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Collierville First Baptist Church
[01:00:00;30 - 01:01:53;28]
Good evening. So glad that you're here tonight. I love Wednesday nights. I love to just teach through books of the Bible and stuff like that. So let me pray and we'll get started. Heavenly Father, I thank you so much for the opportunity we have tonight to come into your presence to worship you and to study your Word. I pray that you would give us rich insights from the Word of God. I pray that the Holy Spirit would use the Word to really grow us spiritually and help us to be the men and women that you've called us to be. Well, we love you and thank you for your infinite grace. Lord, I look out and I see folks who have gone through some difficult things in their lives and they're here tonight because they love you and they love your Word. So Lord, just be honored and glorified through our lives tonight in Jesus' name, amen. So tonight we're going to talk about building your spiritual resume. Our pastor search team is working hard right now. They're praying. They're seeking the face of God as they begin to search for the next pastor of Congregation First Baptist Church. During this phase of their work, during the next phase of their work, they will be receiving resumes. A resume is a brief account of one's personal, educational, spiritual experience and professional qualifications that will make the person a good fit for the job.
[01:01:54;38 - 01:02:57;20]
You know, whether you're in the secular realm or whether you're in the spiritual realm in the church, the use of resumes is common. Tonight we're going to look at you building your spiritual resume. Tonight we're going to look at another section of First Samuel that highlights the life of David. He's been on the run by the time you get to First Samuel 26. David has been on the run from King Saul for 10 years. 10 long years. David had to keep his head on a swivel. He had to be looking around every corner to see if Saul and his henchmen were there to take his life. Can you imagine how draining that would be to have somebody out to kill you for 10 years?
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King Saul had been breathing down his neck with the ultimate goal of taking his life.
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To be frankly honest with you, Saul's spiritual resume was a disaster.
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A quick glance at it would cause any person in their right mind to disqualify him from any position that was open. I promise you, he would fail the test. It's like when we come to this portion of First Samuel, it's like Saul's life is on a downward spiral.
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And he's not hit the bottom yet, but he's about to. And David's life was on the upswing, even though he's running for his life. You know, God never wastes anything in our lives.
[01:03:53;11 - 01:05:32;47]
He uses everything for his glory and our good. So God was using all of this to prepare David to be the next king of Israel. In fact, David will become the, underline the, the most influential Israeli King in the old Testament without a doubt. So let's talk about building your spiritual resume broken down into its simplest form before you were saved. God worked on you. You remember that? Do you remember when you were lost? I think sometimes it's good for us to go what it was like to be lost when the Holy Spirit was the hound of heaven and he was coming after you and he was convicting you and, and drawing you to the Lord Jesus. And then when you were saved, God works in you, he worked in you. He called the Holy Spirit cause you to be born again, to become a new person in Christ. And then for the rest of our lives, God works through us. Many of you in this room have been saved for many years. I've been saved for 52 years and God has been working through me during those 52 years. Sometimes he, he was able to do more with me than at other times. We're, listen, we're all human.
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We have feet of clay. None of us are perfect. And we've got to remember as we studied the life of David, he was a man just like there are men in this room. There are women in this room. He was a human being and he had feet of clay. He did things that, that we would normally associate somebody who was a man after God's own heart, but who hasn't right now that's not excusing him.
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And it's certainly not excusing us. So I want you to keep in mind that if we build our spiritual resume, we're not competing for a job. We're not applying for a job.
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We are getting ready to meet Jesus, to stand before him at the beam and see judgment, which is a judgment that every believer will go through. Sometimes I think that we as believers think that only unbelievers will be judged. No, no, there is a judgment for believers. Now it's not a judgment to determine whether you go to heaven or hell. That would determine the moment you repented of your sin and placed your faith in Jesus.
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God promises you that when you put your faith in Jesus, you receive the gift of eternal life and you will, that eternal life is absolutely secure forever. God never takes it away from you.
