SPEAKER_00: Alright, kids can be dismissed.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
SPEAKER_00: Andrew said I don't have a give a speech, so uh you are dismissed.
unknown: No.
SPEAKER_00: No, really, I I'm so thankful for you, for your prayers, for your love and support.
SPEAKER_00: I love all of you so much, and I love Ella, and I love that we get to I get to have both of those things.
SPEAKER_00: Um so uh just praise God for you.
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm for I pray for you all of you, and I'm I'm super excited um for all that the Lord has in store.
SPEAKER_00: And today we get to continue through 1 Samuel.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be in chapter 24 this morning.
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go through the whole chapter.
SPEAKER_00: So if you want to find your way to 1 Samuel chapter 24 and a copy of God's word.
SPEAKER_00: We also have some in the back by the sound booth and in the hallway out there if you don't have one.
SPEAKER_00: Um we got some new ones, so check those out.
SPEAKER_00: Grab one of those and open to 1 Samuel 24.
SPEAKER_00: Many of us remember what it's like to be kids on Christmas morning, right?
SPEAKER_00: Excited to dig into our presence, and we've been told, you know, no opening the gifts just yet.
SPEAKER_00: You have to wait until we're all up, we can we can do it together, right?
SPEAKER_00: You have to wait until it's time.
SPEAKER_00: But it's like almost 5:30, and we've been waiting for ages.
SPEAKER_00: And mom and dad won't come down and and we can see them right there.
SPEAKER_00: They're like right under the tree.
SPEAKER_00: I can see them.
SPEAKER_00: I could just go, I could just go get them.
SPEAKER_00: And they're mine, right?
SPEAKER_00: They literally have my name written on them.
SPEAKER_00: They belong, they're for me.
SPEAKER_00: I remember a friend of mine when we were little telling me that he knew what he was getting for Christmas because he had snuck into his parents' bedroom ahead of time and snooped around and found it.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember thinking, man, it was nice knowing you.
SPEAKER_00: Like, you can't good luck in the clink, have fun.
SPEAKER_00: You can't just be doing that.
SPEAKER_00: That's how I thought as an eight-year-old.
SPEAKER_00: You have to wait until it's time.
SPEAKER_00: But that's the temptation, right?
SPEAKER_00: That's the temptation that kids face when we have to wait for things, and unfortunately, it's the temptation that most of us don't really grow out of.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of the struggle of the Christian life in a lot of ways.
SPEAKER_00: So much of life in general, and of following Jesus in particular, is desiring good things that we can't have yet, or being promised good things that we can't enjoy yet, and then the temptation with that to pursue those things in our timing and in our ways.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you're single and you long for a relationship, and after years of waiting, you're tempted to compromise your standards because you know something is better than nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you're desperate for financial stability and the temptation is to just shade the truth slightly on your taxes, or exaggerate your hours just a little bit, or resist tithing and generosity so you can grip tighter to what you hope to maintain.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've been deeply hurt by someone, and you can't wait for God to bring justice until you decide to settle the score yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe you're just tired of waiting on God to bring about the happiness and contentment in Him that you were promised.
SPEAKER_00: And you're tempted then to look for some shortcut, some easier path to joy, satisfaction, and relief than the one that God has laid before you.
SPEAKER_00: The desires behind these things aren't bad, right?
SPEAKER_00: Intimacy and security and justice and joy, these are good things that God will bring about, that he's promised to bring about for his people in his way, in his timing.
SPEAKER_00: We we don't usually reject the gifts that God has prepared for us under the tree.
SPEAKER_00: We just get tired of waiting for them.
SPEAKER_00: For him to give them in his timing, in his way.
SPEAKER_00: And so we pursue them in our own timing, in our own way.
SPEAKER_00: And the result, more often than not, is deadly.
SPEAKER_00: And that's exactly the temptation that David is faced with when we pick up where we are in 1 Samuel chapter 24.
SPEAKER_00: God has already promised him something good, he's promised him the throne to be a king over God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Samuel, the prophet, has anointed him.
SPEAKER_00: Jonathan, the current king's son, has reaffirmed that promise.
