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Welcome to the Enduring Grace Sermons Podcast.
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This is the home for the weekly teaching and ministry of Pastor Ben Hill.
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Our mission is to share the timeless truth of God's Word with the world in need of hope.
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For more resources, articles, and updates, visit us online at enduringgrace.com.
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And now, here is this week's message.
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This morning, I have a question for you that I would like for you to consider, because this is where David is in our text.
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If God placed you in a dark room with a knife in hand, with no one around to judge you other than God, and he placed the person that has hurt you most before you, what would you do?
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Think about that.
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The person who has tried to kill you, maybe has abused you, in David's case, has tried to kill him, chased him all across the region, is before him.
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If you were in David's shoes and you were in that dark cave and you had a dagger in hand, what would you do?
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As we look at David's life, we're going to see three realities of David in his moment of choice in a dark cave while he's on the run this morning.
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And I want to talk to you about the staid hand.
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Now, in order to fully grasp what the context is, we need to go back and think about David's life to this point.
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He's been anointed the future king.
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He's defeated Goliath.
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He has fought the Philistines on behalf of Israel.
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He is a well-known man.
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Saul's jealousy is bold over.
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He's tried to kill David on multiple occasions.
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And in fact, in chapter 22, Saul's jealousy and his hatred towards David is bold to the point where he kills 85 priests of the Lord because they showed kindness to David.
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Then David flees to a new spot.
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He rescues a town, a people, from the Philistine threat, and he is thinked through betrayal.
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So David has now fled to an unlikely place in the Ngeti.
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Now I've got a picture of the Ngeti I want to show.
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It's right here.
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So you can kind of see the walk path, the little rail there.
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If you squint really closely, it's in the shadows there.
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But this is the area in which it's believed David hid.
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Very close to where he hid.
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Within this region, there are great crevices, great caves that go deep into the mountainside.
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And they're dark enough to hide many men.
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And so David has fled into this region.
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Now this is a hot region.
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The sun beams and it's unbearable if exposed for prolonged periods of time.
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It's near the Dead Sea, and it is a place where you might say is at the last spot that you would want to be if you were supposed to be the next king.
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Keep in mind, David had a pretty good life.
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He's married to Saul's daughter.
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He was living in the palace.
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And yet now he is calling caves his home.
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And the Lord has brought Saul to his cave.
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Saul has come into a single place, the one place David has hidden.
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And here David is in the cave system with Saul before him.
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With Saul not knowing David could see him.
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Talk about God's appointed meeting.
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That is the context in which David then goes, takes his dagger, and cuts a piece of the robe off of Saul's cloak.
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And holds it.
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In fact, in verse 5, we see that David has great conviction after doing so.
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It says that David's heart struck him because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe.
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So David here could have easily killed Saul and instead he just wanted to threaten him.
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And he feels conviction.
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And so he comes out, revealing that he was in the cave to Saul and declares these words in verses 12 through 15.
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If you found your place in 1 Samuel chapter 24, would you say word?
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And would you stand in the honor of the reading of God's word?
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Says, May the Lord judge between me and you.
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May the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you.
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As the proverb of the ancient says, out of the wicked comes wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you.
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After whom has the king of Israel come after?
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After whom do you pursue?
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After a dead dog, after a flea?
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May the Lord therefore be judge, and give sentence between me and you, and see to it, and plead my cause, and deliver me from your hand.
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You may be seated.
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This morning I want to see three ways that you can come, not just before the Lord, but before others when others come after you.
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The first is that we should refuse to retaliate no matter the circumstance.
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Look at what David says in verse 12.
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It says, May the Lord judge between me and you.
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May the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you.
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You notice he says nothing here about Saul being not in the wrong.
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In fact, he actually implies that Saul's very much in the wrong.
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He tells him, Hey, listen, Saul, my father, listen.
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May the Lord judge between me and you.
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He says, Look, I have done nothing wrong.
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I know my standing before the Lord.
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I know my standing before you, that you should have nothing against me.
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But I'm going to ask that the Lord be judge.
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He uses courtroom language.
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In other words, that the Lord is going to both see and decree what is right and what is wrong.
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He is trusting that God has seen it all.
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He has faith in the Lord to rule rightly.
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So he's saying, hey, look, God is the Lord and He is the judge between you and me.
