100 Days to a Healthier Churchनमूना

Day 86 (Sunday)

Today’s Big Idea: A heart for God’s house. When you mention King David to most Christians, what character trait most quickly comes to mind? Most believers think of David as “a man after God’s own heart” (1 Samuel 13:14, Acts 13:22). In today’s passage, we will see that heart for God on full display.

Key Verse: “Here I am, living in a house of cedar, while the ark of God remains in a tent” (2 Samuel 7:2).

Thoughts to Consider: David was the king of Israel, but he noticed a problem. He was living in a palace while the ark of the covenant—the place where God’s presence physically dwelt on earth—was still in a tent. This bothered David, so he told the prophet Nathan about it. Nathan agreed with David and told him to go ahead and build the temple. He even assured David, “Whatever you have in mind, go ahead and do it, for the LORD is with you” (2 Samuel 7:3). But apparently, Nathan hadn’t checked in with God first, because that night God told Nathan that David would not be allowed to build the Lord a temple after all.

David’s calling was to defeat the enemies of Israel and bring peace to the land (1 Chronicles 22:8). Instead, his son Solomon would build the temple. So did David get angry and sulk because he didn’t get to do what he wanted to do? No. David thanked God that his offspring would get to accomplish this special task, then he spent the rest of his life assembling the materials to build the temple and training those who would serve there, making Solomon’s eventual task a lot easier.

David worked to prepare for a temple he would never get to see because it was more important that the temple got built than that he got to build it himself—or even worship in it. We need David’s heart for our church today. We’re not building the church for us. If we do it well, it will outlast us and people will be blessed by our work long after we’re gone. It’s about God’s glory, not ours.