SPEAKER_00: Even Saul, the king, knows that David is going to be king.
SPEAKER_00: God is going to make him king.
SPEAKER_00: So the question is no longer if David will receive this gift.
SPEAKER_00: The question is how?
SPEAKER_00: When?
SPEAKER_00: And will he trust God enough to wait?
SPEAKER_00: Or will he grasp for today what God has promised for tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: So let's read now from God's Word in 1 Samuel 24.
SPEAKER_00: Will you stand with me if you're able to honor the reading of God's word?
SPEAKER_00: 1 Samuel 24, beginning in verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.
SPEAKER_00: Then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in the front of the wild goat's rocks, and he came to the sheepfolds by the way, where there was a cave.
SPEAKER_00: And Saul went in to relieve himself.
SPEAKER_00: Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave.
SPEAKER_00: 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 hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.
SPEAKER_00: Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul's robe.
SPEAKER_00: And afterward David's heart struck him, because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: So David persuaded his men with these words, and did not permit them to attack Saul.
SPEAKER_00: And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way.
SPEAKER_00: Afterward David also arose and went out of the cave, and called after Saul, My Lord, the King.
SPEAKER_00: And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage.
SPEAKER_00: And David said to Saul, Why do you listen to the words of men who say, Behold, David seeks your harm?
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: I said, I will not put out my hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed.
SPEAKER_00: See, my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand.
SPEAKER_00: 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 hands.
SPEAKER_00: I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord judge between me and you, may the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you.
SPEAKER_00: As the proverb of the ancient says, out of the wicked comes wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you.
SPEAKER_00: After whom has the king of Israel come out?
SPEAKER_00: After whom do you pursue?
SPEAKER_00: After a dead dog, after a flea.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord therefore judge be judge, and give sentence between me and you, and see to it, and plead my cause, and deliver me from your hand.
SPEAKER_00: As soon as David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, Is this your voice, my son David?
SPEAKER_00: And Saul lifted up his voice and wept.
SPEAKER_00: He said to David, You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil, and you have declared this day how you have dealt well with me, in that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands.
SPEAKER_00: For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe?
SPEAKER_00: So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day.
SPEAKER_00: And now behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: And David swore this to Saul.
SPEAKER_00: Then Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.
SPEAKER_00: This is God's word, may be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Will you pray with me?
SPEAKER_00: Gracious, Heavenly Father, would you draw near to us now by the Spirit of your Son Jesus, that we would have eyes to behold him and to be made like him for your glory.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this in your name, Lord.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: This morning we're gonna follow David's story in three movements.
SPEAKER_00: First, we'll see David's faith, what it looks like to trust God instead of taking matters into his own hands.
SPEAKER_00: Second, we'll uncover David's foundation by turning to Psalm 57, which he wrote during this season, probably in this very cave, to see his heart behind all this, the truths about God that makes this kind of faith possible.
SPEAKER_00: And finally, then we'll uncover David's fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus Christ, the greater David, who waited perfectly upon his father, and now gives his people the grace to trust him on the long road between promise and fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: That's where we're going.
SPEAKER_00: That's our outline for today.
SPEAKER_00: David's faith, David's foundation, and David's fulfillment.
SPEAKER_00: First, David's faith.
SPEAKER_00: David's life is not exactly where he thought it would be at this point.
SPEAKER_00: He's been promised kingship over God's people and God's kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: But the current anointed king, Saul, is envious and violent and out to get him.
SPEAKER_00: And when we come to the first few verses of chapter 24 here, we read that Saul now has not only an idea of where David is hiding with his men, but he also has an army of 3,000 of Israel's best soldiers joining him in his hunt.
SPEAKER_00: And that's where this epic battle story quickly becomes an awkward bathroom story.
SPEAKER_00: The proud and mighty King of Israel unknowingly walks right into David's hiding place, takes off his robe, it seems, and considering the amount of discussion and time that passes while he's doing his business, presumably, squats down to relieve himself off in the corner of the cave somewhere.
SPEAKER_00: That's not like hard Christian doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: You can take the number one approach if that's how you read scripture.
SPEAKER_00: Um you can still be a member here.
