forever King

[0:00] people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people shall 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. The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you.

[0:27] 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 and I will establish his kingdom. 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 shall be my son. When he does wrong I will punish him with a rod wielded by men with floggings inflicted by human hands but my love will never be taken away from him as I took it away from Saul whom I removed from before you. Your house and your kingdom shall endure forever before me.

[1:09] Your throne shall be established forever. Nathan reported to David all the words of this entire revelation. This is the word of the Lord.

[1:23] Awesome, awesome, awesome. Good morning boys and girls. Lovely to see you and wasn't that exciting? Wasn't that exciting? Absolutely amazing. And whoa, what's this? It's a present. I wonder who it's from.

[1:40] To James from Martin. Ah, that's amazing. A present just for me and there's no reason why it's given.

[1:51] It's just given to me. How amazing is that? Well, that's a lot like our reading this morning. God gives David a great big present for no reason at all. And while we remember all the things that we've learned about King David this week, I wonder if you guys can remember, we remember that he was the chosen king, that he was the powerful king and he slayed Goliath. And we remember that he was the suffering king, how he suffered. But we also remember that all the stuff that was said about David was also true about his great, great, great, great, great, great, great, great grandson, Jesus. That Jesus was the chosen king. That Jesus was the powerful king. That Jesus slayed the enemies of sin and death. And that Jesus was the suffering king who suffered on the cross and died in our place to take away all the sin in the world. That we can know and be with God. Well, I wonder if you remember

[2:59] David, the story of David, David was the smallest, the tiniest, the puniest of his brothers. And God made him a great big king. So David saw that all that God had done for him, how amazing it was. And do you know what he said? He said, wow, that's amazing. I wonder how you'd respond if you got given a great big present by God. So David says, wow. And he says, well, God's given me all the stuff. Do you know what I'm going to do? I am going to build him a great big massive house. And he starts collecting stuff in and he starts measuring it. But then something happens. God comes and speaks to his prophet Nathan. And he says, tell David, don't build me a house because I am going to build David's house. What?

[4:00] What? Sorry, this is for you. It's from Martin. From Martin? Yes, from Martin. What? Even more? That's ridiculous. Whoa. Sorry, Dave, we've got another parcel for you.

[4:11] What? Another? Who's this from? From Martin as well, I think. From Martin, an even bigger, better present. Martin's giving me so many presents, even though I haven't deserved anything. And that's exactly what happens in this passage. David doesn't do anything, but God gives him even more presents. He says he's going to build David's house. And that's the first thing that we really notice in this passage is that David wants to build God's house, but God says he will build David's house. And it's ridiculous. It's a ridiculous generosity. David says he wants to build God's house, but God says, don't be silly. I don't live in a house. I am God. I rescued you from Egypt. I made you king, even though you were nobody.

[5:04] Nobody. And that's not all. I'm going to do even more. And it's absolutely amazing, isn't it? How kind and how generous and awesome God is. And I wonder, if you wondered there, how is God going to do this? How is God going to build David's house and be even more awesome and amazing and generous? And that's the next thing that we notice, is that David is given a promise of a great king forever. Now, I've hidden three clues about this king in the hall. I wonder if any of you have seen any of the clues. Anyway, maybe you'd just like to go and grab them, see if you can find them, bring them in quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly, quickly, three clues. Who's got a clue? There we've got a clue. Right. Here we go.

[5:59] We've got the first clue. Hannah's got the first clue. Right. Hannah, stand there. Stand there. Stand there. Stand there. Right. Who's got the next clue? Stand there. Just wait. That's perfect. Emily's hidden the clues very well. Maybe a bit too well.

[6:24] Warmer, warmer, warmer. Colder, colder, colder. Here we go. Oh, there's another clue. There's another clue. Right. Quick. Rush back. Rush back. Oh, we've got another. Right. Up there.

[6:37] There you go, Hannah. Stand over there on the step. You've got clue two. You've got to hold that out. Got clue one. Hannah, Hannah. Hannah, Hannah. Right. Who's got the third clue? There we go, Donald. You've got, right, stand on the step there. There we go. Right. What have we got in the first clue about this great forever king? Let's get that out. Oh, it's a child.

