PKLM Sermons

December 28, 2025 - Bobby Dagnel - God's Love: Embracing the Unexpected

Share episode

Bobby Dagnel - God's Love: Embracing the Unexpected

00:00 Welcome and Opening Remarks
00:12 Life's Constant Challenges and Faith
01:34 The Anticipation of the Holy Spirit
02:01 A Co-Struggler in Faith
02:48 Introduction to the Sermon Topic
03:24 God's Love: Embracing the Unexpected
03:47 The Unexpected in Faith and Christmas
04:55 The Pitfalls of a List-Driven Faith
07:42 God's Love Exceeds Human Limitations
18:09 God's House Plan: A Dynasty of Faith
25:10 God's Unceasing, Unconditional Love
30:18 Final Reflections and Prayer
32:45 Closing Blessing

[00:00:00] Welcome and Opening Remarks

Good seeing our PK Chapel community this morning. Great turnout. Never really know what to expect on a holiday weekend like this, but this is a wonderful turnout. So good to, uh, see all of you, uh, this morning. 

[00:00:12] Life's Constant Challenges and Faith

You know, I was sitting there.

Songs, the words of that previous song and, uh, about breaking new ground. You know, it seems like life is always just breaking new ground. That's what the circumstances of life present to us. It's just breaking new ground constantly and faith is, uh, being tested and being tried. And it seems like with every new circumstance we are like Abraham having to.

Venture for the first time into a place of not knowing. And, uh, life itself certainly becomes a place where our faith is forged, uh, all the more. And our character as believers is forged through the adverse circumstances of, of life. You know, it, uh, in preparing through the week, I always think about, um, the question I always ask myself is, what are you doing to these people?

And I mean that in the sense that I recognize that when I stand on an occasion such as this, we're gonna have individuals from all walks of life, all kinds of circumstances in life. And yet here we are, we're coming from all these different places, all these different backgrounds, all these different life experiences, and they have all come to bear upon this moment.

Uh, in this time together in fellowship, uh, in worship and praise and, uh, proclamation and learning. 

[00:01:34] The Anticipation of the Holy Spirit

And, uh, there should be this sense of anticipation that each one of us have when we come here, when we go to church, uh, this anticipation of how the Holy Spirit. Is going to speak to our hearts, how he's going to minister to us, how he's going to challenge us and stretch us perhaps in ways that he never has before.

And, uh, that we do have that certainly the anticipation I have as one that proclaims the word. 

[00:02:01] A Co-Struggler in Faith

And I hope that you would always understand that when I stand before you, uh, I consider myself and have always considered myself. As a co struggler in the life of faith, never is one that has arrived. Uh, but always a co struggler in the life of faith and in my preparation as I live with the text each week as I grapple with the text, as I'm trying to extract from this text, it's always for me first and allowing God to speak to my heart, to challenge me in my walk, in my relationship with him, and then come Sunday.

To have the opportunity just to stand before you and then to speak just from the overflow, uh, of what God has done in my life with that particular text. 

[00:02:48] Introduction to the Sermon Topic

And so this morning, uh, I wanna call your attention to the Old Testament in the Old Testament, the Book of two Samuel. And, uh, we're going to look at Second Samuel in chapter seven.

In verses, uh, really verses one through 16, we're going to be selective. Uh, I will not read those verses in their entirety, but it's a wonderful story and, uh, and, and I want to, to, to, not cherry pick, but I want to weave this together as we consider a topic this morning that I think is, is worthy, uh, of our attention.

[00:03:24] God's Love: Embracing the Unexpected

And that's God's love. It's up here. God's love, embracing. The unexpected because that's what life does, doesn't it? It breaks new ground, it brings what we would never expect. And what is telling, uh, in our faith is how do we respond? How do I react to the unexpected? 

[00:03:47] The Unexpected in Faith and Christmas

Uh, I've asked the question before. This past week, I was doing a devotional and knowing I was going to be here.

I used this same text, but I asked the question with the approaching of Christmas. I, I asked, how much room do you have in your Christmas? How much latitude do you have in your celebration, in your observance customer Christmas? How much room do you have for the unexpected to occur and still be able to celebrate and rejoice, uh, for what Christmas is supposed?