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But not only is He the judge, he says that the Lord is going to avenge.
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Did you catch that?
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He says that the Lord is going to avenge.
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Now we we love the Avengers Marvel.
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You just watched a phenomenon that was during the lead up to the great movies that finished the first, really first full phase of all the movies with that.
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And we love superheroes because they are our avengers.
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They are there to stand in the gap.
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Oftentimes we want to be the avenger.
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We want to stand in the gap for others.
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And sometimes we want to be the avenger for ourselves.
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We want to stand up for ourselves.
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But David says, no, the Lord is my Avenger.
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In other words, the Lord is the one who's going to act out the vengeance that is decreed.
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This language, in fact, is used to talk about the exclusive property of the Almighty God.
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That God is the one who will decree what is right and what is wrong.
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It is his right.
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Deuteronomy 32, 25 reminds us that the Lord is the avenger.
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He says in verse 32 or 35 of Deuteronomy 32, Vengeance is mine.
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The Lord says that I will be the one who decrees vengeance.
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And so David doesn't have to fight his fight.
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He doesn't have to, because the Lord is going to.
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That David is going to follow after the Lord and trust God's decrees to be right.
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But you might be asking, well, why would God give the opportunity for David to take Saul's life if it wasn't God's design or God's will?
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Did you know God oftentimes gives you opportunity to sin in order for you to be proven to be faithful?
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That opportunity does not mean that God has given authorization for you to follow through the opportunity.
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David had opportunity to take Saul's life.
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And it would have been called self-defense because Saul was trying to kill him.
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He had the opportunity, he had the means, but it was not God's will.
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David understood that.
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Far too often we look at an opportunity as simply the God opening the door for us to run through.
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Now, sometimes the opportunity is for that.
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We could do that and be completely faithful.
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But it might not be the best opportunity.
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Might not be God's best plan.
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So when you're wrestling with in your life, is this the right thing to do?
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You need to be asking, is this really God's plan for my life?
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You've got to be meeting with the Lord in order for that to occur.
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Now, there's a story about Abraham Lincoln in his early days of law, where he was in a particular patent trial in Cincinnati, and he was alongside this really brilliant, sharp-tongued attorney.
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This attorney's name was Edwin Stanton.
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Now, here's the thing with Mr.
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Stanton.
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He looked at Lincoln and judged him by the cover.
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He had an ill-fitted suit that day.
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He was long and lanky.
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He just didn't look very lawyerly, according to him.
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And so he froze him out of the trial.
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He wouldn't eat with him, he wouldn't spend time with him.
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He really became an enemy of Lincoln because he started bad-mouthing Lincoln.
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You fast forward a little time, and guess who became president?
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Not Mr.
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Stanton, Mr.
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Lincoln.
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And as Mr.
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Lincoln was considering the Secretary of War, one of the most important positions in all of government at this time, he went for Mr.
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Stanton.
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And do you know what he was, what Abraham Lincoln said when asked why he would choose a man that belittled him so much?
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Was that this real the this is what he said.
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He said, Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?
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If you got a thorn in the flesh, a person who's your enemies, an opposer of you who likes to badmouth you, maybe it's time to invite them to dinner.
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Edwin Stanton would one day lie right next to the dying Abraham Lincoln, kneeling before him as he cried, as he lost a dear friend.
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See, when God enables us to live in his will, when we trust him, when we understand that God will be the judge, that God will be the avenger, we're able to show love and kindness in a way that is impossible otherwise.
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Are you someone who trusts the Lord to fight your battles for you?
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Or are you someone who just simply tries to get even by lying or gossiping or belittling the person that you know is doing the same for you?
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But the second reality is that we also need to retain our integrity, retain your integrity.
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Look at what he says.
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So not only does he say, hey, look, listen, uh, I'm going to refrain from casting judgment against you, I'm going to refrain from retaliation.
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I'm going to refuse.
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He says, I'm also going to remain a man of integrity.
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Look at verse 13.
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He says, as the proverb of the ancient says, out of the wicked comes wickedness.
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He goes, Hey, Saul, I want to remind you of something.
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You know, your actions speak louder than words, and your actions say that you're a wicked man on the inside because you're doing wicked things.
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What's your life saying?