SPEAKER_00: Uh that's just a lot of time passes, is all I'm saying, and they have a whole he's either the most hydrated guy in the world or anyway.
SPEAKER_00: Um Saul does not have a clue, but he has just placed himself in the most vulnerable position possible.
SPEAKER_00: He's separated from his army, he's isolated in a cave, doesn't have his robe, um, and he at this point is an old man.
SPEAKER_00: And and quickly the awkwardness of the situation wears off, and David's men are convinced that they have just witnessed divine intervention.
SPEAKER_00: This is a God-ordained moment for David to get revenge.
SPEAKER_00: David, this is it.
SPEAKER_00: This is the moment that God has been promising you.
SPEAKER_00: He promised you the throne, and now he has handed Saul right to you.
SPEAKER_00: What more confirmation could you possibly need?
SPEAKER_00: Coincidences like that don't just happen.
SPEAKER_00: And we'd probably be saying the same thing.
SPEAKER_00: But here's the thing circumstances and desire are not good metrics, typically, for deciphering God's will.
SPEAKER_00: Just because an opportunity presents itself does not mean that God intends for us to take it.
SPEAKER_00: And just because something seems unlikely or strangely convenient or coincidental does not mean it's supernatural, does not mean it's a gift from God.
SPEAKER_00: And it's really dangerously easy to think this way.
SPEAKER_00: And to allow these things to trump to trump God's word.
SPEAKER_00: A young man begins dating someone that he knows doesn't love Jesus, but he says, you know, she just came to my life at the exact right time.
SPEAKER_00: We just clicked, everything lined up, it was all weird, maybe this is God's way of bringing her to himself.
SPEAKER_00: But if God's word says, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers, then no coincidence can overturn God's command.
SPEAKER_00: Or someone receives an unexpected promotion and work that requires them to neglect their family or abandon meaningful involvement in the church or compromise their integrity.
SPEAKER_00: But this opportunity just fell into my lap.
SPEAKER_00: This is what I've wanted.
SPEAKER_00: It pays super well.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this is God opening a door for me.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe not.
SPEAKER_00: An open door is not always God's door.
SPEAKER_00: This is not to say that our circumstances and desires can't be used by God to lead us in his will.
SPEAKER_00: They can.
SPEAKER_00: It's just to say that these are dangerous and often misleading guides that can tragically lead us astray and even directly against the Word of God.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 4 for a second.
SPEAKER_00: 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 hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.
SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
SPEAKER_00: God didn't say that.
SPEAKER_00: It's nowhere in the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: There's no hint that God has promised this, that he'll give him into his hand, and he can do whatever he wants to him.
SPEAKER_00: They're misinterpreting and misusing God's promises.
SPEAKER_00: Because they're viewing God's word through the lens of their circumstances rather than the other way around.
SPEAKER_00: David, on the other hand, shows us true faith by looking beyond his circumstances, beyond his personal desires, to the character and commands of God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: He understands that Saul is a human being and an image of God, which is a glorious, wonderful, beautiful, valuable thing that we need to think of.
SPEAKER_00: Like human beings are images of God.
SPEAKER_00: We need to really get that to sink into our minds and hearts.
SPEAKER_00: And on top of all this, he is God's chosen and anointed king.
SPEAKER_00: God has put him on the throne.
SPEAKER_00: David is in no place to commit an act of violence in cold blood by surprise attacking and murdering this defenseless elderly man in a cave.
SPEAKER_00: No matter how evil he is.
SPEAKER_00: So instead of killing him, he stealthily cuts off a piece of his robe and returns to his men.
SPEAKER_00: And his men can't understand it.
SPEAKER_00: David, what are you doing?
SPEAKER_00: You've waited for this for years.
SPEAKER_00: This is your chance.
SPEAKER_00: But David sees something that they don't.
SPEAKER_00: He understands that while God has promised him the kingdom, it is not David's place to seize it for himself.
SPEAKER_00: It is a gift from God.
SPEAKER_00: God gave Saul the kingdom, and God will remove Saul from the kingdom, and God will give David the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: David will not accomplish God's purposes by violating God's commands.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, David understands something that we often forget.
