Bible Recap Week 21

This week takes us into 2 Samuel and several of the Psalms, where we uncover some of the lies men often believe and discover a deeper side of God's love. This week's reading reminds us that God's correction is not punishment without purpose; it's evidence of His care. He can be trusted enough to correct us because He loves us too much to leave us in our brokenness. 

Transcript

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Hey everyone, and welcome to the Water's Edge Bible Recap Podcast. This is Pastor Eric, and I'm really glad you're listening. This podcast is one of the tools that we're using this year as we read through the Bible together. It's a chance for us to think about last week's reading. What's standing out to you, what's confusing, what might God be saying to us along the way? One of the things that we are focused on in the reading is what does a reading say about God? We call them connections. How is it helping you trust the highest? I believe relationships move at the speed of trust. So the more you build your relationship with the family, the more you know the more you is a more difficult. Which means he sends us out to live in the love like Jesus. So see this time as a workout. A workout that builds muscle so you can live like Jesus. Love like Jesus. I love spending time in the Word with you like this. So let's get started. Welcome to podcast number 21 and this uh Bible recap uh that we're doing at Water's Edge. Glad that you are listening today. I want to zero in on the reading from 2 Samuel chapters 19 through 21, and then four different psalms: Psalms chapter 5, 38, 41, and 42. That's the recap of a few of the days that we read this past week. As I worked through the reading this week, I was really thinking um of the emotional state of men in our world. Although what I want to share is it's good for men and women. But I as I'm writing this podcast, I am really zeroing in on David as a man. And um I want to try to shed light on the lies that a lot of men believe. I think a lot of people believe, but specifically this week, I was just drawn to men. I don't know if it's because Father's Day is a few uh weeks away, but um, I think part of it is in the in our reading this week, we saw a different side of God's love. Often um God's love is is uh uh cast as very sentimental. Um and I have to push back a little bit on some of our modern worship songs. Um when they describe God's love as mushy and kissy and all huggy and the sentimental side. There is a side of God's love that is filled with mercy and grace and reigns in beauty, right? But but the love of God is also holy. And because he is holy and loving, God refuses to ignore sin. And we see that this week. The same God who protects, who provides, who heals and restores is also the God who confronts sin because sin destroys people. I saw this this week that in his correction. Um, it's not the opposite of God's care and love for us. God's correction is out of his love, not the opposite of his love. And these chapters that we're looking at this past week hold together two truths that I think a lot of people separate and and they don't run them together. And in my world, in my theology, they run together. And here it is. Number one, God takes sin very seriously, and God can still be trusted completely. As King David becomes the perfect case study, we we see in him both strength and vulnerability. David is a king, David is a warrior, David is a leader, David is an emotionally exhausted worshiper crying out for mercy. And all those things go together. That's not when we see David crying out, it's not weakness, it's maturity. 2 Samuel chapter 21, we we read that there's this famine in the land. The famine comes because Saul, the king before David, violated covenant faithfulness towards the Gibeonites. Years later, the nation is still experiencing consequences from that unresolved sin. So now David is the leader, and and they are still experiencing the consequences from that sin of Saul. And so David goes to God and he inquires him, and and he finds out that there is blood guilt on Saul and on his house. Chapter 21, verse 1. This is important because this famine was not just a random famine, yet God was not absent and God was not being cruel. God was exposing what the people of God, his followers, had ignored. Healthy people understand that God's correction is evidence of his involvement, not his abandonment. Modern people, uh, even Christians, often assume that when you are walking in a blessing of God, it's because he is near and he's on your side and he's loving. But when you're going through a hardship in life, God is nowhere to be found and he's absent. But scripture repeatedly shows that sometimes God's disruption is mercy. The famine that the Israelites were going through forced David to stop and say, What is wrong beneath the surface? Sometimes God allows discomfort because hidden sin is more dangerous than temporary pain. God can be trusted not only when he comforts us, but when he confronts us. You see, Saul's sin, King Saul's sin affected generations. This is this is really a crucial leadership conversation. Sin leaks down into an organization, even after the the leader of that organization um goes away. In other words, and this is true in family life. Sin in families can leak down generations, even when great-great grandpa is gone. You see, unaddressed compromise eventually affects families, it can affect churches, it can affect communities. Unaddressed compromise. People often think these hidden wounds that we carry, or rage, or a family, you know, because they are whatever, German or Polish or English or whatever. They they think, oh, we have this hidden rage and it's just the way we are, or um uh sins of addiction or pride, lust, bitterness, that kind of thing. It only affects them personally. I'm not hurting anyone else. But biblically, unresolved inner disorder always becomes communal disorder. Let me say that again. In the Bible, we learn that unresolved inner disorder always becomes communal disorder. One of the uh painful things about growing old is when you see not just the good things that your children do because they learn them from you, but some of the things that they picked up and you think, oh, they got that from me. I wish, I wish they wouldn't have got that from me. And for me, it's things like worry or control or um uh uh having some boundaries that that can be abused and crossed. People are Pete Schizero writes more about emotionally healthy leadership than anyone I know. And uh he often is says, Jesus may live in your heart, but grandpa lives in your bones. And that's so true. And David addresses this unresolved disorder, thankfully, to break this cycle. This is where when David begins to address the