The best way and the only way to make our cross bearable is to embrace it, to accept it and decide everyday to carry it willingly and joyfully.
Sermon Title: THE BURDEN OF SUCCESS
Sermon Text: 1 CHRONICLES 21:1-16 (NIV)
Sermon Series: FLIP SIDE: STUDY OF THE LIFE OF DAVID
Guest Speaker: PTR TOM TRONO
Sermon Notes:
1 Chronicles 21:1-16 NIV
1 Satan rose up against Israel and incited David to take a census of Israel. 2 So David said to Joab and the commanders of the troops, “Go and count the Israelites from Beersheba to Dan. Then report back to me so that I may know how many there are.” 3 But Joab replied, “May the Lord multiply his troops a hundred times over. My lord the king, are they not all my lord’s subjects? Why does my lord want to do this? Why should he bring guilt on Israel?” 4 The king’s word, however, overruled Joab; so Joab left and went throughout Israel and then came back to Jerusalem. 5 Joab reported the number of the fighting men to David: In all Israel there were one million one hundred thousand men who could handle a sword, including four hundred and seventy thousand in Judah. 6 But Joab did not include Levi and Benjamin in the numbering, because the king’s command was repulsive to him. 7 This command was also evil in the sight of God; so he punished Israel. 8 Then David said to God, “I have sinned greatly by doing this. Now, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.” 9 The Lord said to Gad, David’s seer, 10 “Go and tell David, ‘This is what the Lord says: I am giving you three options. Choose one of them for me to carry out against you.’ ” 11 So Gad went to David and said to him, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Take your choice: 12 three years of famine, three months of being swept away before your enemies, with their swords overtaking you, or three days of the sword of the Lord—days of plague in the land, with the angel of the Lord ravaging every part of Israel.’ Now then, decide how I should answer the one who sent me.” 13 David said to Gad, “I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into human hands.” 14 So the Lord sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead. 15 And God sent an angel to destroy Jerusalem. But as the angel was doing so, the Lord saw it and relented concerning the disaster and said to the angel who was destroying the people, “Enough! Withdraw your hand.” The angel of the Lord was then standing at the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. 16 David looked up and saw the angel of the Lord standing between heaven and earth, with a drawn sword in his hand extended over Jerusalem. Then David and the elders, clothed in sackcloth, fell facedown.
VERSES 1-2. David takes a census.
VERSES 3-4. Joab objects to the census.
VERSES 5-8. The census is made, and David repents.
VERSES 9-12. David is allowed to choose the judgment.
VERSE 13. avid chooses the three days of plague.
VERSES 14-15. The plague of destruction hits Israel severely.
VERSE 16. David’s intercession.
1 Chronicles 17:16 (NIV)
Who am I, Lord, that you have brought me this far? There is no one like you, Lord.
Exodus 30:12 (NIV)
“The Lord said to Moses, 12 “When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the Lord a ransom for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them.”
Principle: God’s ownership of his people
“evil in the sight of God”
1 Chronicles 21:17
“I have sinned greatly by doing this. Now, I beg you, take away the guilt of your servant. I have done a very foolish thing.”
1 Chronicles 21:8 (NIV)
“three years of famine, three months of defeat by the enemies, or three days of plague by an angel’s sword.”
1 Chronicles 21:12 (NIV)
“I am in deep distress. Let me fall into the hands of the Lord, for his mercy is very great; but do not let me fall into the hands of men.”
1 Chronicles 21:13 (NIV)
“So the Lord sent a plague on Israel, and seventy thousand men of Israel fell dead.”
1 Chronicles 21:14 (NIV)
Lessons:
I. With high prestige come great temptations.
Psalm 73:3 (NIV)
“I envied the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.”
“bound by chains”
II. Everything we have remains as God’s possessions.
Psalm 24:1 (NIV)
“The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and who live in it.”
Job 1:19 (NIV)
“The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away; may the name of the Lord be praised.”
III. Our guilt can push us closer to the Lord.
“pouring out your hearts to God”
Psalm 62:8 (NIV)
Psalm 32:3-5 (NIV)
“When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night, your hand was heavy upon me; my strength sapped as in the heat of summer. Then I acknowledged my sin to you and did not cover up my iniquity. I said, “I will confess my transgressions to the Lord”—and you forgave the guilt of my sin.”
“a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, [he] will not despise.”
Psalm 51:17 (NIV)
Romans 5:20
“Sin abounds, but grace abounds even more.”
IV. There is suffering in every position in life.
“Carry our own cross daily”
Luke 9:23
1 Peter 2:21(NIV)
“To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in his steps.”
Romans 12:1 (NIV)
“I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship.”
1 Peter 4:12-13 (NIV)
“Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange was happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.”
Psalm 23:1 (NIV)
“The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.”
The Lord has always been taking care of David like a sheep in every single day of his life. The Lord loved David when he was a boy. The Lord loved David when he became a great king. But David did not need to be a king to love the lord and to be loved by Him. He did not need a throne or a crown or a million soldiers. The Lord was all that he needed, his shephers, and he lacked nothing.
Take away the throne, take away the crown, take away the army, and still you will have David who sings love songs to the Lord Jesus.
And that’s what this is all about, to the the Lord Jesus with all our heart, with al that we are and all that we have. In his loving eyes, loving him will be the most prestigious life we can live.
CHRISTIAN REFLECTION
- On the burden of prestige and prosperity.
- On carrying our crosses during failure or success