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Is it saying that you're a wicked person, a person who is more focused on the flesh or more focused on Christ?
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How does your words land?
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Are you a loving person or are you a vengeful person?
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Are you a person with patience or are you a person who is quick to being angry?
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David says, the wickedness comes out of the heart.
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But my hand shall not be against you.
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David then says, Hey, look, a wicked person does wicked things, but I will not stoop to wickedness.
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I will not do what you're doing to me.
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He says, I will not stoop down.
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I am a man of character.
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And he says, After whom has the king of Israel come at?
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Now I love this because he compares himself to two absolutely low of low creatures in this society.
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He says, After whom has the king of Israel come out?
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After whom do you pursue?
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After a dead dog, which is good for nothing, or after a flea, which is even worse.
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A speck of a creature.
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David's saying, King, you're higher than me.
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You are positioned in authority by God Himself.
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You were anointed king by the Lord.
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He allowed you to be king.
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He removed that, yes, but you are still in the position of being king.
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God has not removed you from position, and I'm not coming after you.
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I'm not fighting this battle.
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I'm on the run.
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I'm fleeing because I'm nothing more than a dead dog or a flea.
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He says, I am a low, unimportant person before you saw.
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Why do you come after me?
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In order for us to remain people of integrity, we have to remember our position.
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And we have to remain people of character because here's the thing your enemy's victory is not miss this, is not when they tarnish you.
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It's when you stoop to their own sinful practices.
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Victory is dependent on trusting the Lord.
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Are you trusting the Lord to fight your battles?
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Or are you simply being used and you're allowing yourself to be used to basically ruin your reputation and any opportunity to share the gospel because you are no different with your gossip, with your belittling, and your attacks against other people.
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We have been called to be different, to be set apart, to forgive and to love and to be people who are high in character.
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There was maybe you know this name, you should know this name, Jackie Robinson, who played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, many years ago, before he started playing for the Major League Baseball, had a meeting with the owner.
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Now, Mr.
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Ricky, he started walking through all the abuses saying, hey, you're gonna get cussed at.
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You're gonna be cleated on purpose, you're gonna be hit with the baseball repeatedly.
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This is gonna be the most miserable time of your life as a baseball player if you play with the white people in the Major League Baseball.
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Jackie Robinson, after listening for quite a while, goes, Mr.
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Ricky, are you looking for a black man who's scared of conflict?
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Are you looking for a black man who's afraid to fight back?
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Mr.
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Ricky said, No.
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I'm looking for a player that has the guts to not retaliate.
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I need a man of character.
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And history tells us that Jackie Robertson became one of the greats of the baseball legends because he was a man of character.
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He was willing to be a man of character.
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We will have greater impact on the world around us when we commit to being men and women of character who are not going to fight our battles.
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But we trust the Lord to fight our battles, and we stand firm on what God tells us to do, which is to love and to share the gospel.
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To stand on the biblical truth in love without compromising.
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And when people call us bigots or when they run our names through the mud, we stand held head high because Christ suffered the greatest cost on our behalf.
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He died.
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The least we can do is have our names run through the mud for his name's sake.
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Then there's also the need to rest in the Lord.
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To rest in the Lord.
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Look at verse 15.
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He says, May the Lord therefore be judge and give sentence between me and you and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand.
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He goes, I'm going to rest in the Lord.
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The Lord is therefore going to be judge.
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He's going to give the sentence between me and you and see to it.
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God's not going to delay.
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He's going to see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand.
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In other words, God's going to protect me.
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I can trust the Lord to protect me from you.
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He reflects back on that courtroom language of being God being judged, that he's going to give a sentence.
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He's going to plead his cause.
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That he's got a defender in the Lord.
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He's got a defense attorney that's unbeatable.
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Just as we do.
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He is standing firm on the Lord.
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And so why did David have this kind of strength?
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Well, the Psalms help us understand.
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In fact, there are two Psalms that are given credit to while David is in the caves.
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Psalm 57 and Psalm 142.
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So we know that David, while he's in the caves, is writing worship songs to the Lord.
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Think about that.
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In the darkest season of life, when he's on the run, he's writing worship to the Lord.
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Psalm 57 2 tells us, I cry out to God most high, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
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He's on the run, his life is being threatened, and so Paul is breathing down his neck and he says, I'm praising the Lord.