To be, 'cause my experience has been not my, my own family, even in my own family, is that so much of Christmas seems to be driven by lists. You know, we put these lists together of how we anticipate Christmas going, how we want it to go. We have lists for menus. We have lists for when everyone's going to arrive.

We have lists for sleeping arrangements and, and sometimes families even use these lists to manipulate and control and make others feel guilty. After all, you don't wanna be the family member who, who disrupts the list? 'cause we've got a list of how this is supposed to go. So when you're, everything doesn't go according to the list, are you still able to celebrate without being frustrated?

[00:04:55] The Pitfalls of a List-Driven Faith

Now, oddly enough, or perhaps not that odd at all, uh, there are some religious expressions that are driven by list. They have a list of how things should look in the life of faith. They have a list of things that, that should be done, shouldn't be done. Uh, they have lists that they call policies, procedures, bylaws, rituals, and they have this list because they compare themselves to this list.

If I could just check the boxes, uh, on my religious list, then, then I, I can feel good about me. Now the tragedy is of, of a religion that's driven by list is that it steals away from you the opportunity to have this dynamic, vibrant, evolving relationship with our Heavenly Father who desires to express a love for us and for us to experience a love that he is offering to us in a way that simply cannot be captured by list.

And so I think that it's a, a pertinent question. Is, how much room do you have in your faith for the unexpected? How much room do you have? How much latitude do you have in your relationship with a father for the unexpected to occur and not getting knocked off kilter? I want us to look at this particular text this morning in second Samuel.

Because what happens here is faith takes an unexpected turn. The covenant relationship, the covenant that God has had with Abraham, that through Abraham, God has made this promise to those who would be his people, the Jewish people. And this, of course, this covenant of with Abraham was birthed out of the love of God.

This loving God desire to have a relationship with this particular people so that they might be a light to the world. And so there was in their mind this anticipation of how the covenant relationship was supposed to look. But now we see God's love expressing itself in a way that would've never been anticipated.

That in fact, the covenant made with Abraham is now going to be fulfilled through the lineage of David. And ultimately, as we know through the person of Jesus Christ. Now, what I, what I want us to, to notice what I wanna call our attention to this morning in this, in this passage, is that I think it's helpful in that it, it offers us some, maybe some unexpected looks at the love of God.

And it was certainly unexpected in this particular time, in this particular. Context. 

[00:07:42] God's Love Exceeds Human Limitations

But notice the first thing I would call our attention to in these first seven verses, and I would say to us is that God's love exceeds human limitations. God's love exceeds human limitations. And as you follow along or as you listen to me read verses one through seven, I want you to hear David and what David is trying to do, because David is trying to put limitations upon God.

He's trying to control the workings of God. Listen to these words now. It came about when the king lived in his house and the Lord had given him rest on every side from all his enemies. That the king said to Nathan, the prophet. See now I live at a house of cedar, but the Ark of God remains within the tent.

Nathan said to the king, go do all that is in your mind. For the Lord is with you. But in the same night, the Lord, the word of the Lord came to Nathan saying, go and say to David, my servant. This is what the Lord says. Should you build me a house for my dwelling? For, I've not dwelt in a house since the day that I brought up the Sons of Israel from Egypt, even to this day, rather, I've been moving about in a tent that is in a dwelling place wherever I've gone with all the sons of Israel.

Did I speak a word with one of the tribes of Israel whom I commanded to shepherd my people, Israel, saying, why have you not built me a house of cedar? Now don't, don't miss what? What's transpiring here, David, in his arrogance, David presumes that it is his own determination. It is his own doing that is making manifest the working of God, the kingdom of God.

And what God is doing here and is, is he's reminding his servant and David's just that. God is reminding his servant, David. David, listen, when it comes to the inbreaking of the kingdom of God, when it comes to people understanding me, knowing me, when I reveal myself and make myself known, that is my doing, not you, David, you are king.

Only because I desired for you to be king. And so what? What God is, is I say what he would desire for us. Is that when it comes to understanding God, that we must understand that his love will always supply more than we would've ever anticipated. David wants to determine how God is going to work. God.

David wants to determine where God is going to be, where how God will be known, and I'm going to do it by my power and by my hand. Well, when I read these verse these, these seven verses, I think it's uncanny and we can go back and look at it again. I think it's uncanny of how similar what we can see. What David was attempting to do then thousands of years ago, we see in the Western church today that what David was doing then is no different than what we see the Western church doing.