SPEAKER_00: That the God who ordain ordains the ends also ordains the means.
SPEAKER_00: We are never free to pursue God's promises in ways that disobey God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: And that temptation comes to us all the time.
SPEAKER_00: It can look all sorts of ways.
SPEAKER_00: It can look like deceit or manipulation.
SPEAKER_00: Where, like, instead of trusting God to open the right doors, we exaggerate on our resume or flatter the right people or tell half-truths or quietly undermine someone else, because we're convinced if I don't make this happen in my own way, then no one will.
SPEAKER_00: It can look like anxiety.
SPEAKER_00: We don't merely save thoughtfully and plan wisely, which scripture commends, but we obsess and we worry and we constantly run through every possible scenario because deep down we've decided everything depends on us instead of on our loving Father.
SPEAKER_00: God bless you.
SPEAKER_00: It can look like pleasure seeking.
SPEAKER_00: Life hasn't turned out the way you hoped, you're exhausted, you're lonely, you're discouraged, or you're bored.
SPEAKER_00: And instead of waiting for God to satisfy your soul, you begin looking elsewhere.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's pornography or something adjacent.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's alcohol, maybe it's shopping, maybe it's endless entertainment or mindless scrolling, maybe it's emotional intimacy with someone who's not your spouse.
SPEAKER_00: You're trying to numb a legitimate disappointment with an illegitimate solution.
SPEAKER_00: And underneath every one of those responses is the same lie.
SPEAKER_00: God's way is too uncertain, God's way is too long, his timing is too slow, and I need to take control to get what will truly satisfy me.
SPEAKER_00: David says no.
SPEAKER_00: He refuses to grasp for what God has promised because he has the faith to trust God, to give it in God's way and in God's time.
SPEAKER_00: And so he waits.
SPEAKER_00: David shows us what true, patient faith looks like as we wait on the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Notice he he does all sorts of things.
SPEAKER_00: He leaves the cave, he does something almost imaginable.
SPEAKER_00: Instead of attacking Saul, he bows down before him.
SPEAKER_00: He addresses him very kindly and respectfully.
SPEAKER_00: He shows him honor.
SPEAKER_00: He shows him then the corner of his robe, and in effect says, I could have killed you.
SPEAKER_00: My men told me to, and I chose not to.
SPEAKER_00: I would not stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed.
SPEAKER_00: He makes a case for himself and his own innocence to get Saul to change.
SPEAKER_00: So notice that David's waiting in this long season is not passive.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't pretend Saul hasn't sinned.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't minimize injustice.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't refuse to act.
SPEAKER_00: He confronts Saul.
SPEAKER_00: He goes out to meet him.
SPEAKER_00: He pleads his case.
SPEAKER_00: He entrusts judgment to God.
SPEAKER_00: May the Lord judge between me and you, but my hand shall not be against you.
SPEAKER_00: That's faithful waiting.
SPEAKER_00: Waiting isn't doing nothing.
SPEAKER_00: Waiting is doing everything that God has called you to do while refusing to do what God has forbidden you to do.
SPEAKER_00: Waiting is active obedience coupled with patient trust.
SPEAKER_00: And what happens?
SPEAKER_00: Well, without David lifting a sword, Saul himself declares, I know that you shall surely be king.
SPEAKER_00: And he repents, or at least he relents, and some on the surface we'll see that his heart has not truly changed.
SPEAKER_00: But the the the very promise that David refused to grasp for himself is now being reaffirmed on the lips of his enemy.
SPEAKER_00: Without him compromising his integrity.
SPEAKER_00: Church, that is what faithful waiting looks like.
SPEAKER_00: We tend to think of waiting as a sort of helpless, insignificant nothingness, just inactivity.
SPEAKER_00: Faithful waiting is less inactivity as it is attentive readiness.
SPEAKER_00: Think of a lifeguard on the stand.
SPEAKER_00: Might look like he's doing nothing from a distance.
SPEAKER_00: He's just sitting there.
SPEAKER_00: He's not doing anything.
SPEAKER_00: But if you know lifeguards, they're doing something.