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But we are going to be judged based upon our faithfulness to him as we live out our lives it determines our rewards and our responsibilities in the kingdom of heaven.
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So we're building our spiritual resume to get ready for the kingdom.
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Look at 2 Corinthians chapter five verses nine and 10.
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Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to him. I can't tell you how the Lord's used that verse in my life.
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My goal every day, I wish I could tell you I'm bad at a thousand, but I don't bet a thousand. My goal every day is to please Jesus. I'm reminded of John 4 34 where Jesus told his disciples, my food is to do the will of him who sent me in to accomplish his work.
[01:08:08;30 - 01:08:30;55]
That's another way of Jesus, what Jesus says, another way of saying what Paul said right here in 2 Corinthians chapter five verse nine. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one of us may be recompense for his deeds in the body, whether according to what he had done, whether good or bad.
[01:08:32;01 - 01:08:46;10]
So tonight with the help of the Holy Spirit, I'm going to try to cover three chapters. Okay. I'm going to do it. I'm telling him we're going to get out on time. All right.
[01:08:47;33 - 01:08:52;33]
First Samuel chapter 26, chapter 26 is our first chapter tonight.
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Chapter 26 verses one through four, listen to the word of God. Then the Ziphites came to Saul, at Gibeah saying, it's not David hiding on the hill of Hakkala, which is before Jeshamon.
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So Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Zith having with him 3000 choice men of Israel to search for David in the wilderness of Zith. Now remember, David has 600 soldiers in his army.
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Saul's coming against him with 3000. Okay. It's a little bit of a overmatch. Wouldn't you say? Verse three, Saul camped in the hill of Hakkala, which is before Jeshamon beside the road. David was staying in the wilderness. When he saw that Saul came after him into the forest, David sent out spies and he knew that Saul was definitely coming.
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Now flip back to chapter 24 in your Bible. Just flip back to 24.
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Remember chapter 26 has a lot of similarities to chapter 24 because basically the same thing happened. Now notice verses 16 to 22. When David had finished speaking these words to Saul, remember David had a chance to kill Saul in the cave there in Ngedi. Saul had gone into the cave to relieve himself and Saul's men, the 3000 men were outside and Saul didn't know that David and his 600 men were in the inner recesses of that same cave. And when they saw that King Saul was leaving himself and he was temporarily distracted, you might say, they came to, one of David's men came to him and said, this is your chance. God has gifted you a chance to take the life of Saul who's trying to kill you for 10 years. And remember David wouldn't do it. David said, I will not lay my hand on God's anointed. He cut off the edge of his robe. And when Saul got through relieving himself and went out to his men and he was a good distance away, David yelled at him and called his name and showed him the corner of the robe that he had torn off, had cut off.
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Now this, here's verse 16 to 22 of chapter 24 is a conversation that David and Saul had. Look at it.
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When David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, is this your voice, my son, David? Then Saul lifted up his voice and wept. He said to David, you are more righteous than I, for you have dealt well with me while I have dealt wickedly with you. You've declared today that you've done good to me, that the Lord delivered me into your hand. And yet you did not kill me. For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safely? May the Lord therefore reward you with good and return for what you've done to me this day. Now behold, I know that you will surely be king. Notice it.
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King Saul, who's been trying to kill David for 10 years, said, I know that one day you're going to be king of Israel. Why don't you keep that in mind? In fact, there were four different people who confirmed to David that he would be the king of Israel. The first one was Samuel,
[01:13:20;18 - 01:13:56;15]
when David was a young man, maybe a teenager. And Samuel came and anointed him in the house of Jesse as the next king of Israel. So Samuel told him, Saul told him, Jonathan told him he'd be the next king and Abigail, his new wife, and Nabal's widow told him that he'd be the next king. Four times, four different people confirmed to David that he would be the next king of Israel. You say, why are you making that point? Well, you're going to see later on why I'm making that point.