Today because seeing David's haste and David's desire, I've got to build God a temple. I've got to build God a shelter and a house. What David is trying to do is he's trying to localize God. That is, he's trying, he's trying to pro penalize God. Think about it for a moment. As we, we look at the text, David David's come to a place in his own life where he's satisfied.

David's at a place in his life where he's taking rest. David's not interested in breaking new ground. I'm taking a rest for my enemies instead of a faith that's going forward, instead of a faith that's breaking new ground instead of a faith like, like Abraham, that is going out into a place of not knowing.

David has made a self-determination for himself. You know what, I'm settling down. David is fat and satisfied. With his own glory, and I'm just going to stay right here and you know what I'm going to do? I'm gonna get God to stay right here with me. It's a way of reeling in God. It's a way of controlling God.

See David. David doesn't wanna press forward anymore any longer. David is settling down in his life and he wants God to settle down with him. I'm at a place in my life. I just want to confine God to a building so that I will feel good about going to a building and not having to do anything else. He's localizing, pro, penalizing God.

A second thing David is, is doing here. I see in these seven verses, it's also an attempt to politicize God. Now, that's certainly prevalent in the Western church today, but David's making an attempt here to use God for his own good, for his own glory, for his own game. We know David, listen, if you go back to chapter six, we already know David is worried about his own reputation.

How he's going to be remembered. What are others going to think about him? Now, think about it for a moment. What better way to be to be remembered? What better legacy could David possibly have as a king than to be the king that built a temple for God? This may well be the first case where we see God being used for a political end by his people.

It is a fascinating study in itself. If you go back in American history and the church, the church has always had this desire, for whatever reason, the church, the American church, has this peculiar understanding of the kingdom of God, I should say, both peculiar and unbiblical understanding of the kingdom of God.

A kingdom that Jesus said is not of this world. World and yet the church seems in the west to have this continued passion, this continued love affair with partisan politics. That if somehow, if I can win the vote, if I can win the party, then somehow the kingdom of God is going to be further listen in history, there is not one IO to, there is not one shred of evidence where there has, where there has ever been a quid pro quo relationship between the church and politics.

The church always suffers politics and partisan parties always gain. The church never benefits when it makes its bed with politics, never for every, the church. The experience of the church has been when it's tried to make its bed with government. It soon discovers that with every shackle there is a shackle.

That goes with it. And yet we see David trying to politicize God. I'll say too that we see David attempting to institutionalize God. Think about it for a moment. If we can confine God to ordained, to, to adorned sanctuaries, if we can bring God into, into rituals, and it can be very self-satisfying. To know that I've come to a place, I've checked the boxes, I've done the rituals, I've done the rights, and I can feel good about me.

That's momentary because what God desires for us is something that is enriching, something that is fulfilling, something that takes us outside the confines of buildings so that we can have a dynamic, ongoing relationship with him. Another thing I see David doing here is making a feeble attempt. To commercialize God.

It seemingly hasn't even dawned upon David that his desire to build God a house of cedar is insulting. He thinks it's complimentary. It's actually insulting to think that you can ascribe a worth and a value. To, to God the creator with, with cedar gold, silver, and yet we see the, the Western Church making the same mistake.

Do you know any, you just, you can follow the pattern. I'm, I'm an, I'm an observer of culture. And so it, it's always intrigued me to see how whenever the secular, whenever secular markets pro, uh, whenever they produce a product or a service that is highly successful,

the church will soon baptize it, it'll make it holy, all for the sake of a prophet. An unholy prophet at that I've always said, and may use the illustration that if there was some exercise physiologist who did some in-depth study and found that jumping jacks were the best overall exercise for all of us to do that within six months, I promise you, every megachurch in the country would have a class that you could subscribe to online called Jumping Jacks for Jehovah Jra, trying to commercialize the holy.

For a prophet, but what we see here in these attempts by David to pro penalize God, to politicize God, to sanitize God, institutionalize God, commercialize God, all of these fall far short of what God would desire for his people and the relationship of love that he desires for us to experience. The second thing I would point out regarding God's love, and maybe this is unex unexpected for us.

And that is that God's love transcends the tyranny of the urgent. 

