The Church of Eleven22 - Wk 12: The Lord Judge

Episode Date: July 14, 2019

How much do you trust God? Opportunity does not equal anointing. You cannot give me what the Lord has not, and you cannot keep me from what the Lord has. Click the 1 Samuel Resources tab for the full study journal, summary recap videos and more.

Amen and amen. How we doing, church? Everybody's looking good. If you got your Bibles and I hope you do, 1 Samuel chapter 24, we are in the last week of this series called prophets, priests, and kings, or if you have your journal, we are on page 64. By the way, who still got the journal? Who brought it with them? Raise your hands, high, way to go. All right, high concentration in the front here. I just want to point that out to the heathens in the back. Well, whatever. We're a movement for all people. Hey, listen, if you brought your journal, if you kept up with it this whole time, we have a free gift for you in the Connect Center, go and for a limited time only you can sign up for a disciple group for free all right so please do that hey we're just going to dive right in here first samuel chapter 24 beginning in verse one says

this when saul returned from following the philistines he was told behold david is in the wilderness of inguette now if you hear last week you remember we were way back in chapter 18 and pastor adam did a phenomenal job talking about forgiveness didn't he do an awesome job we are blessed to have many, many good teachers here, and then there's me. And so you may be going, so what happened? How did we get from David playing the harp in the presence of King Saul to now he showed up here in Getti? And you'll remember that what was going on is that in Chapter 17, David kills Goliath, and then Saul gets super jealous of David.

And so then one day he's overcome with jealousy. He's all kind of mixed up with this ego and insecurity, and he throws a spear at David. And when people throw spears at you, we are to dodge, duck, dip, dive, dodge. That's what we do. And whatever we do, we do not retaliate and throw the spear back. And Pastor Adam last week walked us through forgiveness for sure. But sometimes you have to leave. So I want to be very clear.

Reiterate what Pastor Adam said. Yes, we forgive. But if you are in a situation where you are being abused, you leave. Okay? You leave. You get out of there. Forgiveness does not mean

that you're a doormat for abuse. Jesus was abused on the cross. You do not need to be abused. And so, here's what you do, okay? You leave, you forgive, and you call the police. You forgive and prosecute. Without a doubt.

And I know we giggle, but I ain't kidding at all. God has set up systems of justice whereby that should be prosecuted. And you call the church and you let us help. No matter where that thing is, at a school, at a church, wherever it is. Forgiveness does not mean that you are a dormant. And so what David does for the next seven chapters is he leaves.

And it gets, if you read chapters 8 or 19 through 25, it's kind of crazy. Saul doesn't just throw a spear once or twice, but over and over and over, he continues to throw spears to try to pin David to the wall. He torments him. In fact, one of the ways he torments him, he says, why don't you marry my daughter? because you know, I mean, don't tell nobody, but you know you don't just marry the daughter. You marry the family. And if the family's crazy, you just married crazy, all right? That's just true.

And so it gets real crazy. At one point, Saul's trying to have David killed, so he says, all right, in order to marry my daughter, the price for her is 100 Philistine foreskins. All right, kids, if you don't know what that is, ask your mom at lunch, all right? It's not my fault. We have kids ministry. We ain't talking about four skin over there. So David says, I'll do better. I'll give you $200.

That's weird stuff. It's in the Bible. Don't read that part right now. But over and over and over and over, Saul continues to throw spears at David, and so David leaves. And as David is on the run, some men begin to follow him. He's got about 400 people following him around, and he finds himself in this place called In Getty.

If you ever go to Israel with me, and I hope you do, we will go to Engedy. It's this unbelievable place. It's this oasis of caves and waterhurt. waterfall and lush greenery in the middle of the desert. I mean, the Dead Sea is there. There's nothing but rocks and sand. And then right in the middle of it is this oasis. How good is our God that he provides relief in some of our times of desperation and trial.

Amen? And listen, this is free. This isn't the sermon. I hope and pray that you see and feel and understand the Church of 11th. 1222 as in Getty in your week and in your day, especially for those of you that are running, that are parts, that feel like you can't just make it one more day. And I hope and pray that when you walk into this place, that you feel the kindness of the Lord towards you, the grace of God towards you.

This is a place where it is okay to not be okay. And God is not in love with some future version of you once you get your act together, but he loves you right now. And you're not just welcome here. You are wanted in this place. Now, amen. Now for every Christian in the room, let me ask you this. If you have experienced the lavish love of God and grace in your life,

are you an in Getty for those closest to you in your life? Let me ask it this way. Dad's, when you walk home, when you walk in the house, does peace walk in with you? Or does everybody get a little uptight because dad's home? Hey boss, when you walk into the office, does everybody feel a sense of peace and security or are they feel with anxiety? You see, the reality is, is if we understand the grace of God, that we cannot even contain the grace of God, if the grace of God through the gospel of Jesus Christ has been poured out onto us, then it should be poured out, lavished, spill out on everybody that we come in contact to.