[01:13:57;54 - 01:15:04;59]
I'm going to keep you in suspense for a few minutes. Now notice this. So in verse 20, now behold, I know that you will surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hand. So now 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. David swore to Saul and Saul went to his home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold. So this is the first time that David had the opportunity to kill Saul, but he wouldn't do it because he was a man of integrity. Now, so we come here and God gave Saul a second chance here and in Getty, but what did he do with it? Now look, I'm sure that many of you could say, well, God's given me more than the second chance. He's given me a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth chance.
[01:15:06;37 - 01:15:31;09]
And what do we do with those chances when God gives us those second and third chances? What do we do with them? Well, let me tell you, Saul blew it. God gave him a chance and he blew it big time. I want you to notice verses six through 12 of first Samuel 26.
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Then David said to a Himmelik the Hittite and to Abishai, Abishai, the son of Zoruiah, Joab's brother saying, who will go down with me to Saul and the camp? So here's what's happened.
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Saul and his men have come to the camp. Okay. 3000 men and those 3000 men, they're in concentric circles and Saul is dead asleep in the middle of that camp.
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It's like Saul has his secret service agents and then he got all of his soldiers around him in concentric circles. And you know, I want you to see what David does here.
[01:16:21;54 - 01:17:01;51]
So David said, who will go down there with me? So David and Abishai came to the people by night and behold, Saul lay sleeping inside the circle of the camp with his spear stuck in the ground and Abner and the people lying around him. Then Abishai said to David, today God has delivered your enemy into your hand. Now therefore, please let me strike him with a spear to the ground with one stroke and I will not strike him the second time. But David said to Abishai, do not destroy him
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for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be without guilt.
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David also said, as the Lord lives, surely the Lord will strike him or his day will come that he dies or he will go down into battle and perish. And that we're going to say, that's exactly what's going to happen in the next few chapters. He's going into battle and he's going to be killed in battle. Verse 11, the Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed.
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But now please take the spear that is at his head and the jug of water and let us go. Now, can you imagine, just think of just a minute. Here is David and Abishai.
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They come into a camp of 3000 soldiers with Saul in the middle. Listen, every twig they stepped on,
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they had to be so careful, right? Even pulling the spear out of ground, surely it made some kind of sound. You say how in the world were they able to do that? The Bible says that the Lord caused a deep sleep to come upon Saul and his 3000 soldiers.
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A deep sleep. I tell you, as I read about the life of David, I am so amazed at his courage, at his boldness. He's just one of my heroes. And look,
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verse 12, so David took the spear and the jug of water from beside Saul's head and they went away, but no one saw it or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep because of sound sleep the Lord had fallen on them. Man, at my age, I long for sound sleep. I'm telling you, I wake up so early in the morning. So anyway, I don't think the Lord is going to give me that sound sleep the way he gave to Saul and his men. So David and Abishai with the help of the Lord made their way through these 3000 soldiers and got within striking distance of Saul.
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Abishai is always wanting to take somebody's head off.
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He, by the way, Abishai is a nephew of David. He's a nephew of David. Saruya, his mother is David's sister. Okay. So I want you to see, David called out to Abner. He got a safe distance away and he called out to Abner and sort of trash talked him. Okay. How can you, how can you call yourself the commander of Saul's army and you let us get into the jug of water? I'm telling you, he trash talked it. It was nasty. And then, and then, look at this, verse 17 to 25, then Saul recognized David's voice and said, is this your voice, my son David? And David said, it is my voice, my Lord, the King. He also said, why then is my Lord pursuing his servant? For what have I done or what evil is in my hand? Now therefore, please let my Lord, the King, listen to the words of his servant. If the Lord has stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering. So, so David says here, if I've done something and the Lord has stirred your heart to come after me, let me give an offer. Let me get right with God. Let me get right with you. But look at this next part. But if it is men, verse 19, if it is men cursed are they before the Lord, for they have driven me out today so that I would have no attachment with the inheritance of the Lord saying, go serve other gods. So was it men, men of Saul's army who were encouraging him to kill David or was it God who stirred his heart to take David's life? Well, I think we know the answer. Evidently, it was men who stirred his own wicked heart that wanted to see his rival, the soon to be King killed. Verse 20. Now then do not let my blood fall to the ground away from the presence of the Lord. For the King of Israel has come out to search for a single flea. David calls himself a single flea. Just as one hunts a partridge in the mountains. Verse 21. Then Saul said, I have sinned.