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I'm praising the Lord.
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It is hard to praise the Lord when you're in the darkness of trials.
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But there is no greater place than to praise his name when you don't feel like it.
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You worship and you pray until the Lord changes that spirit.
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If David had not been meeting with God, if he had not been praying, if he had not been worshiping the Lord, there is no way his flesh would have been defeated in this moment.
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He was resting in the Lord.
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He was finding peace in the Lord.
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He was finding his security in the Lord.
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Because the Lord is the one who gives strength.
00:23:00.480 --> 00:23:03.680
We know the story of Corey Tin Boom very well.
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She was a Jew who had helped Jewish neighbors.
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And she ended up getting put in a concentration camp and her sister died, but Corey survived.
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A guard from Ravensbrook, where she had been held captive.
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As he approached her, he told her that he had become a Christian, that he had given his life to the Lord, and that he knew she needed, or that he needed to ask for forgiveness for the way they treated her and so many others in the concentration camp and asked if she could forgive him.
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Corey's own words is that she did not want to at all.
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Everything froze in her.
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She told them that she prayed a quick little prayer.
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And as she took his hand, she felt the love of God overflow and the forgiveness flow out.
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It is impossible to forgive great hurt apart from understanding the Savior who's forgiven you.
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The Lord gives rest and the heart of forgiveness for the most difficult of wrongs ever experienced when you rely on him.
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Are you resting in him?
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Are you allowing him to extend forgiveness through you to those who have hurt you?
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Because there is no greater freedom for the believer than to say, Lord, give me the strength to forgive so that I can live right before you.
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Are you resting in the Lord this morning?
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David was resting in the Lord.
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He said, Hey, look, I am trusting in God because I know that God ultimately is the one who is judge, jury, and he will decree what is right.
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Look, when you rest in that, you will find sleeping at nights a whole lot easier.
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Because the judge has already decreed what is to be.
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Which brings us back to the cross.
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Because none of this amounts to anything if God had not set into motion from the moment that men failed.
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The moment Adam sinned, the moment Eve sinned, God set into motion Jesus, the payment for our sins.
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David is merely a single person in the course of history that leads us to the cross.
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David is demonstrating a forgiveness and a trust that only could be possible if he was trusting in the God who was coming to save.
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The Lord, God Almighty.
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When David says, look, the Lord is judge, he understands that God is the one who decrees.
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And here's the reality that every person in this room will face the judge one day.
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You either face him at the foot of the cross with Jesus paying your price, or you face him on judgment day and he decrees, I never knew you, be gone from me.
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God is the judge who will decree that all evildoers be eternally condemned.
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But those who have trusted in Christ are eternally righteous because of the Son.
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Have you experienced that saving power of God?
00:27:48.400 --> 00:27:56.000
Then there's also the that we need to remember that there is the reality of that, the anointing of God.
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God anointed Saul, and David says, Hey, I'm not going to touch Saul.
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But here is the reality that when Jesus came, he's the anointed Son of God.
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And yet Israel kills him.
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They destroy the body that raised three days later.
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David understood that they are to come against the anointed, but God did not spare even his son, who was the anointed sacrifice for us.
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Are you trusting in the Lord who died for you?
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And then there's the reality that God is our advocate, that we have an advocate in Jesus.
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That you can rest assured, believer, that you have an advocate with God who is fighting your battles for you, that will defend you and will keep your name pure and holy before him through the blood of Jesus.
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Are you walking with him?
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For many of us in this room, you're walking with Jesus.
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You've experienced him.
00:29:22.319 --> 00:29:29.279
But this morning, maybe you need to say, Lord, forgive me for trying to take vengeance into my own hands.
00:29:30.079 --> 00:29:31.359
Forgive me, Lord.
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And you need to call someone on your way to lunch saying, Lord, or my friend, I need to ask your forgiveness because I haven't been a good friend.
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For others, it's that you are in the froze of a trial and you need to simply trust that God has your back, that you can rest assured, knowing that God sees you where you are, and He is not leaving you or forsaking you.
00:30:04.079 --> 00:30:15.839
But there might be a few in this room this morning that you've never experienced that true forgiveness and the love and mercy of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
00:30:16.079 --> 00:30:21.279
And you need to say yes to following Jesus this morning.
