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Collierville First Baptist Church
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Good evening, I'm glad you're here tonight.
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Before we get started, I wanna have a time of prayer, and Tommy and I were on a prayer call
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with Matt Crawford, the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church.
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And his sister is a doctor, a physician,
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and her and her husband and their three daughters
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are in Malawi.
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And the Ebola virus is real heavy in that part of Africa.
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And so Matt asked us to pray for his sister. Her name is Dr. Katherine Hodge.
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Her husband is Dave.
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The three children are Charlotte, age 13, Evelyn, age 10, and Noel, age nine.
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And I want us to pray for them and the people
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in that part of Africa who are suffering for this horrendous, horrendous disease.
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So let's bow our heads. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much that we can gather tonight and we can pray.
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And as we talked about Sunday, Lord, you love it when we pray.
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And I thank you, Heavenly Father, that you hear us when we pray according to your will. And I know that what we're gonna pray tonight is according to your will.
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Heavenly Father, I pray in the name of Jesus
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for Dr. Katherine Hodge, her husband, Dave,
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their three daughters, Charlotte, Evelyn, and Noel.
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And I pray, Heavenly Father, that you would just put a supernatural hedge of protection around them.
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And I pray for Katherine and other physicians in that part of the world to find some kind of cure for this horrible disease.
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And Lord, I pray in the name of Jesus that you would stop that disease dead in its tracks.
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So many people in that part of Africa are suffering from this, some have died from it. And Lord, we pray in the name of Jesus that you would just put a stop to it.
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So Lord, be with Matt's family.
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Be with Matt. Lord, he was moved to tears the other day when we were praying with him. And I just pray you give him the peace of God which surpasses all comprehension.
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Lord, we love you. We thank you for the privilege that we have tonight to open the Bible and to study the Bible, to study about the life of David.
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And I pray, Heavenly Father, that through the Holy Spirit's ministry,
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you would help us to understand the implications of what we're going to study tonight.
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And I pray, Heavenly Father, that you would bless us and use us for your glory.
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Well, we love you in Jesus' name, amen.
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All right.
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So as you can see tonight, we're gonna talk about taking the high road.
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Let me ask you a question. I want you to think about this for just a moment.
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I want you to think of a time in your life
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when you took the low road.
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You had an opportunity to take the high road,
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but you took the low road.
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I think we can all,
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if we're totally honest with ourselves,
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we can all remember times when we should have taken the high road, but we took the low road.
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Now, I want you to think about that special time when you took the high road.
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You could have taken the low road, but you chose to take the high road.
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Boy, those are special moments, aren't they?
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I remember I was about a freshman in college,
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maybe a sophomore in college,
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and my dad and I had an unusual relationship, you might say. And he did something to really hurt me.
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And I remember I was over at my granddaddy's house right across the road,
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and he sent word and asked me to come to the house, our house, and I went over there and he was crying.
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And he asked me to forgive him.
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And I praise God that in the end, and I praise God that in that moment I chose a high road, and I chose to forgive my dad,
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and I chose not to hold what he did against him.
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Those are special moments.
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And tonight we're gonna look at a chapter in the Bible, chapter 24 of 1 Samuel,
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and you've got David taking the high road,
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and you've got King Saul taking the low, low, low, low road.
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And it's an interesting, and we'll draw some principles from this as we close out the chapter tonight.
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So which of these sentiments is closest to your value system?
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I don't get mad, I get even.
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Revenge is best served cold.
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Or the best revenge is a life well lived.
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I open pray that you can honestly say tonight
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that my go-to default position,
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when somebody does me wrong, somebody hurts me, my default position is a life well lived that honors God.
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I want you to think about all the times that Jesus took the high road.
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My goodness.
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Think about on the cross.
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He had two thieves, one on each side, and at one point both of those thieves were railing against Jesus and saying, "Liv, you're really the son of God.
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"Come down off this cross and save us."
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But one of those thieves had a change of heart.
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And he said something very simple.
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He said, "Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
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And Jesus took the high road.
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And he said, "Today, you will be with me in paradise."
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And that thief, we'll spend all of eternity with that thief
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because Jesus took the high road. Think about Peter when he denied the Lord three times.
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At a moment when Jesus needed these guys.
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And Peter said three times, "I don't even know him."
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And yet Jesus forgave him.
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Jesus took the high road.
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Aren't you glad that Jesus took the high road with you?
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I praise God for that.
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All right.
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So in 1 Samuel 24, verses one to two, we get a background for this entire chapter, this narrative.
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Now when Saul returned from pursuing the Philistine, remember that reminds us that King Saul
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was on one side of the mountain and David and his men were on the other side of the mountain and it looked like doomsday for David, remember?
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But Saul got word that the Philistines had attacked a part of Israel and Saul and his men had to rush and take care of the Philistines before he could get back to David, which saved David's neck right there. That was an act of God, by the way. That's not a coincidence.
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And then after Saul took care of the Philistines, he came back. Now that's where we are tonight. He returned from pursuing the Philistines
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and he was told saying, he had an intelligence network. He had his own CIA, okay?