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This may be the shortest autobiography in history. I have sinned, returned my son David, for I will not harm you again because my life was precious in your sight this day. Behold, I've played the fool and have committed a serious error.
[01:22:57;50 - 01:23:26;03]
Shortest autobiography in the world's history. You say, well, Saul seemed to be repentant here. I've sinned. Now listen to me very carefully. There's a vast difference between remorse and repentance. You got to remember that. Judas was remorseful, but he was not repentant.
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And he took his own life. Peter was repentant. He got right with Jesus,
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and he had a life filled with fruitful ministry as a result.
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We got to make sure we don't mix up those two, remorse and repentance. Listen, verse 22.
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David replied, behold the spear of the King. Now let one of the young men come over and take it. The Lord will repay each man for his righteousness and his faithfulness. That's the law of sowing and reaping. God knows. God knows what's in our hearts. He knew what was in David's heart. He knew what was in Saul's heart. And David says the Lord will repay each man for his righteousness and his faithfulness for the Lord delivered you into my hand today. But I refused to stretch my hand against the Lord's anointed. Now behold, as your life was highly valued in my sight this day. So may my life be highly valued in the sight of the Lord. And may he deliver me from all distress. Then Saul said to David, blessed are you my son, David, you will both accomplish much and surely prevail. So David went on his way. Saul returned to his place. This is the last conversation
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that Saul and David would ever have right here. The last one.
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David wrote Psalm 54 at this particular time when the Ziphites threw him under the bus. Look at Psalm 54.
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Look at the little postscript here for the choir director on stringed instruments, David, when the Ziphites came and said to Saul, is not David hiding among us?
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So out of that situation, David wrote this Psalm. Listen to it. Save me, O God,
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by your name and vindicate me by your power. Hear my prayer, O God.
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Give ear to the words of my mouth, for strangers have risen against me and violent men have sought my life. They have not set God before them.
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Behold, God is my helper. The Lord is the sustainer of my soul. He will recompense the evil to my foes. Destroy them in your faithfulness.
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Willingly, I will sacrifice to you. I will give thanks to your name, O Lord, for it is good, for he has delivered me from all trouble and my eye has looked with satisfaction upon my enemies. So those words out of the heart of the Psalmist, the greatest Psalmist, David,
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revealed his heart and what he was going through at that time. Now, I want you to understand, I carried you back to chapter 24, the other time when David had an opportunity to kill Saul, but didn't. And here is the second time he had an opportunity to kill Saul, but he didn't.
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And he didn't because he was a man of integrity. He was God's man.
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Now, what can we learn from chapter 26 about building our spiritual resume? Well, I think there's one big lesson for us. We got to trust God to make things right when they're wrong. We got to trust God. We went over this when we studied chapter 24,
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and we talked about how the Bible says, "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord."
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It's not up to us to take vengeance upon people when they do us wrong.
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We've got to allow God to handle those things. We've got to trust God to make things right.
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And you can't do that. You cannot trust God to make things right if you take matters into your own hand. That's a fact. Even though David, and get this now, even though David may not have respected the person that Saul became, he respected the position of authority that God entrusted to him.
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Hey, look, we may not agree with every politician that serves locally, statewide, or nationally, or globally. We may not gee-haw with them at all. But I'll tell you what we're bound and honored to do as Christians is we're to honor the position and the authority that God gave them, because they're in that position because God allowed them to get there. God has sovereign folks. The Bible says that God plants nations and God uproots nations. God puts rulers into office, and we have to trust him and we have to respect the authority that God has given to people who are in office. Sometimes it's hard, isn't it?