[7:01] It's a son. The first clue is that this great king forever will be the son of God. Isn't that amazing? Do you want to go grab a seat? Let's put that over there. There we go. On the step. And you can learn a lot about someone from their children, can't you? Maybe you learn a bit too much about them that you don't want to. So here's some small little babies that I saw earlier. And here's the first one. What kind of animal is this? What kind of animal is that? A monkey. Yeah. Something bigger. A gorilla. Yes. There we go. It's a great big and here's the next baby, the next child that we're going to look at. What's that? What's that going to grow up into? A duck. Yes. And it's going to be a great big duck. Yes.

[7:52] Fantastic. Right. And here's another one. What are we going to learn here? Here's our next one. Yes. They're going to grow up into great big lions. And here's our, there we go. Let's look at what it grows up into. Great big. Oh, that's scary. And then one more, one more. Oh, wait for it. Oh. And what's that? A cat. It's going to grow up into a cat. Yes.

[8:13] Fantastic. And then one more, one more. Last one, last one. What's this? Oh, what's that going to grow up into? A labrador. That's amazing. So God tells David that if he wants to know what this great forever king is going and what he's going to be like, then he needs to look at this great forever king. This great forever king is going to be exactly what God is going to be like. Right. Let's look at our next clue. I wonder if we can look at our next clue and what's that? Our second clue. What's this? What's in here? What's in here? What's in there, Hannah? What have you got? A watch. That's fantastic. But it's not just any watch. It's my broken old watch. It's stopped. And do you know what? Because it's stopped, time has stopped. This king is going to last forever and ever and ever and ever. And that's good news, isn't it? Hannah, do you want to go grab a seat? Because imagine you're at a party and it's the greatest party ever. And the jokes are funny and they've got crisps and they've got chicken nuggets, maybe a bit of mayonnaise. That's absolutely awesome. What's the only thing that could make that party any better? Have a guess, anyone? It lasts forever. Yes, it lasts forever. And that's good news. That's what it's going to be like when God's forever king comes. It's going to be forever and ever and ever. Which means that we never have to be scared that something's going to change and that we're going to have to do something else. We are always going to be in the party because of that. And what's our third clue there? What's that?

[9:57] Yeah, it's a cross. And that's a sad clue, but it's a fantastically awesome clue. Cheers, Donald. Do you want to grab a seat? Cool. Right. Because on the cross, I'll just get there.

[10:13] Right. I wonder who lives in your house? Yes.

[10:27] My daddy's sister and my sister. Yes. Do you live in your house? Yes. Who lives in your neighbor's house? Yes. And are they your neighbors? Yes. So your neighbor lives in your neighbor's house? Yes. And what does it mean? Who lives in God's house? Who knows? Who's the bright spark here? Yeah. Well, kind of almost. Who lives? The name's in the clue. Who lives in God's house? Yes. Yes. God. Fantastic. And so it's good news because this good forever king is going to mean that God is going to live with his people in his house. He's going to live with his people in his house. And how does he do that? Well, through dying on the cross. Jesus brings God to live among us. And that's good news because what did we learn? What did we learn? That we had all sinned. We had all said, shove off God. I'm in charge. No to your rules. So it's great, fantastic news that because of the great forever king, God is going to live with us. And we can now be friends of God.

[12:05] I wonder how you might respond to those awesome presents that God has given you. How did David respond to this awesome news? Yes. Yes. Well, yes. And then God said, I'll give you even more.

[12:21] How does David respond? He goes, wow, that's absolutely amazing. And this is what he says. He says, because of your promise and according to your own heart, you have brought about all this greatness to make your servant know it. Therefore, you are great, O Lord God, for there is none like you and there is no God besides you according to all that our ears have heard. What does he do?

[12:49] He's in absolute awe and wonder of God. He worships God because of this great, fantastic news. I wonder how we respond. How should we respond, do you think? Yes. We should worship and wonder at him.

[13:06] One way that we do that is by praying to God and saying thank you to him for all that he's done. So let's do that quickly. I'll show you a quick way. So right arm out. P-R-A-Y. Dear God, thank you for sending your great forever king.

[13:24] Thank you for Jesus. Thank you that he came, that we can be friends with you forever and ever and ever. Amen. Amen. Right. Do you want to go back to your seats, sit with your mummies and daddies? Well done. You've done amazingly well.

[13:40] Amen.