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With every head bowed and eye closed.
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Welcome to the Enduring Grace Sermons Podcast.
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This is the home for the weekly teaching and ministry of Pastor Ben Hill.
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Our mission is to share the timeless truth of God's Word with the world in need of hope.
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For more resources, articles, and updates, visit us online at enduringgrace.com.
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And now, here is this week's message.
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This morning, I have a question for you that I would like for you to consider, because this is where David is in our text.
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If God placed you in a dark room with a knife in hand, with no one around to judge you other than God, and he placed the person that has hurt you most before you, what would you do?
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Think about that.
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The person who has tried to kill you, maybe has abused you, in David's case, has tried to kill him, chased him all across the region, is before him.
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If you were in David's shoes and you were in that dark cave and you had a dagger in hand, what would you do?
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As we look at David's life, we're going to see three realities of David in his moment of choice in a dark cave while he's on the run this morning.
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And I want to talk to you about the staid hand.
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Now, in order to fully grasp what the context is, we need to go back and think about David's life to this point.
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He's been anointed the future king.
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He's defeated Goliath.
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He has fought the Philistines on behalf of Israel.
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He is a well-known man.
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Saul's jealousy is bold over.
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He's tried to kill David on multiple occasions.
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And in fact, in chapter 22, Saul's jealousy and his hatred towards David is bold to the point where he kills 85 priests of the Lord because they showed kindness to David.
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Then David flees to a new spot.
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He rescues a town, a people, from the Philistine threat, and he is thinked through betrayal.
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So David has now fled to an unlikely place in the Ngeti.
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Now I've got a picture of the Ngeti I want to show.
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It's right here.
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So you can kind of see the walk path, the little rail there.
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If you squint really closely, it's in the shadows there.
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But this is the area in which it's believed David hid.
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Very close to where he hid.
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Within this region, there are great crevices, great caves that go deep into the mountainside.
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And they're dark enough to hide many men.
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And so David has fled into this region.
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Now this is a hot region.
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The sun beams and it's unbearable if exposed for prolonged periods of time.
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It's near the Dead Sea, and it is a place where you might say is at the last spot that you would want to be if you were supposed to be the next king.
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Keep in mind, David had a pretty good life.
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He's married to Saul's daughter.
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He was living in the palace.
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And yet now he is calling caves his home.
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And the Lord has brought Saul to his cave.
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Saul has come into a single place, the one place David has hidden.
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And here David is in the cave system with Saul before him.
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With Saul not knowing David could see him.
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Talk about God's appointed meeting.
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That is the context in which David then goes, takes his dagger, and cuts a piece of the robe off of Saul's cloak.
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And holds it.
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In fact, in verse 5, we see that David has great conviction after doing so.
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It says that David's heart struck him because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe.
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So David here could have easily killed Saul and instead he just wanted to threaten him.
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And he feels conviction.
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And so he comes out, revealing that he was in the cave to Saul and declares these words in verses 12 through 15.
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If you found your place in 1 Samuel chapter 24, would you say word?
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And would you stand in the honor of the reading of God's word?
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Says, May the Lord judge between me and you.
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May the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you.
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As the proverb of the ancient says, out of the wicked comes wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you.
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After whom has the king of Israel come after?
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After whom do you pursue?
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After a dead dog, after a flea?
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May the Lord therefore be judge, and give sentence between me and you, and see to it, and plead my cause, and deliver me from your hand.
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You may be seated.
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This morning I want to see three ways that you can come, not just before the Lord, but before others when others come after you.
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The first is that we should refuse to retaliate no matter the circumstance.
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Look at what David says in verse 12.
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It says, May the Lord judge between me and you.
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May the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you.
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You notice he says nothing here about Saul being not in the wrong.
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In fact, he actually implies that Saul's very much in the wrong.
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He tells him, Hey, listen, Saul, my father, listen.
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May the Lord judge between me and you.
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He says, Look, I have done nothing wrong.
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I know my standing before the Lord.
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I know my standing before you, that you should have nothing against me.
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But I'm going to ask that the Lord be judge.
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He uses courtroom language.
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In other words, that the Lord is going to both see and decree what is right and what is wrong.
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He is trusting that God has seen it all.