I hope and I pray that our church and that every Jesus follower in this place is in Gettie for those closest in our lives. And so Jesus or God provides for David in this time of trial. He provides for him this beautiful oasis. And so David and his men, they go into this place and they're hiding in a cave, verse two. And then Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all of Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the wild goats rocks. And he came to the sheepfolds by the way where there was a cave. And Saul went in to relieve himself. It just means what it means, all right?

When you got to go, you got to go, right? Especially us older fellas, you know, just an exit, all right? And the first truck stop you find, you got to go. And so, of all the caves, of all the truck stops and all of Israel, Saul, when he's got to go, he pulls into the one that King David is hiding in. Can you believe that? I mean, that's the sovereignty of our God. He is not only king of the universe, he is sovereign over your own kidneys, all right?

And so, what are the chances? It says, now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. And the men of David said to him, here is the day of which the Lord said to you, behold, I will give your enemy into your hands, and you shall do to him, as it shall seem good to you. Then David arose. Here's what's happening in this moment. If you've been sticking with us in this series,

you know that weeks and weeks and weeks ago and years for David he was anointed to be king of Israel. And he's just been waiting on his time. Because God's anointing does not always equal his appointing. Sometimes there's a big gap in between. Jesus did not start his ministry until he was 30 years old. For the first 30 years of his life, I guess he's just waiting on his father's timing.

David has been waiting on his father's timing. And then his men come up to him and say, all right, David, here you go. I mean, what are you going to do? This is your chance. This is obviously God's hand because, again, of all the caves and all of Israel, here is your adversary right here in a very vulnerable position. The Bible does not clarify whether this is numbered one or two, but either are very vulnerable. You either have your back or you're sitting on it, whatever it is.

you understand? And they say, this must be your chance to take your future into your own hands, kill Saul, and be the king. After all, you've been anointed. And I'm telling you, David arose. The Bible does not say exactly what is going through his mind, but listen, if I'm David in this moment and maybe David does this too, David could easily justify taking out King Saul in this moment, can't he? I mean, first of all, he can say, look, it's self-defense. The guy's been throwing spears at me for weeks now. And we're not even to the Jesus part of the Bible where he says, turn to the other cheek. We're still in the eye for eye, tooth for tooth. Throw a spear, I'll cut your head off. You understand? No problem. And he could have justified it

by looking around and saying, all my friends, my wise counsel, are telling me to do this. By the way, this is just good advice. Always be careful asking advice for people that are under your authority. Because most often, they will tell you what you want to hear, not what you need to hear. This is, by the way, while I have a board of elders, I'll tell you more about it later, but it's just true. But we need the kind of friends that care more about you than what you think about them. Another reason he could have justified it is he could have said this is better for Israel. Saul's crazy. He's a mad king. I'm a man after God's own heart. This would be much better if I, the

anointed king David, would go ahead and rule the kingdom and surely the ends justify the means. The only problem with that is that the purposes of God cannot be achieved by breaking the precepts of God. And so this is the one I think we fall into in our day. Obviously, this must be God's will because he opened the door. I hear, oh my goodness, the buffet of crazy I hear at our church, blaming God for what we really want to do anyway. You've got to be really, really careful when you try to understand the will of God based on your own desires. Because here's what's true, you always find what you're looking for. You ever notice that? And people come to me and be like, I just have a peace about it. Okay, that's great. Or the Lord

told me or the Lord opened the door. Really? You see, here's the thing that's just true. If it's against God's word, it's against God's will, period. A few years ago, one of my dear, dear friends was on a diet and he shows up with a box of crispy creams. And I'm like, bro, I don't think that's on your diet. He's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, the Lord gave me a sign. Did it, did it say hot and ready? Was that the sign? He's like, how'd you know? He said, so I'm driving down the street, and there's a hot and ready sign, and I looked at it and said, Lord, is this you or not? And so, God, I only want to do your will.

So, God, as I pull into the parking lot, I will know that if there's not a spot right in front of the front door of the crispy cream, then I will know that you have shut the door, and this is a temptation of the enemy. And I said, well, was there a spot in the front? And he goes, after the fourth time around the building. And I said, I rebuke you, Pastor Stone, all right? Get out of me. Get behind me, Satan.

No, I'm just kidding. I made up some of that. But whatever. You see, here's the thing. A good friend told me one time is that when you negotiate with yourself, if you ever notice, you almost always win. And when God's word says do something, but you really want to do this other thing.