SPEAKER_00: He's alert, he's watching, he's scanning, his eyes never stop moving, his body's ready to leap forward when needed and to dive into whatever situation arises.
SPEAKER_00: He's not passive, he's attentively ready.
SPEAKER_00: That's what David is doing.
SPEAKER_00: He's attentively ready to respond to everything that God calls him to.
SPEAKER_00: He isn't just sitting in the cave saying, I guess I'll just wait and just hang out and scroll.
SPEAKER_00: No, he flees when he should flee.
SPEAKER_00: He speaks when he should speak.
SPEAKER_00: He confronts Saul, he entrusts himself to God.
SPEAKER_00: He prays, he writes Psalm 57, he does everything that God calls him to do while refusing to do what only God can do.
SPEAKER_00: And this is the call for us as well.
SPEAKER_00: To wait on the Lord for his promises, not in passivity, but in attentive readiness.
SPEAKER_00: But if you're anything like me, you read this story and you think, how?
SPEAKER_00: Like, how am I supposed to actually live like that?
SPEAKER_00: Because I remember reading the story when I was a kid and thinking, man, I totally would have just killed Saul.
SPEAKER_00: And I remember reading the story on Monday and thinking, man, I totally would have just killed Saul.
SPEAKER_00: And it's funny, but it's also murder we're talking about.
SPEAKER_00: Um and that is the heart of an impatient, God-dishonoring lack of trust that we lean toward because waiting is hard.
SPEAKER_00: And it leads us to all kinds of crazy thinking.
SPEAKER_00: Trusting God with our circumstances feels impossible at times.
SPEAKER_00: How do we have the kind of faith like David here?
SPEAKER_00: To have patience, to wait with attentive readiness through long seasons of unmet desires and unfulfilled promises.
SPEAKER_00: How do we do that?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the answer is not in David's willpower or in David's self-control.
SPEAKER_00: The answer is in David's theology.
SPEAKER_00: Our activity pours forth from what we believe in and how we think about God.
SPEAKER_00: And David's faithfulness to God, as we'll see, is resting on a foundation that is more firm than his circumstances.
SPEAKER_00: And the awesome thing is that God has not left us to wonder and guess at what that foundation was.
SPEAKER_00: Because during this very season of David's life, very likely, I think, from this exact cave, David wrote Psalm 57.
SPEAKER_00: First Samuel shows us what David did.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 57 lets us step inside David's heart to discover why he did it.
SPEAKER_00: So let's turn there now for a moment and uncover David's foundation.
SPEAKER_00: And we'll move more quickly now.
SPEAKER_00: We don't have time to do a deep dive into all of Psalm 57, but I just want to highlight three big driving themes of David's.
SPEAKER_00: In this psalm to show us the foundation of his patient faithfulness that it's it's built upon.
SPEAKER_00: And they all start with the same letter.
SPEAKER_00: You're welcome.
SPEAKER_00: That's not helpful, it's just fun.
SPEAKER_00: The first is sovereignty.
SPEAKER_00: In verse 2, David says, I cry out to God most high, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
SPEAKER_00: Think about that statement.
SPEAKER_00: To God who fulfills his purpose for me.
SPEAKER_00: David, long before the Geddies were around, was writing, Jesus commands my destiny.
SPEAKER_00: He's not saying I know exactly how this is going to work out.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't.
SPEAKER_00: He has no idea how God is going to accomplish this.
SPEAKER_00: He simply knows that if God has purposed it, God will accomplish it.
SPEAKER_00: His power is unlimited.
SPEAKER_00: He sovereignly rules the universe.
SPEAKER_00: He can bring about and will bring about everything he intends.
SPEAKER_00: The sovereignty of God means that David doesn't have to seize the throne for himself because God is perfectly capable of giving him the throne.
SPEAKER_00: And he has promised it, so he will do it.
SPEAKER_00: Meaning, the sovereignty of God over confusing and challenging circumstances gives strength to wait on the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: That's what God's sovereignty does.
SPEAKER_00: It frees us from believing that everything hinges on us and gives us the foundation that we need to wait on God.
SPEAKER_00: That's God's sovereignty.
SPEAKER_00: Second, we see steadfast love.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 3, God will send out his steadfast love and his faithfulness.