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And he was told, "Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi."
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Then Saul took 3,000 choice men from all Israel
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and went to seek David and his men in front of the rocks of the wild goats.
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Now, if you've ever been to Israel,
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I've been three times and all three times our tour guide took us to Engedi.
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And when you get to Engedi, it's like an oasis in the desert.
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There's beautiful waterfalls up in the higher part and there's little wild goats called Ibex, I-B-E-X, that just run around and they're still there today.
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And so it's called the rock of the wild goats.
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And so this is where David and his 600 men were hiding out.
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Now, in Engedi, up around, you go up and there is the waterfalls and all that stuff. And there are a lot of caves up there.
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And evidently, there are some very large caves up there.
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And so the Bible says here in verse two, that Saul took 3,000 chose men. Now, these were his crack troops. These were the Delta force, okay?
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These were the best of the best. You wanna know how serious King Saul was in finding and killing David?
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Look at what he's bringing with him here.
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He's not bringing the Boy Scouts.
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He's bringing the best of the best
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because he wants to kill David.
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Now, Engedi is down by the Dead Sea. The Dead Sea is the lowest point on earth.
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There's not a point on earth lower than the Dead Sea. The salinity of the Dead Sea, it's so salty that if you go out and you try to float out there in the Dead Sea, and I've been three times and two times, I went out there and floated.
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And I don't know if you could drown yourself in the Dead Sea. I mean, it's so buoyant with all the salt and everything. And then, so David and his men are hiding out there in the caves of Engedi.
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Now, look at verse three. He came to the sheepfolds on the way where there was a cave.
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Now, if you wanna know how big the cave was,
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it had room for all the sheep of the sheep herd.
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And he came to the sheepfolds on the way where there was a cave and Saul went in to relieve himself.
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Now, Engedi, I explained that to you.
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He got 3,000 troops and he has to go to the bathroom.
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Even kings have to go to the bathroom, okay?
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And so he leaves his 3,000 troops out here. They give him some privacy.
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And he goes into this large cavernous cave to relieve himself.
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It just so happens that David and his 600 men are in the inner recesses of that same cave that he's relieving himself in.
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Now, let me tell you, there again, that is not a coincidence. That's the providence of God.
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Because God had a plan.
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He had a plan for David
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and he had an unfortunate plan for Saul.
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So imagine a cave big enough for Saul to take care of business and for David and his 600 men to be in the back part of that cave and yet Saul didn't know it. Now, imagine, remember this. If you're coming from the light into a dark cave, you can't make anything out, right?
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But David and his 600 men were already in the darkness of the cave and they could see things that Saul couldn't see, all right? They were used to the darkness.
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And so Saul comes in, he's taking care of business, had a bathroom break.
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Now, in verses four to seven, the Bible says, "The men of David said to him,
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"behold, this is the day of which the Lord said to you,
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"behold, I'm about to give your enemy into your hand "and you shall do to him as it seems good to you."
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Then David arose, cut off the edge of Saul's robe secretly.
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And he came about afterward that David's conscience bothered him because he had cut off the edge of Saul's robe.
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And so he said to his men,
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"For be it for me because of the Lord "that I should do this thing to my Lord, "the Lord's anointed, to stretch out my hand against him "since he is the Lord's anointed."
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See how many times that's repeated?
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The Lord's anointed, it's repeated like that for a reason.
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David persuaded his men with these words and did not allow them to rise up against Saul
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and Saul arose and left the cave and went on his way.
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Now I wanna tell you what, David had 600 men in his ear
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and they were telling him, "This is your chance.
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"We can end this nightmare today. "We can end it today.
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"If you'll just take your sword
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"and if you'll drive it through his heart, "we can end this whole thing."
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And David, David had so much respect for the Lord's anointed that he didn't listen to the man.
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Can I tell you that the majority is not always right?
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I mean, you got 600 men and their lives are on the line too.
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And they're ready for this thing to be over.
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And yet David in his heart knew
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that the Lord had anointed and named Saul to be the king of Israel.
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And David couldn't pull it off.
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His conscience would not allow him to follow the advice
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of the men in his army.
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And he came up, I guess, almost like a ninja.
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He came up and snuck up on Saul. Now I don't know, I don't know how it worked. I don't know if Saul laid his robe in one part of the cave and went and did business in another part of the cave. I don't know, I wasn't there.
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But some way, somehow, David got close enough to Saul's robe that he was able to cut a little corner of the robe off and he took that corner of the robe with him.
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Now some have suggested, well, it was just a miracle of God that God did not allow Saul to hear David sneaking up on him. And it could have been.
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It could have been that the waterfall, the sound of the waterfall was inordinately loud that day and Saul couldn't hear David sneaking up on him.
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I don't know how it happened, but I do know it happened.
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I know that Saul, King David came up to Saul, was able to get close enough to his robe to cut off a corner and he took that corner with him.
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Now, here's one thing I want you to know.
