Building: How God Perfects our Prayers Beyond our Expectations 2 Samuel 7.1-17
By Michael A. Milton
The Church does that when the Church is filled with the glory of God in Christ. We get a glimpse of God's glory in His Word and through His Spirit. We get a glimpse, I trust, during public worship, but also in our quiet times. When in our own private prayer closet we encounter the risen Christ. When we see Him, know Him, experience His grace and love, we begin to dream dreams and see visions. Not in the charismatic sense, mind you, but with our very souls aflame with one holy passion for God.
I don't go to every Long Range Planning Committee meeting. I prefer to allow the men and women of that committee to do their work without the minister there. This is the work of the congregation, and I want to be there to encourage them, to support them, and occasionally to cast a vision of the glory of Christ as it pertains to buildings.
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I went to the last meeting. I went because I wanted to tell them something; something that I want to now tell you and it is this: if you go to Europe and see the magnificent cathedrals there, you are not seeing a testimony to the genius of the clergy. You are seeing the fulfilled dreams of laymen. You are seeing the vision that people had who lived in that city or village. They wanted to build God a house of worship. So they sacrificed, planned, organized, and sometimes over many generations built a church structure to the glory of God. The same always is true. It may be that great preachers fill their pulpits, but the landscape that is graced by steeples and towers reaching up to heaven are the result of dreamers and visionaries in the pew. In that sense, you are my heroes.
But the thing I want you to see is that David was dreaming. There will come a time when David should have been at war, and stayed home and he dreamed about something very illicit. The same saints who dream of God can dream of sin, but that is another sermon. It is enough in
2 Samuel 7, verses 1 and 2 to see that David was grateful for his blessings, his mind filled with the glory of God, and he dreamed big. I hope you dream dreams. I hope you think of grand things that Christ could do in the midst of this congregation. But let us first begin with time alone with God.
The second movement follows, and I call this movement David's Permit Hearing.
II. David's Permit HearingThere is little light between
verse 3 and 4. It goes from Nathan getting all pumped up about the new church building to a hastily arranged divine visitation. God didn't want to let David and Nathan get to work. He visited Nathan, it says, "that night."
I want you to consider that it is a blessing when God cuts off our plans quickly. What we see as dashed dreams are God's way of preserving us for something better. God is gracious when He changes our plans. Of course, we can't pretend to know all of the ways of the Lord, but we clearly see here that God steps in quickly to stop the action. And that is a grace.