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He has faith in the Lord to rule rightly.
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So he's saying, hey, look, God is the Lord and He is the judge between you and me.
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But not only is He the judge, he says that the Lord is going to avenge.
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Did you catch that?
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He says that the Lord is going to avenge.
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Now we we love the Avengers Marvel.
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You just watched a phenomenon that was during the lead up to the great movies that finished the first, really first full phase of all the movies with that.
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And we love superheroes because they are our avengers.
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They are there to stand in the gap.
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Oftentimes we want to be the avenger.
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We want to stand in the gap for others.
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And sometimes we want to be the avenger for ourselves.
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We want to stand up for ourselves.
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But David says, no, the Lord is my Avenger.
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In other words, the Lord is the one who's going to act out the vengeance that is decreed.
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This language, in fact, is used to talk about the exclusive property of the Almighty God.
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That God is the one who will decree what is right and what is wrong.
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It is his right.
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Deuteronomy 32, 25 reminds us that the Lord is the avenger.
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He says in verse 32 or 35 of Deuteronomy 32, Vengeance is mine.
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The Lord says that I will be the one who decrees vengeance.
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And so David doesn't have to fight his fight.
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He doesn't have to, because the Lord is going to.
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That David is going to follow after the Lord and trust God's decrees to be right.
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But you might be asking, well, why would God give the opportunity for David to take Saul's life if it wasn't God's design or God's will?
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Did you know God oftentimes gives you opportunity to sin in order for you to be proven to be faithful?
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That opportunity does not mean that God has given authorization for you to follow through the opportunity.
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David had opportunity to take Saul's life.
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And it would have been called self-defense because Saul was trying to kill him.
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He had the opportunity, he had the means, but it was not God's will.
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David understood that.
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Far too often we look at an opportunity as simply the God opening the door for us to run through.
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Now, sometimes the opportunity is for that.
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We could do that and be completely faithful.
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But it might not be the best opportunity.
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Might not be God's best plan.
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So when you're wrestling with in your life, is this the right thing to do?
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You need to be asking, is this really God's plan for my life?
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You've got to be meeting with the Lord in order for that to occur.
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Now, there's a story about Abraham Lincoln in his early days of law, where he was in a particular patent trial in Cincinnati, and he was alongside this really brilliant, sharp-tongued attorney.
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This attorney's name was Edwin Stanton.
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Now, here's the thing with Mr.
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Stanton.
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He looked at Lincoln and judged him by the cover.
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He had an ill-fitted suit that day.
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He was long and lanky.
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He just didn't look very lawyerly, according to him.
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And so he froze him out of the trial.
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He wouldn't eat with him, he wouldn't spend time with him.
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He really became an enemy of Lincoln because he started bad-mouthing Lincoln.
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You fast forward a little time, and guess who became president?
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Not Mr.
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Stanton, Mr.
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Lincoln.
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And as Mr.
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Lincoln was considering the Secretary of War, one of the most important positions in all of government at this time, he went for Mr.
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Stanton.
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And do you know what he was, what Abraham Lincoln said when asked why he would choose a man that belittled him so much?
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Was that this real the this is what he said.
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He said, Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?
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If you got a thorn in the flesh, a person who's your enemies, an opposer of you who likes to badmouth you, maybe it's time to invite them to dinner.
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Edwin Stanton would one day lie right next to the dying Abraham Lincoln, kneeling before him as he cried, as he lost a dear friend.
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See, when God enables us to live in his will, when we trust him, when we understand that God will be the judge, that God will be the avenger, we're able to show love and kindness in a way that is impossible otherwise.
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Are you someone who trusts the Lord to fight your battles for you?
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Or are you someone who just simply tries to get even by lying or gossiping or belittling the person that you know is doing the same for you?
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But the second reality is that we also need to retain our integrity, retain your integrity.
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Look at what he says.
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So not only does he say, hey, look, listen, uh, I'm going to refrain from casting judgment against you, I'm going to refrain from retaliation.
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I'm going to refuse.
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He says, I'm also going to remain a man of integrity.
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Look at verse 13.
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He says, as the proverb of the ancient says, out of the wicked comes wickedness.
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He goes, Hey, Saul, I want to remind you of something.