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David was determined that when he went to the throne, when he became King of Israel,
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and God had promised him that, remember?
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God promised David that he would be the next King of Israel.
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Remember Samuel came to Jesse's house
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and anointed David to be the next King of Israel.
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Remember, David was maybe 14 or 15 years old when that happened.
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And this part of the narrative, David's maybe early 20s to mid 20s, maybe.
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Okay, he's a young man.
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He's been promised to be the King of Israel.
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But when he became King of Israel,
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David did not want his fingerprints on his kingship.
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He wanted God's fingerprints on his kingship.
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And he refused to take matters into his own hands and to work out the will of God for him. Can I tell you, God doesn't need your help or my help to work out his will of God for our lives.
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He doesn't. He can handle it, I promise you. Now, I want you to consider this, verse six. I love verse six. "For be it from me because of the Lord that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Lord's anointed," see there it is again, "to stretch out my hand against him because he is the Lord's anointed."
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So David persuaded his men. The Bible says here that he persuaded his men with these words, verse seven, and did not allow them to rise up against Saul. Not only did Saul have to deal with his own heart and his own self in that situation, but he had to restrain his men. They wanted to take care of the business for him.
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They may have said, "Hey, look, David, you go into another part of the cave, we'll take care of this for you."
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But David restrained his men.
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Think about this.
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Great leaders like David
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have to earn respect and keep respect.
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One thing that David's men knew about David, he was a man of integrity.
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They knew that he wanted to please the Lord more than he wanted to please himself or make things easy for himself.
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And so this is where we are in the story, he restrained his men.
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Now in verse three, we're told that Saul went into the cave.
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In verse seven, we're told that he came out of the cave and he came out of the cave unscathed.
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He still had his neck.
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He still was alive and well.
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And listen, he was totally unaware. When Saul came out of the cave, he was totally unaware of what had happened in the cave. He was totally unaware that he was in a position of great danger.
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He was so vulnerable, but he didn't know it.
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He didn't know it.
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But he would soon find out.
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Look at verses eight to 15.
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I love this.
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Now afterward, David arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul saying, "My Lord, the king."
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Now get this now.
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You talk about David having courage. You talk about David taking a big chance here.
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Saul, King Saul has come out of the cave. Let's say he's walking down the hill back to his 3000 soldiers down here.
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And David comes out of the cave and he says, "My Lord, the king."
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All Saul would have to have done
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would turn those 3000 soldiers loose on him.
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But David was doing exactly what God wanted him to do. And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the ground and prostrated himself.
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You talk about respecting authority.
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Now let me say this.
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You don't have to respect the person in authority,
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but we as believers are required to respect the position of authority.
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Look, we may not have the person in office that we want to have in office at some time in our lives. But we should still respect the position or the office of president, of congressmen, of senators, judges, whatever.
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The Bible tells us that in the New Testament.
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Look, I've never been in the armed forces and some of you guys may correct me,
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but I'm told that when a superior officer comes up, even though you don't respect the person,
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you respect the position and you salute it.
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That's what we're to do. That's what David did. He respected the position of the Lord's anointed, the king of Israel, Saul, even though Saul was a horrendous person,
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he was obsessed, insanely obsessed with killing David, whom the Lord had named as the next anointed king of Israel.
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So the Bible says,
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David bowed his face to the ground and prostrated himself.
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What an act of respect to a guy who was trying to kill him.
[01:25:03;38 - 01:25:07;20]
And David said to Saul, why do you listen to the words of men saying,
[01:25:08;46 - 01:25:11;03]
"Behold, David seeks to harm you."
[01:25:15;24 - 01:25:20;24]
Saul, why are you listening to people who don't know what they're talking about?
[01:25:23;16 - 01:25:42;34]
Look at verse 10, "Behold, this day your eyes have seen "that the Lord had given you today into my hand in the cave. "And some said to kill you, but my eye had pity on you. "And I said, I will not stretch out my hand against my Lord "for he is the Lord's anointed."
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Can you imagine what went through Saul's mind about that time?
[01:25:53;26 - 01:25:55;51]
He thought that he was alone in the cave.
[01:26:00;09 - 01:26:04;32]
But he was in a position where he could have lost his life
[01:26:05;39 - 01:26:09;35]
had David not been the man that he was.
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Verse 11, he says, "Now my father see." Now remember, David was the son-in-law of King Saul.
[01:26:25;05 - 01:26:26;51]
So he calls him the Lord's anointed.
[01:26:29;19 - 01:26:31;03]
He calls him my Lord the King.
[01:26:32;33 - 01:26:34;02]
He calls him my father.
[01:26:35;23 - 01:26:41;56]
What respect he showed to the man who was trying to end his life.
[01:26:45;01 - 01:26:52;52]
Now my father see, indeed see the edge of your robe in my hand and David must have held it up.
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I have the edge of your robe in my hand.
[01:26:59;13 - 01:27:00;52]
I can just see Saul, can't you?
[01:27:03;18 - 01:27:04;09]
Yep, it's missing.