SPEAKER_00: And those two truths belong together.
SPEAKER_00: Sovereignty alone, without steadfast love, is terrifying.
SPEAKER_00: If God is in control but doesn't love me, I'm simply at the mercy of some all-powerful ruler.
SPEAKER_00: That's the God that the Muslims have, and they're terrified.
SPEAKER_00: David knows something better: that the God who rules over all things also loves his people dearly with a faithful, unchanging, steadfast covenant love.
SPEAKER_00: For us, we have the greatest assurance of that love at the cross.
SPEAKER_00: The cross tells us who are in Christ by faith that we never have to wonder.
SPEAKER_00: We never have to wonder how God feels about us or what directs his sovereignty.
SPEAKER_00: We do tend to still wonder, but we don't have to.
SPEAKER_00: We can be confident that whatever our circumstances, whether marital struggles or singleness, whether being overworked or without a job, it is the God who gave himself over to death and suffering and judgment in our place out of love for us, immense unfathomable love for us, that now governs the universe on our behalf for our good.
SPEAKER_00: God's sovereignty in your life is directed entirely by his steadfast love for you.
SPEAKER_00: Everything in your life is directed by God's love for you.
SPEAKER_00: It's his sovereignty, his steadfast love, and third, we see selflessness.
SPEAKER_00: One of the most surprising moments in Psalm 57 comes in verse 5, I think.
SPEAKER_00: David is hiding in a cave, Saul is hunting him, his life is on the line, and yet his prayer suddenly becomes Be exalted, O God, above the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: Let your glory be over all the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that remarkable?
SPEAKER_00: David is homeless.
SPEAKER_00: He's living in caves, he's hungry, and he's being hunted by an army of 3,000 men, and his prayer is, Be exalted, O God.
SPEAKER_00: Let your glory be over all the earth.
SPEAKER_00: David's concern in this dark, dark moment of his life, is not first for his own rescue, it is for God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: God's glory is at the forefront of his mind.
SPEAKER_00: That is what David is after.
SPEAKER_00: And that's the difference between a David and a Saul.
SPEAKER_00: Saul thinks everything's about him, his kingdom, his reputation, his glory.
SPEAKER_00: David understands that his whole story, from cave to throne to death itself, is about God's kingdom, God's reputation, God's glory.
SPEAKER_00: And when God's glory is what he's after, he can endure anything.
SPEAKER_00: When God's glory in our selflessness becomes bigger than our comfort, we can endure suffering without demanding immediate relief.
SPEAKER_00: We can wait without grasping for control.
SPEAKER_00: I can say a lot more, but that's David's faith and David's foundation.
SPEAKER_00: And again, as we've seen before in 1 Samuel, David is shown to us not primarily so that we can get a glimpse of David, or so that we can learn moral lessons about how to be better people.
SPEAKER_00: Those are benefits of this.
SPEAKER_00: But David is shown to us here in 1 Samuel 24 so that we can get a glimpse of Jesus and learn what he has done for us.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus himself taught in Luke 24 and throughout the New Testament that all of the scriptures, all of the Old Testament is given to teach us how the Christ, as he says, the anointed one, must suffer before taking the throne.
SPEAKER_00: And that leads us from David's faith and David's foundation to David's fulfillment, the man, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The temptation that David faces here is one that Jesus would face repeatedly throughout his entire earthly ministry.
SPEAKER_00: Like David, Jesus was God's anointed one, his chosen king.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom had already been promised to him.
SPEAKER_00: The question was not whether he would reign, the question is how, when, and would he trust his father enough to wait, or would he grasp for today what God had promised for tomorrow?
SPEAKER_00: Again and again and again, Jesus was tempted with shortcuts.
SPEAKER_00: In the wilderness, after his baptism, Satan shows him all the kingdoms of the earth and says, They're yours.
SPEAKER_00: Just bow to me.
SPEAKER_00: Just one, just one little sin, Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Just bow real quick, and it's yours.
SPEAKER_00: Have the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Have the cross.
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, have the crown without the cross.
SPEAKER_00: That's the temptation of all of these things in the wilderness.