And you begin to rationalize. This is so cheesy, but you'll remember it forever. When we rationalize, essentially what we do is tell ourselves rational lies. That's what we do. And we just try to do what we want. to do, and although David maybe could have tried to justify or rationalize why he should grab on and take his future into his own hands, there was one reason not to. It's because God told David

not to. We're going to find out in just a little while that the Lord told David that he should not put his hand out against the Lord's anointed. You see, maybe what David is thinking here in this moment is it was God that put Saul on the throne. And so when God is, ready, God will remove Saul from the throne. And I can imagine that his friends, you know, his commanders maybe came up to him afterwards and says, what are you doing? You missed an ample opportunity to take what is yours and maybe David would think, listen, it is better that he kill me than I become like him. You see, maybe what David is thinking is this. I will not do the same things that this mad king has done towards me lest I become the next mad king.

And so he decides to just be obedient to the Lord. You see, what's really cool about studying 1st Samuel, we've talked about this before, but 1st Samuel kind of gives us the history of what's happening, and in our Bibles we have David's journal so we can know the heart behind why he is doing what he's doing. In Psalm 57, Psalm 57 is a song that David wrote about this time in the cave where Saul is using the bathroom and he has an opportunity to take out his enemy. And Psalm 57 says this, be merciful to me, oh God, be merciful to me.

For in you, my soul takes refuge. See, David understands that God is not his refuge from pain. God is his refuge in pain. He says, in the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge till the storms of destruction pass by. And check this out in verse 2. I cry out to God most high, to God who fulfills his purpose for me. You see, essentially, David must trust that God is in control. And that God does have a purpose for him.

and God can be trusted with his life. So David gets up and the Bible says he stealthily cuts off a corner of Saul's robe. And afterwards, David's heart struck him because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe. And he said to his men, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Lord's anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord's anointed. You see again, I know I'm repeating, but if it is a man, against God's word, it is against God's will. And God does not have some kind of specific clause that does not apply to you and me. You see, you know what? Have you ever been there,

by the way? Have you ever been, there's this thing that you want like crazy, and you know if you're serious and you've got Christian friends around you and you study the word at all, or you've got any sense of what the Spirit is telling you to do? You know, there's this thing that you want, and you know it's not God's will. Anybody else have been there? there? Okay? All right, just me and people that I pay you to be here. No problem. That's fine. Glad the rest of y'all here. You know what the only thing harder than fighting the flesh and obeying God when you really don't want to? You know what the only thing that's harder than waiting on God's plan to unfold? The only thing that's harder than waiting on the will of

God is wishing that you had. This is where David is. He gets this. Now, the crazy thing is, is that, praise God, he doesn't kill him, but he does cut off his robe. And what happens is immediately when he does this thing, it's a really big deal, okay? It's a really big deal. And I think it's a big deal, at least one of three ways. One is at the end of a king's robe, at the end of any Orthodox Jewish man's robe, he would have these little tassels.

Those tassels would have five knots tied on it. Even if you go to, if you see an Orthodox Jewish person today, sometimes you'll see like a little tassel hanging out of their shirt, you know. And it's a reminder to pray. What they would do, the five knots on that tassel represent the first five books of the Bible, the Pentateuch, or the Torah, and it's a reminder to pray. And that little tassel with a knots, it's called a t-z-z-I-T. If you're from Dillon, you call it a t-z-z-z-it.

But that's not how you say it, all right? And a part of what this could be is when David cuts this thing off, what he's saying essentially is like, I'm cutting off your access to God in prayer. It was kind of a spiritual affront against King Saul. Or it could be that when he cut off the corner of his robe, the corner of the garment or the robe in Hebrew is called a canoff. Knaf. And it can be translated as edge of the garment or it also could be translated as wing. like when Jesus says, and here's what it did, it represents the authority of God.

Like David said in Psalm 57, he says, in the shadow of your canoff, in the shadow of your wings, I will take refuge. And the idea here is that God works in and through authority and God has appointed this king and the edge of his robe, the edge of his wings represents God's protection. It's why Jesus on the way into Jerusalem for the last week of his life, he's coming down the Mount of Olives, he looks over the Kidron Valley, over the eastern wall of Jerusalem. And you can see down into Jerusalem. And the Bible says that Jesus stops on the Mount of Olives and he begins to weep and he says, Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, that I would gather you like a hen gathers its chicks underneath her kinaw, wings. And so a part of what David could be doing here is essentially usurping the authority of King Saul.

or it could just be very, very practical where he says, I just want you to know in a place of extreme vulnerability, I could have taken you out. And I chose not to. But the moment, the moment David does this, he doesn't kill him, but he is immediately convicted of his sin.