[01:27:05;37 - 01:27:07;34]
Yeah, it's missing.
[01:27:19;54 - 01:27:35;00]
For in that I cut off the edge of your robe and I did not kill you, know and perceive that there's no evil or rebellion in my hands. I have not sinned against you, though you are lying in wait for my life to take it.
[01:27:36;38 - 01:27:42;05]
So I tell you what that little piece of the robe did. It communicated to Saul,
[01:27:45;24 - 01:27:46;49]
the truth about David's heart.
[01:27:48;16 - 01:27:49;52]
David wasn't out to kill Saul.
[01:27:51;13 - 01:27:52;38]
Saul was out to kill David.
[01:27:55;14 - 01:27:57;59]
Verse 12, "May the Lord judge between you and me
[01:27:59;49 - 01:28:13;38]
and may the Lord avenge me on you." You ought to underline that part right there. "May the Lord avenge me on you. May the Lord avenge me on you, but my hand shall not be against you."
[01:28:16;25 - 01:28:18;15]
As a proverb of the ancient says,
[01:28:19;56 - 01:28:22;10]
"Out of the wicked comes forth wickedness,
[01:28:23;38 - 01:28:25;23]
but my hand shall not be against you."
[01:28:26;34 - 01:28:41;14]
You see the repeated emphasis upon my hand shall not be against you. After whom has a king of Israel come out? Whom are you pursuing? A dead dog, a single flea. In other words, David say, look, I'm insignificant.
[01:28:43;05 - 01:28:43;48]
I'm insignificant.
[01:28:44;55 - 01:28:51;26]
David was not only a man after God's own heart, he was a humble man, a humble man.
[01:28:53;08 - 01:29:01;37]
Verse 15, "The Lord therefore be judged and decide between you and me, and may he see and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand."
[01:29:04;23 - 01:29:08;53]
And David took a huge chance when he did this.
[01:29:12;21 - 01:29:14;19]
Now I want you to remember something.
[01:29:15;33 - 01:29:32;15]
Take your Bible. Well, just look here on page six, 1 Samuel 15, 27, 28. Remember, this takes us back in the narrative when King Saul had been given a charge by God to kill the Amalekites.
[01:29:34;44 - 01:29:39;55]
And remember what King Saul did. He partially obey God, right?
[01:29:41;30 - 01:29:45;17]
Now remember, partial obedience is disobedience.
[01:29:47;03 - 01:29:50;52]
Okay, there's no such thing as partial obedience being obedience, it's not.
[01:29:53;24 - 01:30:00;08]
And Samuel came and he confronted Saul,
[01:30:01;57 - 01:30:10;30]
and he said that God is gonna take the kingdom away from you and give it to somebody who is more suited for it than you.
[01:30:12;17 - 01:30:13;11]
You remember what happened?
[01:30:14;42 - 01:30:28;39]
Samuel was walking away from King Saul, and King Saul reached out and grabbed his garment, his robe, and tore off a piece of the corner of Saul's robe, Samuel's robe.
[01:30:30;28 - 01:30:43;35]
I wonder if in that moment when David held up the corner of the robe if he did remember that event in his life, when he blew it, and he lost his right to be the king of Israel.
[01:30:50;48 - 01:30:52;42]
You know, we need to understand
[01:30:55;56 - 01:31:04;21]
that one fault step in our lives can be so devastating. One bad decision.
[01:31:05;41 - 01:31:07;51]
I remember when Heather and Zach were teenagers,
[01:31:09;24 - 01:31:13;46]
we constantly talked to them about the importance of making good decisions,
[01:31:15;34 - 01:31:17;40]
about the importance of taking the high road,
[01:31:18;53 - 01:31:20;19]
staying off the low road.
[01:31:22;55 - 01:31:44;42]
And that's true not only for teenagers who are becoming adults, but that is true for teenagers for 72 year olds and up and people younger. It's true for all of us. Listen, every day you live, you gotta decide whether you're gonna take the high road or the low road.
[01:31:46;27 - 01:31:50;20]
Because things are gonna happen in your life as you go through the day,
[01:31:51;44 - 01:31:53;27]
and you'll have choices to make.
[01:31:56;20 - 01:32:00;28]
I encourage you, always stay on the high road.
[01:32:02;25 - 01:32:04;51]
Stay off that blooming low road, okay?
[01:32:06;56 - 01:32:16;04]
Now, it's a very hard lesson for us to learn,
[01:32:17;11 - 01:32:18;38]
but it's a lesson we've gotta learn.
[01:32:20;38 - 01:32:29;37]
And that is, we cannot take revenge for something that somebody does to us.
[01:32:31;30 - 01:32:36;34]
But we're prone to do it, aren't we? If somebody yells at us, we wanna yell at them.
[01:32:38;44 - 01:32:41;50]
If somebody cheats us, we wanna cheat them.
[01:32:43;02 - 01:32:45;52]
If somebody steals from us, we wanna steal from them.