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But that's what we're supposed to do as believers. Now let's look at chapter 27. All right, chapter 27, look at verses one to four.
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"Then David said to himself," you ought to underline that. You ought to underline that. "David said to himself, now I will perish one day by the hand of Saul. There's nothing better for me than to escape into the land of the Philistines." All right, let me ask you, who are the Philistines?
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They are the mortal enemies of the Jewish people, right? So King David said, "I'd be better off going into the land of the enemy than living in Israel and running for my life.
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Saul then will despair of searching for me anymore in all the territory of Israel, and I will escape from his hand." So David arose and crossed over.
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He and the 600 men who were with him. Now remember, I think in chapter 21 of 1 Samuel, David's been here before, right? Remember that? David went over to Gath, and remember Gath is the hometown of Goliath. Who killed Goliath? David. And so David goes into the hometown of Goliath, and people start recognizing him, and they say, "Hey, isn't this a guy that they think about in Israel? Saul has killed his thousands, and David's his ten thousands."
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And they say, "That's us. That's us that he's killed." And so the game is up, and so you know what David does? David acts like he's crazy. Remember that? He lets a saliva come down his beard, acts all crazy and everything, and King Achish said, "I've got enough crazy people here in the Philistine territory. Get this guy out of here." But here he is again. But this time,
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he's coming with his two wives. He's coming with his children. He's coming with his 600-man army and their wives and their children. So there's a big contingent coming into Gath again to King Achish. Now, so David arose and crossed over, and the 600 men are with him to Achish, the son of Maok, king of Gath. And David lived with Achish at Gath. Now look at that. Where's David living? In the hometown of Goliath. He and his men, each with his household, even David with his two wives, Ahinom the Jezreelidos and Abigail the Carmelidos,
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Nabal's widow. Now it was told Saul that David had fled to Gath. Now look at this. So we no longer for him. Now, don't you think about this just a minute. David's been under so much pressure,
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and now the pressure is off, or so we might think. And now,
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David can let, as Tommy tells me all the time, "Chuck, you got to let the bow rest." So he could let the bow rest. He could rest. He didn't have to look over his shoulder all the time.
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Now think about this.
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David is talking to himself in verse one. He's not talking to God. He's talking to himself. Do you realize in chapter 27, God's not even mentioned. Not even mentioned.
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There's no prayers of David in chapter 27. There are no Psalms that David wrote in connection with chapter 27. None. Do you know how long David lived here in Philistine territory? 16 months.
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16 months David was out of the will of God. It was not God's will that he go into enemy territory.
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And he's out of the will of God. Hey, have you ever lived out of the will of God for a period of time?
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That's not fun, is it? Hey, if you're born again believer and you're living out of the will of God, you may be the most miserable person on the planet. Seriously. The most miserable person on the planet is not a lost person. The most miserable person on the planet is a believer who's trying to live with one foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom of God.
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That's not a fun place to be. So David's talking to himself, not talking to God.
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David, the man after God's own heart is discouraged.
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If I had to write one word over this entire chapter, chapter 27, it would be discouraged. Have you ever been discouraged? Discouragement make you do some crazy things.
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It makes you think some things and feel some things and do some things that
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you wish you could take back. David was in such a bad place that he thought there was safety in enemy territory. Let me tell you, discouragement is a tool of the devil. I put this little
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thing on here. Once upon a time, the devil decided to have a garage sale
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because he wanted to clear out some of his old tools to make room for new ones.
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After he set up the table, a fellow dropped by to see what he had on this long table were all tricks of his infernal trade. Anger, $250. Sloth, $380. Criticism, $500. Jealousy, $630. Discouragement, $1,200.
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And this guy who was looking over what the devil was selling, asking, "Why is discouragement so expensive?" And the devil said this. The guy said, "Why do you use discouragement so much?" And the devil said, "It always works when nothing else will." And it does.