And notice what he does when he is convicted. He confesses and he repents. He confesses out loud and he repent. He changes direction. He changes the way he's thinking about it. That's what repentance literally means in Greek. It means to change your mind that leads to where you would change your action. And then he tells his men, look, we're not going to kill him.

I hope you know this, that the conviction of sin is the kindness of God in your life. Romans chapter 1 tells us that the wrath of God in your life would be that he would turn you over to your own desire. So look, if you show up here every week and you're like, actually, pastor, part of the reason I don't come every week is because every time I come in here, I just feel like a terrible person. You know why that is? Because you're a terrible person. It's actually worse than you think. Me too.

Me too. I feel like God convicts me of so much sin. I don't have enough time in my life to get the thing turned around, which is evidence. Here's why I think it's a good thing when you feel that conviction of sin over and over and over. That's not evidence that you don't know Jesus. That's evidence that Jesus is doing a sanctifying work in your life. Let me see who scares me. Church people.

I'm talking about you church people just rolling here every week with like three big old Bibles in different translations. And the moment, the moment I'm like, turn to 1st Samuel 24 and you're like, hell in a cave. Like you already know where it's going. And yet at the end of our services and during the sermon and during the worship, there is no conviction of the spirit. You should pay attention to that,

lest you believe you're perfect and the spirit's done with you. I'll tell you this, if you think the spirit's done with you, you're right. You're right, he is. But if God, by his grace, continuously takes like a hammer and a chisel and chisels away everything in our lives that don't look like Jesus, that's the grace of God, the kindness of God, that leads us to repentance.

So that's what David does. Now, real quick, I'm not going to spend much time on this. This is for like insider church people. This little phrase, the Lord's anointed. David says, I shall not put my hand against the Lord's anointed. That phrase in churches get used all the time to talk about the lead or senior pastor. But it often gets misused. What it means is, well, if God has anointed me, no one can come against me.

And I have heard preachers use that, to which I go, hold on. The context of which you get that verse is about Saul. taking a pee in a cave and he's a crazy man so you're the crazy king and they're like no no no I'm like David no no no that's not how it works David was submitted to authority and and Saul had nobody to hold him accountable so you know when we started the church of 1122 one of the first things that I did and what continues to today is that we have a we have a board of qualified elders that have no problem There's six men plus me. I'm on the elder board two, and I am submitted to the plurality of their leadership.

And they have no problem pointing out the sin in my life. In fact, Pedy likes it a lot, all right? Dr. Paul points his finger. I mean, I'm just telling you they have no problem holding me accountable to protect me for me for me and for our good. And so, back to the story. So David gets up, cuts off a piece of the robe. confesses, repents. But here's the real deal.

Is that I think we all want to be King David, right? Submitted to God, humble, patient, a man or woman after God's own heart. But in reality, most of us are like King Saul. Jealous, insecure, full of ego. And what's happening here is what if David begins to realize that Saul is actually God's gift in his life. You see, what if David begins to realize that David has a lot of Saul in him too? He's got a lot of jealousy and insecurity, and he's got a lot of ego.

And this thing that is causing him the greatest pain in his life is actually God's provision for his future kingship. to prepare him to be the very king that God has called him to be. You see, let me say it to you this way. Don't ever expect God to grant you authority until you learn how to live under authority. Our culture rejects authority. It does. And what if, what if, I'm telling you, because sometimes we're talking about King Saul

and he's crazy and he's throwing spears and you think, I think I work for him. I have this boss and every time he comes out of his office, he just throw him. rose spears at us. Well, what do you do when you're in that kind of situation in your life where the people in authority over you are mistreating you? Let me ask you this way. Let's get very specific. Have you ever considered that some of the toughest seasons in your life could be the training grounds whereby God wants to remove a whole bunch of King's Saw stuff out of you so that you could be prepared for what he wants to give you? And this isn't about caves 3,000 years ago. How about at work and how about at home?

When it comes to the authority in your life at work and home, do you submit or do you subvert? Like it worked. Your boss comes out, he hurls insults at everybody, goes back into his office, and then there you are in your cubicle with the other employees. In that moment, do you submit to his authority? Or do you just run him down with everybody else? Or how about at home? And I know where you're thinking, but husbands, let me ask you this. Do you know before the Bible gets to that verse that you like to quote,

and if you have to quote the wives, submit verse, boys, it's over, okay? Before we ever get there, if you back up to Ephesians chapter 5, verse 21, the Bible says this, submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Husbands, are you submitting to your wife? submitting does not mean being passive. Submission just means I'm going to make your deal a bigger deal than my deal. Husbands, are you submitting to your wife or are you using your authority to manipulate the situation for your own gain? And you know what I'm talking about. You see, if you think that the reason God gave you her is so that she could serve you, then you're not ready to be a husband. The Bible says husbands love your wives like Christ, love the church, and gave himself up for her.