[00:18:09] God's House Plan: A Dynasty of Faith

You see David's in a rush to build this temple for God, but, but let's listen to verses 11 through 13. Okay. Even from the day that I appointed judges over my people Israel, and I will give you rest from all your enemies. The Lord also de declare declares to you that the Lord will make a house for you.

Now underscore the word house. We're gonna see it again. In verse 13, the prophet, uh, the prophet, Nathan's doing a little play on words here. The Lord also declares to you that the Lord will make a house for you. When your days are finished and you lie down with the fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come from you, and I will establish his kingdom.

He shall build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Now the word play that Nathan is utilizing here with that word house. The word house in Hebrew. Can actually be translated a variety of ways, depending upon the particular context in which it finds itself. It can be, it can be a word.

The word house is, is, uh, a term that can describe a building, like a, like a chapel, a temple perhaps. But the word house can also mean a dynasty. And so what God is saying through his prophet Nathan. To David is David. God has, God has a house plan bigger than you ever imagined. God has a house plan that is far greater than any building temporal shelter that you could build for him.

The house plan that God has for you is in regard to a di, a dynasty with eternal implication.

Now see, for us, it means we need to start thinking when we think about faith and the responsibility and the obligation that is ours, to have a faith that is passed down from generation to generation. It means that we need to have a, a mindset that we are a part of, a dynasty of faith. We are a part of a legacy of faith that is handed down from, from generation to generation.

And the significance of that is to be found in the choices and decisions that I make on a daily basis. These are not insignificant things. I want to, I want to make choices and decisions in my life that bear t that bear testimony and reflect an understanding that I'm a, I'm a part of something far greater than just this moment.

I, I wanna make those choices and decisions for my family and my friend. That will give them a firm foundation of faith upon which they can build in those generations coming after us. Some of you have probably seen the great cathedrals in Europe built in the Middle Ages. Most of them, they're remarkable architectural accomplishments.

Some were built over the course of a hundred years, 200 years, 300 years, 400 years, even 500 years it took to build some of these cathedrals. In fact, some of them are so massive, a hundred million pounds of, of stone that the sum total of the weight of the Empire State Building. In fact, some there, there is so much in some of these buildings that, that, that it's, you know, the, the, the mortar is not, the mortar is still curing.

In some of those buildings. But what I want you to to see and to understand is that when those cathedrals were first being built, there was a stone mason that set a cornerstone. And worked for the remainder of his life on that great cathedral that, that great cathedral being built to the honor and glory of God.

And the man who set the cornerstone knew he was never gonna see the finished product, but I know I'm a part of something. I know I'm a part of something that will outlast me. I'm going to build upon this the rest of my life. And then his son would come after him and build, knowing he was never going to see the finished product.

And then the grandson, the great grandson, and it might be four or five generations before that that fi, that successor of that stone mason finally ca set the capstone on that building. That someone who in who understands the importance of a foundation, that every day we are, we are planting something, we are planting something that is going to be foundational for the life of others.

If you enjoy reading Tolkien, you'll remember one particular in the story of the Hobbit. There is one. Particular part where the king Thorn was, you know, he was being driven by, he was being ravaged by greed, and he was looking for this ark and stone, and he became preoccupied with bilbo and what was bilbo holding in his hand and he and his anger in his fit of anger and suspicion, he demanded to see what it was that that Bilbo was holding in his hand, only to see that it was a solitary acorn.

And he began to, to explain to the king. He said, uh, he said, when I returned to the Shire, my intent is to plant this acorn, and a tree will come forth and I'm going to sit under that tree and I'm going to tell the story of how lucky I am to have survived. I'm going to, to tell the story of the good and the bad.

And there'll be generations that sit under the shade of this tree and hear the story again and again and again.

You and I are responsible for planting something that will provide shade. That's that tells from where people will tell the story of faith again and again. And again, the old, the old adage is, what at the best time to plant a tree was a hundred years ago? The second best time is today. Every day by our choices and our decisions and our determinations, we're planting something upon which others will build.

There's a third and final thing that certainly is unexpected for us in the way that we think from a human perspective in regard to this subject of love. 

[00:25:10] God's Unceasing, Unconditional Love

We see that God's love. Is an unceasing unconditional. That's what makes it so unique. God's love is an unceasing, unconditional love. Verse 14, I will be a father to him.