[01:32:47;41 - 01:32:59;35]
But listen to this, many issues in our lives, in our families would be settled with minimal damage if we would only refuse to take matters into our own hands.
[01:33:01;24 - 01:33:06;04]
I've seen it, Brother Tommy's seen it. Anybody in ministry has seen it.
[01:33:07;19 - 01:33:09;08]
You see it after a funeral.
[01:33:10;50 - 01:33:12;15]
Sometimes you see it at weddings.
[01:33:14;02 - 01:33:16;07]
Sometimes you see it during the holidays
[01:33:17;47 - 01:33:20;14]
where a family just has a blow up.
[01:33:21;30 - 01:33:33;31]
Because somebody in the family did something to offend somebody else in the family, and the one who was offended feels like they've got to get back at the one who offended them.
[01:33:35;00 - 01:33:46;38]
I'm telling you, we would solve a ton of problems in our families and our lives if we would only allow the Lord to take care of those things in our lives.
[01:33:48;34 - 01:34:08;36]
Look at Romans 12, 17 to 21. It's almost like Paul wrote Romans 12, 17 to 21, thinking back to 1 Samuel 24, almost. I'm not saying he did, but man, there's so much correlation between the two.
[01:34:09;36 - 01:34:18;19]
Look at it, Romans 12, 17 to 21. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone.
[01:34:20;24 - 01:34:23;27]
Respect what is right in the sight of all men.
[01:34:25;10 - 01:34:37;03]
If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. In other words, you can't control the response of other people in your life. You can't do that.
[01:34:38;55 - 01:34:43;49]
But as far as it relates to you, you do everything in your power
[01:34:44;50 - 01:34:46;28]
to be at peace with other people.
[01:34:48;19 - 01:34:51;15]
Verse 19, "Never take your own revenge, beloved,
[01:34:52;55 - 01:34:54;58]
but leave room for the wrath of God,
[01:34:56;31 - 01:34:58;25]
for it is written, vengeance is mine.
[01:34:59;49 - 01:35:01;36]
I will repay, says the Lord."
[01:35:05;39 - 01:35:06;48]
I promise you this.
[01:35:09;41 - 01:35:16;15]
The justice of God may not be realized while you're living out your life on this earth.
[01:35:18;10 - 01:35:28;23]
But I promise you that every human being is accountable to God and every human being will be judged by God and true justice will take place
[01:35:29;30 - 01:35:30;47]
at some point in the future.
[01:35:31;47 - 01:35:33;00]
You got to trust God.
[01:35:34;00 - 01:35:37;11]
That's another thing that just sort of floating around this whole narrative.
[01:35:38;35 - 01:35:56;46]
It's when things are going like they were going in David. David's running for his life. He's gone from here to here to here to here. Everywhere he turns, he has to have his head on a swivel because Saul may be around there, his men may be around there. Got spies everywhere.
[01:35:59;53 - 01:36:03;52]
Yet David chose to leave the vengeance with God.
[01:36:05;37 - 01:36:08;10]
Verse 20, "But if your enemy is hungry, feed him.
[01:36:12;10 - 01:36:14;11]
And if he's thirsty, give him a drink.
[01:36:16;22 - 01:36:21;28]
And in so doing, you will heat burning coals on his head." I think that's what happened right here with Saul.
[01:36:22;38 - 01:36:37;14]
We're going to look at Saul's reaction to what David said to him and how David prostrated himself before him. And I believe that God used David's actions
[01:36:39;15 - 01:36:45;22]
to give Saul a temporary falling out of the coldness of his heart.
[01:36:46;33 - 01:36:47;35]
Now it was temporary.
[01:36:48;43 - 01:36:49;46]
It wasn't permanent.
[01:36:51;43 - 01:36:54;23]
Verse 21, "Do not be overcome by evil,
[01:36:56;16 - 01:37:02;16]
but overcome evil with good." You say pastor, that's hard.
[01:37:03;48 - 01:37:05;33]
Yeah, it's hard.
[01:37:07;03 - 01:37:09;08]
In fact, can you look at me just a minute?
[01:37:10;29 - 01:37:11;15]
It's impossible.
[01:37:13;43 - 01:37:16;38]
It's impossible in and of ourselves.
[01:37:18;41 - 01:37:20;36]
But listen, if you're born again believer,
[01:37:22;22 - 01:37:47;12]
if you have placed your faith in Jesus, you're a child of God, the moment you placed your faith in Christ, you received the gift of the Holy Spirit of God and the Holy Spirit of God, who is just as much God as God, the Son, and God, the Father lives within you. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, and he will empower you to obey these kinds of directions in the Word of God.
[01:37:48;33 - 01:37:49;31]
You can't do it.
[01:37:50;59 - 01:37:52;19]
Holy Spirit can help you.
[01:37:56;06 - 01:37:57;03]
I promise you this.
[01:37:58;52 - 01:38:00;15]
I promise you this.