Are you manipulating the situation so that everybody's walking on eggshells as long as you, until you get what you want? You see, that means to subvert the authority that God has given you. Wives, if you were just to track the things that come out of your mouth, are you submitting or subverting the authority of your husband? And again, man, submission wives, it has nothing to do with, like, this is not leave it to beaver, okay? this is the Bible. Are you his biggest critic or his biggest cheerleader? The words that come out of your mouth, are they mostly correcting or championing? Did you know that your primary job in his life is to affirm that God has given him everything he needs to accomplish everything that God has called him to accomplish?

Most of the things that you say to him are they cheering him on? Hercules, Hercules! Or do you have him on a leash and you're correcting him like the dog? And in fact, some of you right now, you're beginning to think, the greatest thing. thing that ever happened to him was me. He wouldn't know how to tuck his shirt in or be on time or what to do with a toilet seat. Look here, ladies, your husband has a Holy Spirit. He ain't you. You understand? How about with our kids? Parents, God has given us this incredible authority to disciple and raise our children. The Bible says, fathers do not exasperate your children.

To exasperate means to put them in an unwinnable situation. And oftentimes, for our own benefit, what we do is we pacify them and then punish them. That's it. We just pacify them until they get on our nerves and then we punish them for getting on our nerves. That's very, very different than training up a child in the way he or she should go. Have you learned to submit to what it? We all have authorities in our life. And all of us at some place are in authority in our lives.

Are we doing it the way Jesus has called us to do it? And so David, in this moment, exemplifies that he understands that this is the authority that God has placed. And that's what he means when he says, and it is not my job to overthrow that authority. God placed that authority in my life. And so David persuaded his men with these words, and he did not permit them to attack Saul. And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way. And afterward, David also arose and he went out of the cave and he called after Saul. This is very important.

For the umpteenth time, he is going to try to reconcile with Saul. So, submission does not mean passivity. Submission is not doing nothing. Submission is not just sitting back. David's doing all kind of stuff. David's running, David's hiding, David's talking to Saul multiple times to try to reconcile. But just to reiterate, as he is going to make his case with Saul, he doesn't from a long ways off because Saul's been throwing spears at him.

So let me go back to last week real quick. Matthew 18 is for sure the truth taught by Jesus. There is a percentage of you if it comes to physical abuse. You do not go back one-on-one with that person. You do not. You call the police. You call the church. And so David, he's not a doormat.

Forgiveness does not mean he is Saul's doormat. And he comes out of the cave and he says, My Lord and King, and when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth, and he paid homage. And David said to Saul, why do you listen to the words of men who say, behold, David seeks your harm. Behold, this day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hand in the cave,

and some told me to kill you, but I spared you. And I said, I will not put out my hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. See, my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand. For by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hand, I have not sinned against you, though you hungry. my life and take it. David once again makes his case for Saul. And honestly, it's going to affect Saul here for a little while, but throughout the following pages of the Book of First Samuel,

Saul just goes right back to crazy. Man, my daddy used to always say, you can't fix crazy. That's a fact. If you're offended by that, text him, okay? Jimmy cracks corn senior at I don't care.com, all right? He'll be appreciating that. But again, forgiveness does not mean that you're a doormat. And then here's the key text to understanding how in the world David could not, when he has this opportunity, this open door, that he obeyed God instead of seizing the opportunity for himself. Here's David's heart. Verse 12, may the Lord judge between me and you. May the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. Let me ask you this.

do you trust God with your circumstances, especially when they're not going the way you want them to go, or do you try to be the God of your circumstances? You see, obedience is always more important than opportunity, every single time. Obedience trumps opportunity every single time. In fact, this is what got Saul in trouble. Remember back in chapter 13? Saul's about to go to war against the Philistines. So far in his kingdom, things are pretty good.

A couple hiccups, but he's doing okay. And he gets there, his army's there, they've had some victories. They're about to fight against the Philistines again. Again, this is 1st Samuel 13. And he's supposed to wait on the prophet Samuel to come and give the sacrifice so that God's blessing will be upon him, and he got tired of waiting. And so he went out and he made the sacrifice himself. And Samuel shows up and goes, what have you done?

and he says, well, I got tired of waiting on you, so I forced it. Hey, man, that's not just the story about a kingdom a long, long time ago. That's the story of our life every week. God, I don't trust you with this battle, so I got this. That's what he did. And Samuel says, what have you done? God has taken his hand of anointing off of you, essentially because Saul didn't trust God. two chapters later.