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There's a lesson for us here. We've got to monitor
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our thoughts and our words when we're dealing with discouragement. Remember, David's talking to himself, but what's he saying to himself?
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We've got to filter our subjective feelings and thoughts of the objective truth of God's word. Look at the last part of verse one. Last part of verse one.
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"Now I will perish one day by the hand of Saul." No, you're not, David. You're not going to perish by the hand of Saul. You say, "Pastor, how can you be so sure of that?" Because God's already confirmed to him four different times through four different people that he's going to be the next king of Israel. But I'll tell you, when you're discouraged, you think things that you shouldn't think and you say things you shouldn't say and you do things you shouldn't do.
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And that's exactly where David is.
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It's interesting here. David's faith was cratering here in chapter 27. Now think about that. Here's the hero of Israel, the one they sang songs about.
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And several different times in chapter 27, he's referred to as the servant of Achish,
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the king of Gath, a Philistine, an enemy of God.
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Look at verses two to seven.
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"So David arose and crossed over. He and the 600 men with him to Achish, the son
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of Maot, king of Gath. And David lived with Achish at Gath, he and his men, each with his son." Look at verse five. "Then David said to Achish, if now I have found favor in your sight, let them give me a place in one of the cities in the country that I may live there, for why should your servant live in the royal city with you?" David is not being genuine here.
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He's patronizing King Achish because he's trying to save his hide. Verse six, "So Achish gave him ziklag that day. Therefore, ziklag has belonged to the kings of Judah to this day. The number of days that David lived in the country of the Philistines was one year and 16 months."
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Now, during this time, David did what he thought was best. He's caught in a downward spiral that's been instigated and motivated by discouragement and by distress.
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As a result, his integrity took a nosedive. Look at verses eight to 12 in chapter 27.
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"Now David and his men went up and raided the Gesurites and the Gersites and the Malachites, for they were the inhabitants of the land from ancient times as you come to sure, even as far as the land of Egypt." Now, these folks mentioned here in verse eight, "They were enemies both of the Philistines and the Jewish people.
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David attacked the land and did not leave a man or a woman alive. And he took away the sheep, the cattle, the donkeys, the camel, the clothing. Then he returned and came to Achish." It's like he's reporting back to Achish. Here's the hero of Israel reporting back to a pagan king.
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Now Achish said, "Where have you made a raid today?" And David said against the Negev, the southern country of Judah and against the Negev of the Jerimelechts and against the Negev of the Kenites. Now, can I tell you, David is flat out lying. That's a lie.
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He didn't attack Jewish people. He attacked people that were enemy of the Jews and enemies of the Philistines. And yet he's lying. You see, when you're discouraged and you're distressed and your life is spiraling downward, you lose your integrity. He's lying.
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Listen, David attacked these villages without God's permission,
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without provocation, under false pretenses and with unnecessary cruelty.
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David exposed not only himself and his family, but the 600 men who were a part of his army and their families to the consequences of living outside the will of God. How many times have you heard it? I've heard it. Brother Tommy, I know you heard it a bunch of times. You see somebody living outside the will of God. Well, it's not hurting anybody but me. Can I tell you that's the devil's lie. You got a guy here that is getting drunk and his wife and his little kids are walking on eggshells, never knowing what's going to happen. And he says, it doesn't hurt anybody but me.
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You see a guy who is having an affair with another, it's not hurting anybody but me.
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It's destroying a family. Don't let the devil tell you that lie. Do you know what Jesus said about the devil? Jesus said the devil has been a liar from the beginning. He will never tell you ever. You know what he wants to do? He wants to take you down. He wants to take your family down. He wants to take this church down. He wants the whole world to worship him.
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So you got 600 men and their families living with the consequences of a leader who's out of the will of God. So what can we learn from chapter 27
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as we consider building our spiritual resume?
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All right, number one, we said in chapter 26, trust God to make things right.