[01:38:02;00 - 01:38:03;54]
If you will allow the Holy Spirit
[01:38:05;27 - 01:38:09;14]
to help you live out Romans 12, 17, 21,
[01:38:10;45 - 01:38:15;15]
you will find that your life is a lot better than it would be if you took vengeance yourself.
[01:38:16;42 - 01:38:17;32]
I promise you.
[01:38:22;23 - 01:38:26;56]
(Congregation Applauding)
[01:38:32;18 - 01:38:37;05]
David trusted God to handle this glaring injustice.
[01:38:39;24 - 01:38:42;02]
Look at verse Samuel 24, 16 to 21.
[01:38:43;08 - 01:38:45;36]
Now here's Saul's reaction.
[01:38:47;19 - 01:38:50;06]
When David had finished speaking these words to Saul,
[01:38:51;58 - 01:39:04;49]
Saul said, "Is this your voice, my son David?" Now I'm gonna tell you, there's a significant difference in the way Saul responds to David here.
[01:39:07;04 - 01:39:15;25]
All the other narratives that we've looked at, Saul has been very inconsiderate and very snarky with David.
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He's called him the son of Jesse.
[01:39:21;04 - 01:39:22;48]
But he's never called him by a name
[01:39:23;49 - 01:39:26;01]
in all the narratives we've looked at so far.
[01:39:27;50 - 01:39:31;07]
"Is this you," he says.
[01:39:32;23 - 01:39:34;34]
"Is this your voice, my son David?"
[01:39:36;55 - 01:39:39;21]
Then Saul lifted up his voice and wept.
[01:39:45;33 - 01:39:46;29]
And he said to David,
[01:39:49;00 - 01:39:50;34]
"You are more righteous than I,
[01:39:52;40 - 01:39:55;54]
"for you have dealt well with me "while I have dealt wickedly with you."
[01:39:58;47 - 01:40:06;46]
Do you see the impact of David's actions upon King Saul?
[01:40:10;24 - 01:40:18;25]
Man, it's almost like God was thawing out a frozen heart.
[01:40:23;37 - 01:40:39;32]
And then he said, "You have declared today," verse 18, "that you have done good to me, "that the Lord delivered me into your hand "and you did not kill me." And Saul does not understand how David did not kill him.
[01:40:41;45 - 01:40:43;40]
"For if a man finds his enemy,
[01:40:45;05 - 01:40:47;21]
"will he let him go away safely?
[01:40:49;45 - 01:40:52;17]
"May the Lord therefore reward you
[01:40:54;29 - 01:40:57;50]
"with good in return for what you've done for me this day."
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Verse 20, "Now behold, look at this. "I know that you will surely be king "and that the kingdom of Israel "will be established in your hand."
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By the way, I think it's chapter,
[01:41:21;49 - 01:41:23;07]
I'll forget what chapter it was.
[01:41:24;11 - 01:41:27;55]
One of the earlier chapters when David met with Jonathan,
[01:41:29;14 - 01:41:37;35]
Saul's son, and Jonathan told David, "My father knows that you're going to be king."
[01:41:39;56 - 01:41:43;44]
And here, King Saul verbalizes that.
[01:41:45;22 - 01:41:54;42]
"I know that you're going to be king." Now, I wish I could tell you that this was a permanent change in Saul's life. It wasn't.
[01:41:55;50 - 01:42:05;40]
It wasn't. In some succeeding chapters, we're gonna find out that he was king. That Saul's still trying to kill David.
[01:42:09;01 - 01:42:14;37]
But you know, it was an emotional thing for Saul. It wasn't a spiritual thing.
[01:42:16;58 - 01:42:21;30]
There are a lot of people who have emotional moments.
[01:42:23;17 - 01:42:27;59]
You know, imagine a man, a hardened man, who's not a believer,
[01:42:30;04 - 01:42:44;13]
and God gets a hold of his heart, and he weeps, he weeps. He makes promises to his wife and to his kid. I'm not gonna drink anymore.
[01:42:46;33 - 01:42:48;36]
I'm not gonna cheat on you anymore.
[01:42:50;59 - 01:42:51;43]
I love you.
[01:42:53;47 - 01:42:55;27]
And he may go to church a few times.
[01:42:57;40 - 01:43:01;21]
And then in a few weeks, everything back like it was.
[01:43:03;24 - 01:43:05;25]
Now, ladies and gentlemen, that's not true repentance.
[01:43:07;39 - 01:43:14;04]
True repentance has a lasting character to it. Doesn't mean we're gonna be perfect. I'm not perfect. You're not perfect.
[01:43:15;46 - 01:43:24;28]
But true repentance has a lasting effect to it. There's a change that takes place in our lives.
[01:43:25;53 - 01:43:27;29]
(Congregation Applauding)
[01:43:29;16 - 01:43:37;41]
I remember Jack Taylor preaching revival at New Orleans campus when I was in seminary.
[01:43:39;48 - 01:43:45;22]
And he had a one verse sermon.
[01:43:47;29 - 01:43:52;46]
It was Proverbs chapter 28, verse 13. I never will forget it as long as I live.