sin, this is where the psalms in our reading became incredibly important to me. You see, the culture often gives people, and specifically, again, I'm thinking of men, um the culture says to men, they give them these two false options. The first one is be strong, but be emotionally disconnected. Or if you're gonna be emotional, that's a sign of weakness. And David destroys that false dichotomy. He was, David was a, you know, this, he was a warrior, he was a king, he was decisive, he was courageous, he was physically strong, he was uh good looking, and he was deeply emotional, honest about despair, vulnerable before God. He's expressive in his grief and his fear and his anxiety, his shame, um, his exhaustion. We see that this week uh when he says, as the deer panteth for the water, so my soul pants for you, O Lord. Um that that's not a sign of weakness. That is integrated masculinity. Um, it now you may be a man that says, as the deer panteth for the water, so my soul panteth after you. But when the deer comes close to the water, I will shoot it, right? That that would be that would be uh Jeremy, uh our worship leader. He, you know, he's he's a hunter. He likes to take deer out, but it's not a sign of weakness that Jeremy also loves to worship God. You see, David describes sin affecting his body, his mind, his emotions, his relationships. He says, There is no soundness in my flesh. My guilt has overwhelmed me. I am feeble, I'm utterly crushed. David doesn't minimize the sin. He feels the crushing weight of it, but yet he keeps turning to God. That's why we still call David a man after God's own heart, even though we know David sinned. He keeps turning towards God. Emotionally healthy people do not deny pain. They bring pain to God. That to me, that is biblical masculinity. If you're a guy that is listening, it's biblical to bring the pain before God. David admits to his vulnerability. He says to God, Hey, God, enemies are surrounding me. My friends are failing me. Um, he's emotionally exhausted, but he still trusts God in God's sustaining mercy. This helps really dismantle for me the myth that real men don't struggle. Because real men in scripture they lament, they weep, they confess sin, they pray, they seek help from God. David says in Psalms chapter 42, why are my why, my soul, are you so downcast? Have you ever said that? Maybe not in those words, but why am I so depressed? Why is life so heavy? Why am I struggling with this? David is talking to himself spiritually because emotionally he is depleted. This is profoundly relevant today, friends. Many uh many people, men specifically, I'm thinking of many men suppress emotions, they isolate themselves, they numb their pain, whether it's through alcohol or pornography, they avoid vulnerability because they don't want to be seen as weak. But David, uh warrior king David, models something healthier. He processes pain in God's presence. Pete Schizero, again, works uh so much in this realm, uh, not only for men, but for women as well. And here's a couple of things that he has said that I I went back and looked at. Here's another thing from uh Schizero. Emotional health and spiritually spiritually spiritual maturity, I'm sorry, cannot be separated. Emotional health and spiritual maturity cannot be separated. You can't be spiritually mature while remaining emotionally immature. David shows spirituality because he's emotionally honest before God. The second thing Schazero says as I kind of look back at some of his stuff this week, avoiding emotions does not remove those emotions. See, a lot of people think, oh, if I just don't feel that, it'll go away. Ignored pain eventually emerges. And ignored pain can can affect our health. Um, it uh ignored pain can emerge as uh anger or control or uh shifts to an addiction. It can bring about anxiety, it can cause high blood pressure, it can be burnout, um, it can make people just close up and isolate. See, that's what Saul did, if if you remember the reading in King Saul or of King Saul, he suppressed all of his emotions, but David processed all of those emotions. That's a powerful contrast. Earlier this week, I was having uh, I guess just a bad day and filled with and I there was no real reason for it, just a lot of different things were contributing to it, and and uh that my emotions started to to come out. And I knew that that afternoon, that was in a morning, and I just knew I had to get away, I just had to process what is going on with all these emotions that are that are rolling around in my in my heart. Um it would be tempting to suppress them. Um, I was able to go to a gym and work some of that frustration out. And then while I'm on the treadmill, I'm listening to worship music and I'm thinking through, okay, this is this is what I'm feeling, and I'm worshiping God, and I am processing those emotions, not suppressing them. Third thing, another thing uh Schazero says, is vulnerability before God is seen as strength in scripture. David's writings and Psalms are not a sign of weakness, they are evidence of his deep trust in God. They're evidence of he knows what to do when life is not going the way he was thinking it should. Secure people confess weakness honestly. Um, I've been in I've been in a few men's groups in my years of ministry where men felt comfortable confessing weakness. Um and those those relationships and those experiences are some of the highest moments of what we would call a life group or a small group in my life. There's a strong contrast on how Saul handled things and how David handled things. Uh for instance, Saul. Saul hid his insecurity, he protected his image, he blamed other people, he suppressed all the emotions. Um David, he expressed weakness, he pursued repentance, um, he cries out to God, he faced truth honestly, he was emotionally aware, where Saul was emotionally uh reactive. He he I wouldn't say he was unaware, but he was reactive. Saul embodies what fragile masculinity looks like, but David models what surrendered masculinity looks like. Um I want to close with two statements. This one is God can be trusted enough to correct us because he loves us too much to leave us broken. God can be trusted enough to correct us because he loves us too much to leave us broken. I hope that's encouraging to you. The last thing the most dangerous men are not emotional men. The most dangerous men are emotionally unhealthy men who refuse to face what's going on inside of them. God bless you. Thanks so much for listening to the Water's Edge Bible recap. I look forward every week to walking in the Word with you. You can find more information about Water's Edge Church at www.watersedge.faith. And you can listen to our weekly message on any platform under the Water's Edge website or by downloading the Water's Edge app.