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You know, your actions speak louder than words, and your actions say that you're a wicked man on the inside because you're doing wicked things.
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What's your life saying?
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Is it saying that you're a wicked person, a person who is more focused on the flesh or more focused on Christ?
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How does your words land?
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Are you a loving person or are you a vengeful person?
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Are you a person with patience or are you a person who is quick to being angry?
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David says, the wickedness comes out of the heart.
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But my hand shall not be against you.
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David then says, Hey, look, a wicked person does wicked things, but I will not stoop to wickedness.
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I will not do what you're doing to me.
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He says, I will not stoop down.
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I am a man of character.
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And he says, After whom has the king of Israel come at?
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Now I love this because he compares himself to two absolutely low of low creatures in this society.
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He says, After whom has the king of Israel come out?
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After whom do you pursue?
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After a dead dog, which is good for nothing, or after a flea, which is even worse.
00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:36.639
A speck of a creature.
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David's saying, King, you're higher than me.
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You are positioned in authority by God Himself.
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You were anointed king by the Lord.
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He allowed you to be king.
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He removed that, yes, but you are still in the position of being king.
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God has not removed you from position, and I'm not coming after you.
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I'm not fighting this battle.
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I'm on the run.
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I'm fleeing because I'm nothing more than a dead dog or a flea.
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He says, I am a low, unimportant person before you saw.
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Why do you come after me?
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In order for us to remain people of integrity, we have to remember our position.
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And we have to remain people of character because here's the thing your enemy's victory is not miss this, is not when they tarnish you.
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It's when you stoop to their own sinful practices.
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Victory is dependent on trusting the Lord.
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Are you trusting the Lord to fight your battles?
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Or are you simply being used and you're allowing yourself to be used to basically ruin your reputation and any opportunity to share the gospel because you are no different with your gossip, with your belittling, and your attacks against other people.
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We have been called to be different, to be set apart, to forgive and to love and to be people who are high in character.
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There was maybe you know this name, you should know this name, Jackie Robinson, who played for the Brooklyn Dodgers, many years ago, before he started playing for the Major League Baseball, had a meeting with the owner.
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Now, Mr.
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Ricky, he started walking through all the abuses saying, hey, you're gonna get cussed at.
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You're gonna be cleated on purpose, you're gonna be hit with the baseball repeatedly.
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This is gonna be the most miserable time of your life as a baseball player if you play with the white people in the Major League Baseball.
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Jackie Robinson, after listening for quite a while, goes, Mr.
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Ricky, are you looking for a black man who's scared of conflict?
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Are you looking for a black man who's afraid to fight back?
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Mr.
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Ricky said, No.
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I'm looking for a player that has the guts to not retaliate.
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I need a man of character.
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And history tells us that Jackie Robertson became one of the greats of the baseball legends because he was a man of character.
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He was willing to be a man of character.
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We will have greater impact on the world around us when we commit to being men and women of character who are not going to fight our battles.
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But we trust the Lord to fight our battles, and we stand firm on what God tells us to do, which is to love and to share the gospel.
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To stand on the biblical truth in love without compromising.
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And when people call us bigots or when they run our names through the mud, we stand held head high because Christ suffered the greatest cost on our behalf.
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He died.
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The least we can do is have our names run through the mud for his name's sake.
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Then there's also the need to rest in the Lord.
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To rest in the Lord.
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Look at verse 15.
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He says, May the Lord therefore be judge and give sentence between me and you and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand.
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He goes, I'm going to rest in the Lord.
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The Lord is therefore going to be judge.
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He's going to give the sentence between me and you and see to it.
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God's not going to delay.
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He's going to see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand.
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In other words, God's going to protect me.
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I can trust the Lord to protect me from you.
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He reflects back on that courtroom language of being God being judged, that he's going to give a sentence.
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He's going to plead his cause.
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That he's got a defender in the Lord.
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He's got a defense attorney that's unbeatable.
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Just as we do.
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He is standing firm on the Lord.
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And so why did David have this kind of strength?
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Well, the Psalms help us understand.
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In fact, there are two Psalms that are given credit to while David is in the caves.
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Psalm 57 and Psalm 142.
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So we know that David, while he's in the caves, is writing worship songs to the Lord.
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Think about that.
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In the darkest season of life, when he's on the run, he's writing worship to the Lord.