See, normally it just starts with a little something like that. By two chapters later, Saul's building altars to himself. They fight against King Agag and his people, and God says, wipe them all out. But instead of wiping them all out, King Saul says, actually, I'm going to keep the spoils for me. Samuel shows back up, and it's like, bro, it's over. What have you done? And Samuel says in 1st Samuel 1522,

Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice. You get that? obedience, trumps opportunity every single time. Now here is King David, and he's got the exact same opportunity. He knows he's anointed. He knows he's supposed to be king. He's got all these reasons that he could justify and rationalize why it would be okay to disobey God on this one thing so that he can make this situation right for himself.

He's got the same opportunity that Saul had, and yet what he decides to do is he says, and you alone, God, I trust. I trust your plans over my plans. Let me ask you, do you trust God? Now I know if I just ask you that question, you'd be like, yeah, I trust God. Okay, how about with your money? See how I got real quiet? Everybody's like, ha-ha.

Oh, is we going to talk about that? Yeah. You know who doesn't mind talking about money at church? Generous people. You know who gets highly offended when we talk about money at church? People that don't trust God. Does I stay a little? It should.

It's the kindness of God, the conviction of the Holy Spirit. You see, here's what it means. Okay, so you got this opportunity to go on a sweet vacation or you got this opportunity to invest some money. And you know you're going to make bank, right? And yet if you were, not that you would do this, but if you were to look at your giving record and you were to be honest about it,

you would know I have not been giving God my first invest. You know what you're really saying? God, you cannot be trusted with my money as if it's yours. But you cannot be trusted. I got this. Do you trust God? Or what about in your marriage? Do you trust God?

Or are you trying to rationalize taking hold of your own situation? I have had married men tell me, well, the reason I look at pornography is because I'm not getting what I want from my wife. If she would do what I want, then I wouldn't have to go this way. Essentially what you're saying is, God, I don't trust you with your plan of marriage. I'm supposed to love my wife like Christ love the church and lay down my life for her and value and respect her. I want to get what's mine. where I've had wives, Christian wives, say, well, listen, my husband does not give me the attention and affection I'm looking for,

but my coworker does. And so it's not going to go anywhere, but what's the big deal if we just text a little bit and Facebook message and do a few lunches? It always goes somewhere. Or all over our churches in our country, men and women who have made covenants to one another, they say, well, I'm not happy here anymore. And she makes me happy. And God wants me to be happy, right? God is infinitely more concerned with your holiness than your happiness.

You see, it's the same situation. Different cave, different Saul, but it's the same decision. Single people, single people. Do you trust God with your singleness? I mean, earlier, we were saying Christ is enough for me, and you're saying that Christ is enough. And you're looking around. Hey, girl, what's up? You love when you do hand-raised songs.

You look at everybody's hand. Just if you're a single in the house, raise your hand, all right? If you're single, raise it. Hold it up by, okay? All right, you're welcome. That's our single ministry for the year, all right? But what happens is you sing it, Christ is enough for me, but then he's not. And we teach on what a good godly husband is around here.

We teach on what a good godly wife is around here. And instead of waiting on God's best for you or step in. into a calling of singleness and honoring him that way, you just lower the bar way down here and say, I got to take this. You ask any married person in here, man. Only thing worse than being single and want to be married is being married want to be single. Do you trust God with your singleness? Do you trust God with your career?

Do you trust God with your career? Or do you say, no, no, no, no. You don't understand. In this season, to get ahead, I have to put my family in time with them. the back burner and because I got to go after this and then what we will have a tendency to do is then blame it on our family I'm just trying to give my kids what I never had you know what your kids don't have a dad the Shema says the Lord our God the Lord is one you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart soul mind and strength then you shall teach this to your

children I'm not anti-traveling I'm just telling you that if you prioritize your career over your first church which is your family you were not doing this thing God's way do you trust God with your career or do you think you have to impress your boss in order to be elevated because you really don't trust that God places us where he would have us. We'll keep going. I could keep going on the list. Is that fun? Everybody like that?

The next verse, as the proverb of the ancient says, Out of the wicked comes wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you. After whom has the king of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? after a dead dog, after a flee? David says, I am no threat to you, King Saul. That's what he's saying. May the Lord, therefore, be judge and give sentence between me and you to see it and plead

my case and deliver me from your hand. And as soon as David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, Is this your voice, my son, David? And David lifted up his voice and he wept, and Saul, excuse me, Saul lifted up his voice and he wept, and he said to David, you are more righteous than I, for you have repent. paid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. Do you realize that when we respond God's way in situations of evil, people are watching and it impacts them?