God, through his prophet says, I will be a father to him and he will be a son to me. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with rod, with a rod of men and with strokes of sons of mankind. But my favor, and that's a transitional word there, but my favor shall not depart from him as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from you.

Your house and your kingdom shall endure before me forever. Your throne shall be established forever in accordance with all these words and all this vision. So Nathan spoke to David. I want you to look closely at that passage again, especially that little conjunction the word, but it may be the word nevertheless, in your transition, in your translation, because what I see in that conjunction, but nevertheless, and the two, the two adverbs forever.

What, what I see here, what? What comes so unexpected? Is that there is in this passage, a theological shift from the conditional to the unconditional. Think about it. I mean, what, what happened to Saul? It, Saul didn't live up to expectations, destroyed him, but. Now nevertheless, there is a shift in what God is going to do in the, in the fulfillment of his covenant relationship with his people.

What he will do through his son Jesus Christ, is that we will now understand the love of God, not in terms of something that is conditional, but something that is unconditional and unceasing. It is forever eternal. And everlasting.

What about our love? I'm always challenged by the word love. I I always look more at the New Testament word that is translated as love most frequently in the New Testament. Whenever the New Testament speaks of God's love or the love that we're to have for one another is believers, the love that we're to have in, in a relationship with the husband and a wife.

It's always the word agape. You've all heard that word before and it, and we normally ref, we normally define agape love as unconditional love. I have, I have another trans, I have another definition that I think is more workable and tangible 'cause it's so easy to talk about unconditional love. Because so much of our, what we don't realize, we, we will say our love is unconditional, but really, so much of our love is driven by if and when.

I love you if you do this. I love you when you do this well, that's conditional love. So a better working definition of Agape is this, it is a willed commitment to love in the absence of feelings. Agape love is a willed commitment to love in the absence of feelings. See, when I got married at 24, there was a whole different set of emotions driving me as a 24 year, 24-year-old young man.

And those feelings I had at 24 tho, those kind of feelings and those kind of desires. Aros, uh, 67, uh, it's a different day. You say, oh my goodness, Bobby and Patty must be struggling in their marriage. No, not at all. In fact, our love at 67 after 40 some odd years, uh, however long it is, uh, I mean, it, it's, it's a love that is richer and fuller than I, than I could have ever understood as a 24-year-old young man with a whole different other set of desire.

It's a willed commitment to love my love for her, my my desire, my affection for her. It's not based upon feelings. After all those years of marriage, I don't wake up every morning going, oh, boy, do I feel in love? And nor does she, but there's this willed commitment to love. It's not being driven by, by feelings and the emotions of the moment.

That's the kind of love that's unexpected. That's the kind of love that the world is to see being practiced in our lives. 

[00:30:18] Final Reflections and Prayer

And so I'll wrap up where we started. How much room do you have in your theology? You say, well, Bobby, I'm not a theologian. Yes, you are. You hold, you hold. You're holding onto some kind of beliefs about God that makes you a theologian.

How much room do you have in your theology? For the unexpected? How much room do you have in your theology For the unexpected,

that's too small.

Whatever you're thinking. That's too small. Think bigger. Think bigger, and always have room for the unexpected. Let's pray together. Our father,

we know that in your infinite wisdom, you work in ways that are, that are not our ways. That you have thoughts that are not our thoughts, but Father, in this salvation history that you are writing, this narrative that you are writing and across the entirety of your created order. Father, I pray that we would have a theology the size of the God we serve, the God who created us, the God who called us.

So that father, we would have a faith that would respond and react in a way that is appropriate to the things that are unexpected in this life. That our reactions to all things in life would bear testimony to the world around us, to our faith and our trust and our belief in you. That there's always something on the other side.

And so, father, as we leave from this place, we, we know life is going to be difficult. Life will hit us in ways that are unexpected, but might we, each one clinging to the hymn of your garment following faithfully after you. In Jesus' name, I pray, amen. 

[00:32:45] Closing Blessing

As we stand, will be dismissed with this blessing from the Apostle Paul to the church at Thessalonica.

Now, may our God and Father himself and our Lord Jesus direct our way to you, and may the Lord cause you to increase and overflow in love for one another and for all people, just as we also do for you, so that he may establish your heart's blameless and holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all of his saints.

God bless you.