[01:43:55;05 - 01:43:57;51]
He who conceals his transgressions will not prosper.
[01:43:59;56 - 01:44:03;00]
But he who confesses and forsakes him will find compassion.
[01:44:04;53 - 01:44:06;23]
And he had a two point sermon.
[01:44:08;20 - 01:44:12;22]
Admit it and quit it. I never will forget that.
[01:44:13;26 - 01:44:15;03]
That's a long time ago, folks.
[01:44:16;22 - 01:44:21;40]
And I can't remember people name, but I can remember that sermon. I can remember that sermon.
[01:44:22;47 - 01:44:26;45]
Admit it and quit it. And listen, if it's real,
[01:44:27;46 - 01:44:32;02]
if God's truly worked in somebody's heart, you'll be able to tell it by the way they live.
[01:44:34;51 - 01:44:36;15]
It wasn't real for Saul.
[01:44:38;31 - 01:44:52;03]
Now, in verse 20, now behold, I know that you will surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel be established in your hand. Look at verse 21.
[01:44:54;00 - 01:44:56;10]
So now swear to me by the Lord
[01:44:58;16 - 01:45:04;22]
that you will not cut off my descendants after me and you will not destroy my name from my father's household.
[01:45:08;07 - 01:45:10;08]
Look at verse 22.
[01:45:12;31 - 01:45:17;26]
David swore to Saul and Saul went to his home.
[01:45:19;06 - 01:45:25;43]
But David and his men went up to the stronghold. Now notice, David didn't go back to Gibeah
[01:45:27;04 - 01:45:28;04]
where Saul lived.
[01:45:29;55 - 01:45:31;25]
David didn't go back to his home.
[01:45:33;26 - 01:45:36;15]
David and his 600 men went to the stronghold.
[01:45:38;52 - 01:45:40;17]
Because I think David knew
[01:45:41;58 - 01:45:50;32]
that this temporary emotional thing that happened in Saul's life was not real and it was not lasting.
[01:45:54;13 - 01:45:55;15]
It's interesting here.
[01:45:57;08 - 01:46:24;37]
Saul said, "Swear to me by the Lord that you will not cut off my descendants after me and that you will not destroy my name from my father's household." Now understand this, in this culture, in this time, when a new king came into power, it was customary for the king to kill all of the remnants of the other king so there will be no threat to his rule.
[01:46:27;07 - 01:46:43;04]
And Saul maybe heard from Jonathan the covenant that Jonathan and David made with each other where Jonathan asked David to make a covenant that he would preserve his heritage.
[01:46:44;29 - 01:46:53;35]
And now Saul's asking for the same thing. Listen to me, do you know what David did? He went against the custom of the day
[01:46:55;44 - 01:47:00;23]
and he promised Saul that he would honor his request.
[01:47:03;54 - 01:47:06;12]
Now, I want you to turn over
[01:47:07;41 - 01:47:11;57]
to, let's see, where is it?
[01:47:13;01 - 01:47:13;58]
Yeah, 1 Samuel,
[01:47:18;29 - 01:47:23;50]
no, 2 Samuel 21, verses one to 14. Turn over there for just a minute.
[01:47:25;24 - 01:47:28;51]
Now, you gotta, we're going forward in time now, okay?
[01:47:29;56 - 01:47:32;34]
David is now king, he's now king.
[01:47:33;43 - 01:47:35;02]
I wanna show you what happens.
[01:47:38;36 - 01:47:44;39]
2 Samuel 21, verses one to 14.
[01:47:47;56 - 01:47:48;36]
Now look at this.
[01:47:54;05 - 01:47:58;03]
Now there was a famine in the days of David, he's king now.
[01:47:59;19 - 01:48:09;44]
That famine lasts for three years, year after year, and David sought the presence of the Lord and the Lord said, "It is for Saul and his bloody house
[01:48:11;23 - 01:48:19;13]
"because he put the Gibeonites to death." Now remember this, when Joshua came into the land of promise,
[01:48:20;15 - 01:48:35;08]
the Gibeonites tricked Joshua and made him think that they were from a far away country. And Joshua made a covenant with the Gibeonites, even though they were inhabitants of the land of promise.
[01:48:36;56 - 01:48:40;42]
And God expected, when you made a covenant, God expected you to keep the covenant.
[01:48:43;04 - 01:48:46;04]
But Saul had broken that covenant.
[01:48:48;22 - 01:49:10;03]
Look at verse two, so the king called the Gibeonites, David called the Gibeonites and spoke to them. Now the Gibeonites were not of the sons of Israel, but of the remnant of the Amorites, and the sons of Israel made a covenant with them, but Saul had sought to kill them in his zeal for the sons of Israel and Judah. So Saul wanted to wipe them out.
[01:49:13;33 - 01:49:21;49]
Thus David said to the Gibeonites, what should I do for you? And how can I make atonement that you may bless the inheritance of the Lord?
[01:49:23;25 - 01:49:40;45]
Then the Gibeonites said to him, we have no concern of silver or gold with Saul or his house, nor is it for us to put any man to death in Israel. And he said, I will do for you whatever you say. This is David saying to the Gibeonites.