Like in regards to retaliation, when your boss comes out and he throws a spear at you and you act just like everybody else, or you react, you know what react means? React means you re-enact the action towards you. then the non-believers are going, yeah, we're the same. I mean, I know you go to church on the weekends, whatever, but we're the same. But when we respond with the gospel of grace

that God loved us with, even if people don't believe what you believe about heaven and hell and God and Jesus and all that, I promise you in that moment they want what you have. I'm like, how in the order do that? You know what? You know what I've never met? You ever meet old couples that are just super in love?

I mean old like You know like you go to Cracker Barrel Get there like 4.30 They're sitting down across from each other They've been together so long One of them doesn't even have to be at the table Everybody knows what everybody eats They don't even talk

They can just communicate telepathically Through their own that kind of wavelength You know how I'm talking about They're just in love still To be married 50 plus years You know, they're sharing teeth Here baby, your turn, you know what I'm talking about They ain't making fun

And if you're wondering am I old You've been older longer than? and you think, okay? But, man, we are, honestly, thank you for being a part of the church at 1122. Without you, we're just like an old tired youth group, okay? You're, you, we hold you in high esteem. We want to be like you. But I've never gone to one of those folks and say, all right, what's the secret? 50 years in and you're still in love, what's the secret? I've never heard the wife go, well, let me tell you, when he used to cuss me, I would cuss him back, and God would take that. No. I've never heard. He'd hurl an insult to me. I'd hurl a teapotid.

him and then God just drew. No, no, no, no. In fact, it was when one of the spouses would sin against the other and the other spouse would respond with the gospel. You know what I feel most loved by Gretchen and I most want to love Gretchen is when I sin against her, when I'm careless with my words, and she does not react, but she responds with a picture of grace. And so when we respond with a picture of grace, I'm telling you, it changes things. People are watching. This is why Jesus says, let your light shine before others so that they may see your good works and give glory to God, your father who is in heaven. Back to 1 Samuel 24. It says this, and you have declared this day how you have dealt well with me. Again, this is Saul talking to David, and that you did not kill me

when the Lord put me into your hands for if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe? And so may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. And now behold, I know that you shall surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand. See, God makes it clear to Saul. Here's what's crazy. Saul could not kill what God had already crowned. Can you imagine if we could trust God like David did?

If we trusted God like this, here's the thing. when you really trust God, did you know you don't have to be defensive and you don't have to self-promote? Can you imagine the freedom in your life? If you really believe that your boss does not have control of your future in the company, but God Almighty does. It would free you up from the performance and the pretending trap, and then you could legitimately go to work as unto the Lord. Can you imagine if you trusted God at home and you did not try to find your source of joy in your spouse? That is a heavy weight for your spouse to carry. And you would understand that your joy is in the Lord.

Then it would free you up to just love her. And if you would understand that you are not your spouse is savior. Spouses make terrible saviors. Because we can't pull it off. Can you imagine the freedom living this way? It is all rooted in this. Do you trust God? As Saul closes out his little speech this way, he says,

swear to me, therefore, by the Lord, that you will not cut off my offspring after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father's house. And David swore this to Saul. And so Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold. And you would think, if the book ended right there, you'd be like, see, sweet. David does what's right, responds with the gospel, everybody's reconciled. is not how it goes. It doesn't get any better for David for a long time.

Saul keeps trying to kill David. Saul keeps throwing spears at David. Saul gets crazier and crazier and crazier. At one point, Saul shifts down naked and prophesies with Samuel. So if you ever catch me preaching nude, call the elders, all right? Things have gone horribly wrong. But eventually, when you get to the last, the end of 1 Samuel, eventually in battle, Saul is killed.

David didn't do anything about it. And the one that God put on the throne, God removed from the throne, and finally, by the time you get to 2nd Samuel, David becomes the king. So here's the point. It's not about kings and caves in the Old Testament. It's about today, do you trust God?

And how much do you trust God? Opportunity does not equal anointing. you got that just because a door is open does not mean that is of the Lord obedience is always more important than opportunity and what if you lived by this phrase what if you legitimately believe this and lived by it you cannot give me what the Lord has not and you cannot keep me from what the Lord has you know what that's called freedom so are there areas in your life that you need to rethink for the areas in your life and you're headed in one direction

and you have tried to be the God of your circumstances and it is time for you to... The Bible word for this is called repent. We sang it. The cross before me, the world behind me. Right now in your life, the cross is behind you and the world's before you because you've been grabbing onto this thing. And to repent in the New Testament,

literally in Greek the word means to rethink the situation, to change your mind about the way you're thinking about who is in control of this thing. are there areas in your life that you are not trusting God, that you have reached out and grabbed this and tried to be the God of your situation. And what you and I need to do is surrender them once again to the sovereign king of the universe.

