Covenant Community Church · Dr. Michael B. Knight

How to Choose Grace: The Architecture of Mercy | Pastor Andrew Harris

March 9, 2026·40 min·3 clips

Shem and Japheth walk into Noah's tent backwards, never looking at him, and cover his nakedness with a sheet — Harris calls this 'the greatest visual of grace in all the Word of God.'

The pace is quick. The sermon moves with energy, but it also warns the room not to rush past the Word without sitting with it. Grace is the load-bearing idea. Before the argument gets too far, the message comes back to choosing, because grace here is not treated like a nice mood or church slogan. David is the picture. He is Jesse's eighth son, a shepherd boy, overlooked and shoved to the side, with no natural claim to Israel's throne. But God saw his heart. The sermon returns to the idea that favor and anointing can take a person from the pasture to a platform. David had no business being king. He was not described as trained, polished, or ready by ordinary standards. Still, God's hand guided him. The message follows David as warrior, favored servant, and established king, someone who could look back and see God's care over his life. Then mercy gets tested. Once David's throne is secure, he asks whether anyone remains in Saul's household to whom he can show kindness. That question matters because Saul had ruled before David, then turned bitter as David's anointing rose. So this is not soft, sentimental grace. It is David remembering God's goodness and choosing kindness toward a house tied to pain and opposition. The sermon brings that home, pressing listeners to think about the enemy, the aggravating person nearby, and the one who truly did wrong, then leave vengeance with God and answer mercy with mercy.

As heard by us

A brisk sermon on choosing grace, from David's rise to Jesus' reminder that what is impossible with people is possible with God.

Grace is framed here as a costly choice, not a soft sentiment. The sermon moves from David's unlikely rise to his question about kindness for Saul's household, then lands on Jesus' reminder that what is impossible with people is possible with God.

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