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Number two, and this is what we learned from chapter 27, remain committed when you're discouraged.
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Never allow yourself to become a servant of the enemy. Take your Bible, look at James 4, 7.
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James chapter 4 verse 7. Listen to it. Submit therefore to God,
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resist the devil and he will flee from you. Do you know the Bible says right here
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that we don't have to mount some kind of massive attack against the enemy. All we got to do is resist him. So he tempts you to do something you shouldn't do, to say something you shouldn't say or to think something you shouldn't think. And all you have to do is say no, no,
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I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to think like that. I'm not going to say that. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. And then look at this, just flip over to your left from James chapter 4 meant to Hebrews chapter 12. I believe this is so important as we think about remaining committed when you're discouraged. Look at verse one and following. "Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us," look at this, "let us run with endurance the race that is set before us." What's wrong with endurance? "Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God." Look at this, "for consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself," look at this, "so that you will not grow weary and lose heart." You won't get discouraged and lose heart. So keep your eyes on Jesus.
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Endure. Follow his example. All right chapter 28, I'm about there. Some of you all are going to lose a bit tonight. Look at verses three to seven. Now in verses one and two, it's a little conversation that David had with Achish. And Achish says to David, "the hero of Israel, I'm going to make you my bodyguard for life." That's what the enemy wants to do. He wants to get us serving him.
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Now look at verse three, "Now Samuel was dead and all Israel had lamented him and buried him in Ramah, his own city, and Saul had removed from the land those who were mediums and spiritists.
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So the Philistines gathered together and came and camped in Shunom.
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And Saul gathered all Israel together and they camped in Gilboa. When Saul saw the camp of the Philistines, he was afraid and his heart trembled greatly. When Saul inquired of the Lord," look at this, this is a sad, sad verse. "When Saul inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not answer him
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either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets. Then Saul said to his servants,
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"Seek for me a woman who is a medium." Wait, wait a minute Saul.
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I thought you got rid of all the mediums and all the spiritists and all the occultists who were part of Israel. He didn't wipe the majority of them out, but now he's asking for one of them.
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Now look at this, "Seek for me a woman who is a medium that I may go to her and inquire of her."
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God didn't answer his prayers anymore, so he's turning to the demonic realm for answers.
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Behold, there's a woman who's a medium at indoor.
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Now look at this,
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then Saul disguised himself by putting on other clothes.
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Can't you see him? He's got a hoodie. He's got sunglasses.
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But now remember, Saul was a head taller than other men in Israel.
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It'd be pretty hard not to recognize him, right?
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So he slinks into the witch of indoors house and he disguised himself by putting on other clothes. He entombed with him and they came to the woman by night
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and said, here's what he said, "Conjure up for me please and bring up for me whom I shall name to you."
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But the woman said to him, "Behold, you know what Saul is." Evidently she didn't recognize him,
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even though he's a head taller. Most Jewish men at this point in time were about five, that was an average height. And here you got Saul, Saul may have been six or eight, six four.
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The woman said to him, "Behold, you know what Saul has done, how he has cut off those who are mediums and spiritists from the land. Why are you then laying a snare from my life to bring about my death?"
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And Saul vowed to her by the Lord saying, "As the Lord lives, no punishment shall come upon you for anything." Then the woman said, "Whom shall I bring up for you?" He said, "Bring up Samuel for me."
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When the woman saw Samuel, she did her thing and here comes Samuel.
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And she cried out with a loud voice and the woman spoke to Saul saying, "Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul." The king said to her, "Do not be afraid, but what do you see?"
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And the woman said to Saul, "I see a divine being coming up out of the earth."
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And he said to her, "What is his form?" She said, "An old man is coming up and he's wrapped with a robe."
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And Saul knew that it was Samuel and he bowed with his face to the ground and did homage.
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This scene had been debated in theological circles for many, many years, decades, centuries, millennia. It had been debated for a long time. And here's the basic debate. Was this really Samuel?