Where in your life do you need to repent? Where in your life do you need to rethink? Do you need to turn around? I'm going to list some. Do you need to rethink? Do you need to change direction on the way that you have been talking about your boss and others? Do you need to rethink?

you need to change direction on the way that you have subverted, not submitted to your husband? Do you need to rethink and change direction in the way that you have tried to manipulate your wife and not serve her? Do you need to rethink money? Because if you're honest, you have chosen greed and control over first-root generosity. And as you've tried to grab on to the things of this world, the things of this world have grabbed onto you, do you need to rethink family and the authority that God has given you there? Have you put your own interest over your role as a mom or dad? Do you need to rethink your dating life? You keep trying to seek intimacy by being physical instead of abiding in Jesus through obedience.

Do you need to rethink your social life? Because you care more about what people think of you and your status than what God. thinks of you and your status. Do you need to rethink your divorce and go back to your ex, regardless of what the paperwork says, and reconcile, and say you're sorry,

and see what the Lord may do? You see, the crazy thing about all these is all of those, and here's those crazy, man, people, you're so kind, you come out to me and say, I feel like you were talking to me. How do you explain that so well? There's a bunch of these on this list. I'm just reading my mail.

Glad you could be here for my therapy session, but that's what I'm doing, okay? I don't know about you, but I constantly need to repent. Martin Luther said, the life of the Christian is that of daily confession and repentance. You see, all of these are just symptoms of one thing. It's not necessarily just about sex and marriage and money and that. It's all about one thing. It's symptoms of this, God, I don't trust you. For two years, we're in this discipleship journey.

where we declare the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Akha. It doesn't mean just first on the list. It's like God is the page on which we would write the list. And over and over and over, we are prone to wonder. Instead of trusting him, when it doesn't go our way, we reach out and we grab onto those things. But the problem is that sin grabs on to us and entangles us.

And the good news of the gospel is this, is that when we sin and when we stumble and when we fall and when we're selfish and when we take matters into our own hands, we don't have to run and hide from the Heavenly Father. He ain't mad at you because he sent his son Jesus to be the propitiation for our sin, to demonstrate His love for us in this, that while we were still sinners, while we're all mangled up in our own insecurities and egos, that Christ died for us. And with that is the invitation to come running to our Heavenly Father,

to repent that your life was heading in this direction, financially, physically, relationally, whatever it is, and that you turn your back to the world, you put your face to the cross, and you come running to him. So every week, man, every week we respond. We respond here. And this week, I'm inviting you to repent. Every week we invite you to come and pray.

And for some of you, for the very first time, I dare you to step out of the seat that you're in, to step out of the comfortable place that you are, and come and kneel down before you're your Father in heaven that loves you and say, here's this thing that I have tried to grab onto to be in control of because honestly, I'm afraid and I have a hard time trusting you in my marriage, in my finances, whatever that thing is, this temptation that seems to have a hold of me. And God, once again, I lay it at your feet. And we are going to respond also by singing. And what we are going to sing is a song that our folks here wrote.

When we're going to declare that the Lord our God is one, because when he is one, that we can trust him for his plans because they're better than our plans. And we're going to respond like we do every week by giving. If you're a regular here, bringing our tides and offerings. You can do it on your app. You can do it in the boxes. You know how to do it if you're a regular. And what we're doing is we are just declaring, God, in my finances, you are first and you

are best. So I bring you my first and best because Jesus, you love me first by coming and dying on the cross. And so we're going to stand. If you would stand, let me pray for you. you and when I get done praying, I'm telling you, I dare you to come. I dare you to come to the altar and kneel before your Heavenly Father and change the path your own and change the way we think and trust God with that area of your life. Our good and gracious Heavenly Father, God, we love you more than anything because Jesus loved us first. And God, I thank you that David is not just a good

moral example of patience and forgiveness and reconciliation and perseverance, but that David is a picture king of kings that would show up that god we like saul have sinned against you and we find ourselves in a cave in a very vulnerable position and you have every right to kill us and yet you don't you spare us and even more than that you take our place so that we can be reconciled with our heavenly father spirit of god i pray that you would convict us i thank you that condemnation is from the devil but conviction is your kindness and god i pray spirit that you would convict us and god i pray spirit that you would us and that men and women and students at all of our campuses that we would boldly run forward to you kneel before our king our God our maker and let go of the things of this world that we have grabbed

on to that have a hold of us and God I pray that chains would be broken today freedom would be expressed today and I pray that people would walk out of here and never ever ever be the same because we trusted you we prayed in Jesus name amen so again let's pray Let's sing, let's bring.