SPEAKER_00: The throne without the long road of suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Later, after feeding the 5,000 in John 6, the crowds gather around Jesus and they try to make him king against his will by force.
SPEAKER_00: Again, the kingdom without the suffering.
SPEAKER_00: Even Peter, one of his closest followers, rebukes him.
SPEAKER_00: He rebukes the Lord for speaking about the cross, urging him to choose an easier path.
SPEAKER_00: And even on the cross itself, Jesus was tempted by his blasphemous murderer saying, Come down from the cross.
SPEAKER_00: If you're the king, just save yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And he absolutely could have.
SPEAKER_00: He had all the power.
SPEAKER_00: But chose to remain hanging every moment, choosing to endure.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus waited perfectly where we have grasped impatiently.
SPEAKER_00: Every one of us has reached for God's gifts in our own timing, in our own ways.
SPEAKER_00: We've compromised, manipulated, lied, lusted, feared, retaliated, stolen, slandered, and sought satisfaction outside of God Himself.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus never did, not once, not for a moment.
SPEAKER_00: And because he refused every shortcut, because he chose to endure the violence and the wrath and the brutality of the cross, the loneliness and the shame, because he remained faithful all the way to death itself, God has highly exalted him and seated him on the throne of the universe and has promised him from all eternity and has given it to him.
SPEAKER_00: And now, by faith, we are united to Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And what he has accomplished counts as ours.
SPEAKER_00: What belongs to him now belongs to us.
SPEAKER_00: The kingdom itself is for you and for me.
SPEAKER_00: Brothers and sisters, everything we've been longing for, perfect joy, perfect justice, perfect peace, perfect security, perfect satisfaction, perfect relationships, freedom from sin, resurrection, life, and a renewed creation.
SPEAKER_00: Seeing God Himself face to face, all of it has already been purchased by Christ and guaranteed to everyone who belongs to Him by faith.
SPEAKER_00: Your name is written on all of it.
SPEAKER_00: Don't do this, with their names on it, on certain things that they wanted, like a nice bookshelf, a big rug, a meaningful painting.
SPEAKER_00: They began to actually put their names on things to claim them ahead of time so that when the time came, you know, they could get their nice rugs.
SPEAKER_00: There were some nice rugs, I'm not gonna lie.
SPEAKER_00: But church, in Christ, united to Christ, you don't need to do any of that.
SPEAKER_00: You don't need to reach, to claim anything.
SPEAKER_00: By his perfect life, death, and resurrection, Jesus Himself has already written your name on every good thing.
SPEAKER_00: In Christ, it is yours.
SPEAKER_00: We wait a little while longer.
SPEAKER_00: We don't yet enjoy it in its fullness.
SPEAKER_00: But as Jesus says in Luke 12, 32, fear not, little flock, for it is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: As Paul says in Romans 8.32, he who did not spare his own son, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?
SPEAKER_00: All things.
SPEAKER_00: Every good thing is yours in Christ.
SPEAKER_00: As David says in Psalm 37, in just a little while.
SPEAKER_00: In just a little while there will the wicked will be no more, and the afflicted shall inherit the earth and delight themselves in abundant peace.
SPEAKER_00: And as the psalmist says in Psalm 84, no good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.
SPEAKER_00: No good thing.
SPEAKER_00: And because we now walk in the righteousness of Christ accomplished for us not our own, we can be absolutely certain that he will fulfill every good promise he has made.
SPEAKER_00: Until then, the call is the same as it was for David, the same as it was for Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Wait patiently for the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He's coming soon.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: We are just in awe of your perfect patience.
SPEAKER_00: Your perfect faith as you trusted in your Father to endure every darkness and a suffering greater than we can fathom.
SPEAKER_00: All because of a love that we cannot fathom.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, you have accomplished everything that we could dream of ever accomplishing for ourselves, and you give it to us freely now.
SPEAKER_00: And so we ask in faith that you would give us your patience by your Holy Spirit, that you would be with us to wait a little while longer, as David says, until we inherit the earth, until we enjoy abundant peace, and until we see you face to face.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus, we long for that day.
SPEAKER_00: Please come quickly and give us your strength and patience until you.