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Or was this a demon posing as Samuel?
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I'll tell you what I believe. I believe it was really Samuel.
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And I've included in her notes reasons that I believe that. Look at verse 15 to 19, what Samuel said to Saul. "Why have you disturbed me?" By the way, as we go through verses 15 to 19, I want you to circle every time you see the word, all caps, L-O-R-D, Lord. Circle it, okay?
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Then Samuel said to Saul, "Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?"
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And Saul answered, "I am greatly distressed, for the Philistines are waging war against me and God has departed for me and no longer answers me, either through prophets or by dreams. Therefore you may make known to me what I should do." Saul said, "I don't know what to do."
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Let me tell you, you can rebel against God for so long that God will give you up.
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Read Romans chapter one, three different times in Romans chapter one.
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The Bible says God gave them up. God gave them up.
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God gave them up. That's exactly what's happened to Saul.
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Verse 16, Samuel said, here's what Samuel said now, "Why then do you ask me since the Lord has departed from you and has become your adversary?"
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Verse 17, "The Lord had done accordingly as he spoke through me, for the Lord has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, to David. As you did not obey the Lord and did not execute his fierce wrath on Amalek, so the Lord had done this thing to you this day.
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Moreover, the Lord will also give over Israel along with you into the hands of the Philistines.
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Therefore tomorrow you and your sons will be with me." In other words, Saul and his three sons would die in battle the next day.
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Indeed, the Lord will give over the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines.
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Now, let me tell you why I believe this is actually Samuel. Seven different times in Samuel's conversation, he uses the covenant name of God, Yahweh, seven times.
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I'm not sure I've ever heard of a demon using the covenant name of Yahweh.
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Here's another reason I believe this is actually Samuel, because this prophecy, this is a prophecy right here. Samuel was a prophet and he prophesied that Saul and his three sons would die in battle the next day. That's exactly what happened, that Israel would be defeated.
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So what can we learn from this chapter?
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Well, in chapter 26, we learn trust God to make things right. Chapter 27, remain committed when you're discouraged.
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Chapter 28, stand firm in the Lord's strength.
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Look at Ephesians 5.11. Just turn over there for just a minute.
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"Do not participate in the unfruitful deeds of darkness, but instead even expose them."
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"Avoid séances, tarot cards, Ouija boards, psychic readings, anything connected with the occult, stay away from it. Stand firm in the Lord's strength."
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"You don't need help from the devil."
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I think sometimes here's what we've seen. We've seen Hollywood
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take the demonic realm and glorify it.
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And we've sort of become desensitized to the reality of the demonic realm and the danger
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of the demonic realm. I'm telling you, we've got to teach our kids and our grandkids
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and anybody we come in contact with to stay away from the occult. Stay away from it.
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Look at this. Look at Ephesians 6, 10 through 13. "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God so that you'll be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil, for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual force of wickedness and the heavenly play." Do you understand that just as there is a highly organized system of angelic beings at God's disposal, there's a highly organized system of demons at the devil's disposal. That's what we're talking about. So we got to make sure that our strength is in the Lord.
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Well, that's the end of three chapters. What time is it? 7.29.
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All right. See, you doubted me, didn't you? I looked at your faces. I saw it. Hey, this is important stuff.
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And I hope and pray that you'll take these notes and you'll share them with somebody else. Remember when we first started this Wednesday night thing and I started to hand out these notes, I said, "I'm giving you these notes so that you can share what I share with you on Wednesday
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And we'll see in the next chapter that David will strengthen himself in the Lord.
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And you will re-energize him and reinvigorate him and repurpose him to be whom you called him to be.
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And Lord, I pray in the name of Jesus that everybody in this room will pay close attention to what we studied tonight and to these lessons that we've learned from these three chapters.
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Lord, use us for your glory.
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Help us to be faithful to the finish. In Jesus' name, amen. Thank you. God bless you.
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