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Psalm 57 2 tells us, I cry out to God most high, to God who fulfills his purpose for me.
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He's on the run, his life is being threatened, and so Paul is breathing down his neck and he says, I'm praising the Lord.
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I'm praising the Lord.
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It is hard to praise the Lord when you're in the darkness of trials.
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But there is no greater place than to praise his name when you don't feel like it.
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You worship and you pray until the Lord changes that spirit.
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If David had not been meeting with God, if he had not been praying, if he had not been worshiping the Lord, there is no way his flesh would have been defeated in this moment.
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He was resting in the Lord.
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He was finding peace in the Lord.
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He was finding his security in the Lord.
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Because the Lord is the one who gives strength.
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We know the story of Corey Tin Boom very well.
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She was a Jew who had helped Jewish neighbors.
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And she ended up getting put in a concentration camp and her sister died, but Corey survived.
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A guard from Ravensbrook, where she had been held captive.
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As he approached her, he told her that he had become a Christian, that he had given his life to the Lord, and that he knew she needed, or that he needed to ask for forgiveness for the way they treated her and so many others in the concentration camp and asked if she could forgive him.
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Corey's own words is that she did not want to at all.
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Everything froze in her.
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She told them that she prayed a quick little prayer.
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And as she took his hand, she felt the love of God overflow and the forgiveness flow out.
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It is impossible to forgive great hurt apart from understanding the Savior who's forgiven you.
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The Lord gives rest and the heart of forgiveness for the most difficult of wrongs ever experienced when you rely on him.
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Are you resting in him?
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Are you allowing him to extend forgiveness through you to those who have hurt you?
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Because there is no greater freedom for the believer than to say, Lord, give me the strength to forgive so that I can live right before you.
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Are you resting in the Lord this morning?
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David was resting in the Lord.
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He said, Hey, look, I am trusting in God because I know that God ultimately is the one who is judge, jury, and he will decree what is right.
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Look, when you rest in that, you will find sleeping at nights a whole lot easier.
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Because the judge has already decreed what is to be.
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Which brings us back to the cross.
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Because none of this amounts to anything if God had not set into motion from the moment that men failed.
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The moment Adam sinned, the moment Eve sinned, God set into motion Jesus, the payment for our sins.
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David is merely a single person in the course of history that leads us to the cross.
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David is demonstrating a forgiveness and a trust that only could be possible if he was trusting in the God who was coming to save.
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The Lord, God Almighty.
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When David says, look, the Lord is judge, he understands that God is the one who decrees.
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And here's the reality that every person in this room will face the judge one day.
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You either face him at the foot of the cross with Jesus paying your price, or you face him on judgment day and he decrees, I never knew you, be gone from me.
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God is the judge who will decree that all evildoers be eternally condemned.
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But those who have trusted in Christ are eternally righteous because of the Son.
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Have you experienced that saving power of God?
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Then there's also the that we need to remember that there is the reality of that, the anointing of God.
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God anointed Saul, and David says, Hey, I'm not going to touch Saul.
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But here is the reality that when Jesus came, he's the anointed Son of God.
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And yet Israel kills him.
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They destroy the body that raised three days later.
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David understood that they are to come against the anointed, but God did not spare even his son, who was the anointed sacrifice for us.
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Are you trusting in the Lord who died for you?
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And then there's the reality that God is our advocate, that we have an advocate in Jesus.
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That you can rest assured, believer, that you have an advocate with God who is fighting your battles for you, that will defend you and will keep your name pure and holy before him through the blood of Jesus.
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Are you walking with him?
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For many of us in this room, you're walking with Jesus.
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You've experienced him.
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But this morning, maybe you need to say, Lord, forgive me for trying to take vengeance into my own hands.
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Forgive me, Lord.
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And you need to call someone on your way to lunch saying, Lord, or my friend, I need to ask your forgiveness because I haven't been a good friend.
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For others, it's that you are in the froze of a trial and you need to simply trust that God has your back, that you can rest assured, knowing that God sees you where you are, and He is not leaving you or forsaking you.
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But there might be a few in this room this morning that you've never experienced that true forgiveness and the love and mercy of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
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And you need to say yes to following Jesus this morning.
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With every head bowed and eye closed.