[01:49:41;46 - 01:50:01;08]
So they said to the king, the man who consumed us and who planned to exterminate us from remaining within any border of Israel, let seven men from his sons be given to us and we will hang them before the Lord and Gibeon of Saul, the chosen of the Lord. And the king said, I will give them.
[01:50:02;50 - 01:50:04;19]
So long story short,
[01:50:06;23 - 01:50:09;16]
David gave seven descendants of Saul
[01:50:11;03 - 01:50:13;00]
to be hung by the Gibeonites.
[01:50:14;04 - 01:50:14;59]
And let me ask you this.
[01:50:16;25 - 01:50:20;06]
David had promised Saul that he would preserve
[01:50:21;54 - 01:50:23;55]
the remnant of his household.
[01:50:25;13 - 01:50:32;57]
Did David break his word? No, he didn't. He did not break his word because God is one it ordered
[01:50:34;07 - 01:50:44;00]
for these seven remnants of Saul's household to be killed because of what Saul had done to the Gibeonites.
[01:50:45;37 - 01:50:48;05]
David did not break his covenant with Saul.
[01:50:49;24 - 01:50:50;53]
Okay, y'all remember that.
[01:50:51;57 - 01:50:56;50]
So I wanted to get to that before we got over to 2 Samuel at some point in the future
[01:50:58;00 - 01:51:13;44]
and you bring that up to me. So now I've answered it before you could bring it up to me. Okay, so now I want us to look, I've got three principles here on page nine
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that are so applicable to our lives.
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We sort of hinted at them as we've gone through the narrative. Number one, respect the position of authority even if you don't respect the person.
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You know, we live in a culture today
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that needs to learn this lesson well.
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My goodness.
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We don't respect the office of president.
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We don't respect the office of senator,
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of representatives, judges.
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I'm telling you, we got to respect the office.
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It's not a matter of our political persuasion.
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It's a matter of obedience to God.
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All right, number two,
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God's will is not always determined by the majority.
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You got to remember that.
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Do you remember when,
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toward the end of the book of Acts,
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when
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Paul is on the boat and they're going over
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over to Italy and the boat captain and all the people on board said, "Look, we can make it, we can make it." And Paul said, "Look, we're not going to make it.
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We're going to have a terrible tragedy on our hands because of the season."
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And the captain of the ship said, "We're going." So they went, the majority wanted to go and they went.
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And they ran into the storm of all storms, remember?
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And yet even in the midst of that storm,
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Paul was on that boat and God said, "I'm going to give everybody's life that they got to stay on the boat."
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Remember?
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And sure enough, every person on that boat was saved.
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They lived.
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The majority said go.
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The minority of one person, Paul was a man of God. He said, "Don't go."
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The majority is not always right.
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That's why you and I have got to dig into the Word of God. We got to know the will of God and we only know the will of God if we know the Word of God.
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All right, third principle here.
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Trust the Lord to handle injustice.
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Do not take matters into your own hands.
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That's a principle. These three principles just sort of float out of this chapter.
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And we got to pay attention to this.
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We got to apply it to our lives.
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Now it goes against everything within us.
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Everything within us. Remember, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount,
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he said this, "Tell me how you swallow this pill."
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Jesus said, "Love your enemies." (Congregation Laughing)
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Love your enemies.
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How about that one?
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You say, "I can't do it." Yes, you can.
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The Spirit of God can give you the power to love your enemy.
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The Spirit of God give you the power to forgive that person who hurt you.
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You've got the Holy Spirit.
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You got to depend on Him to do these hard things,
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not yourself. You know the greatest victory that was won here in this story in chapter 24, the greatest victory.
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The greatest victory was David's victory over self. And can you imagine? There was a part of him, there had to have been a part of him
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that wanted to take his knife out and cut Saul through.
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Right?
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Let's just be honest.
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But listen, he chose God's way over his way. That's the greatest victory that comes out of this chapter.
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Victory over the flesh.
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You can have that victory over your flesh too.
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So this wraps us up till July the 8th, okay?
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So I'll say you guys, July the 8th, and we'll finish up 1 Samuel and we'll decide if you guys want to go into 2 Samuel and continue the life of David or take a break from David and study something else, okay?
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Thank you for being so faithful,
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for being here week after week with your Bible open,
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wanting to hear from God.
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We've heard from Him tonight, haven't we? And He sort of rubbed us raw tonight, didn't He, huh?
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All right, let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for the men and women in this room.
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And I thank you, Lord, that you never command us to do anything that you do not empower us to obey you. Lord, thank you so much for that. I'm so glad, Lord, we don't have to live this kind of life in our own power,
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but you provide the power of the Spirit of God to help us.
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Lord, I pray we wouldn't ignore these principles that are found in this chapter.
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And I pray the same victory that David had, we would have in our lives, that we would choose the high road over the low road.
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In Christ's name, amen. Thank you and God bless you.