Full Transcript for Shepherd King, Finally

be able to handle it pretty easily and it's not going to be a lot of a struggle. 00:02:19.896 --> 00:02:23.368 But that's not true because we see through this kind of period of time, 00:02:23.844 --> 00:02:25.875 David struggles a lot. So, yeah. 00:02:26.177 --> 00:02:28.151 And I'd even go so far as to say it's like, 00:02:28.790 --> 00:02:34.148 What that is, is, and we'll talk about it at greater length later, 00:02:34.427 --> 00:02:37.194 but what that is, is like, that's almost at the core of what, 00:02:37.194 --> 00:02:40.834 like, the prosperity, like, what's wrong with the prosperity gospel, you know? 00:02:40.834 --> 00:02:41.544 Absolutely. 00:02:41.544 --> 00:02:42.794 And we'll talk about that more later. 00:02:42.794 --> 00:02:46.444 Yeah, yeah. So, it all starts with one of, like, my favorite stories from the 00:02:46.444 --> 00:02:54.428 whole David and Saul kind of saga, where Saul consorts with a medium, right? 00:02:54.707 --> 00:02:58.445 So this is like a wild story in the Bible. 00:02:58.710 --> 00:02:58.844 Yeah. 00:02:59.144 --> 00:03:04.595 And it's a great place to start because Samuel has passed on. He has died. 00:03:04.869 --> 00:03:10.204 And he has always been the person who has spoken on behalf of God to Saul. 00:03:10.204 --> 00:03:15.184 So Saul needing counsel and, I don't know, maybe he wants to see his friend 00:03:15.484 --> 00:03:16.789 or something. I don't know. 00:03:16.941 --> 00:03:20.774 Maybe. If you could call them friends. I never really got the friend vibe. 00:03:20.774 --> 00:03:22.914 I think they were frenemies, you know? 00:03:23.048 --> 00:03:28.774 Yeah. Yeah, like they started out, like every great TV series is like they started out great friends. 00:03:28.774 --> 00:03:32.524 And then over time, it's like somebody made a bad decision and then they became 00:03:32.524 --> 00:03:38.424 enemies, but they still loved each other at their core. It's kind of like Xavier and Magneto, right? 00:03:38.424 --> 00:03:41.091 Oh, there you go. Yeah, that's a good one on the X-Men. Yeah. 00:03:41.684 --> 00:03:46.864 So he goes to this medium, says, hey, I need you to call up someone from the dead and turns out. 00:03:46.864 --> 00:03:48.221 So real quick, what's a medium? 00:03:48.383 --> 00:03:53.088 So medium is like a soothsayer or a psychic, maybe what we would call them. 00:03:53.370 --> 00:03:58.514 I guess what some Bible translations use the word witch, and that would be a 00:03:58.514 --> 00:04:03.231 good way to describe it, is someone who practices witchcraft, they consult spirits, 00:04:03.953 --> 00:04:09.038 And the warning is very clear here. This is not a thing that the people of God should ever do. 00:04:09.324 --> 00:04:12.162 And the purpose behind that is twofold. 00:04:12.638 --> 00:04:16.862 Witches and mediums and those sorcerers and that sort of people, 00:04:17.414 --> 00:04:20.705 even today, you know, because this stuff is still around today. 00:04:21.650 --> 00:04:28.349 Basically, the way that they operate is that they try to manipulate the gods 00:04:28.349 --> 00:04:33.058 or the spirits into doing what they want, right? That's kind of the goal. 00:04:33.726 --> 00:04:39.239 And god tells his people not to do this because first of all a you can't manipulate 00:04:39.239 --> 00:04:42.364 god he just i mean he's too powerful 00:04:42.712 --> 00:04:46.489 for you to be able to manipulate him into doing what you want and b, 00:04:47.322 --> 00:04:51.629 it goes against the idea of faith anyways right i i see this a lot you know 00:04:51.629 --> 00:04:57.239 i remember encountering someone who was apparently very confused wanting to be sort of like a, 00:04:57.889 --> 00:05:02.629 a white witch is kind of the idea like a good witch you know oh yeah like uh. 00:05:03.209 --> 00:05:06.609 Throw it to lord of the rings where you had the different what they call different 00:05:06.609 --> 00:05:10.079 wizards and you go to gandalf and he's gandalf the gray at the beginning but 00:05:10.079 --> 00:05:11.299 then he's gandalf the white. 00:05:11.299 --> 00:05:15.959 Later on a little bit i think it's supposed to be like a a good witch you know 00:05:15.959 --> 00:05:20.739 that they i don't know i'm not into witchcraft clearly um but and the idea is 00:05:20.739 --> 00:05:22.206 like they want to like i've seen, 00:05:22.798 --> 00:05:26.559 sometimes these people try to merge together Christianity and witchcraft in 00:05:26.559 --> 00:05:27.947 some way, like consulting. 00:05:28.261 --> 00:05:31.309 And God makes it very clear, like, A, you can't manipulate me. 00:05:31.309 --> 00:05:32.449 That's not how this works. 00:05:32.969 --> 00:05:35.656 You can't get me to do what you want. But also... 00:05:36.544 --> 00:05:41.745 Many people do this in order to like see the future or to get an edge on something. 00:05:42.094 --> 00:05:44.823 And the whole point is like, God's like, you don't need to do that. 00:05:44.823 --> 00:05:49.471 Like you need to trust me and believe in me and have faith. That's all there you need to do. 00:05:49.772 --> 00:05:54.434 You don't have to consult spirits. So Saul is breaking all of those rules now. 00:05:54.736 --> 00:05:59.693 He goes and my read on this situation is, and I'm going to spend a little more 00:05:59.693 --> 00:06:03.313 time here just because selfishly, I really like this story because it's spooky 00:06:03.313 --> 00:06:05.402 and it's fun and it's like kind of creepy. 00:06:05.785 --> 00:06:10.806 So my read on this situation is he goes to the witch of Endor or whatever, 00:06:11.480 --> 00:06:16.165 and she doesn't know who he is apparently he's like in a robe or a disguise 00:06:16.583 --> 00:06:20.443 because I need you to call someone up and doesn't quite tell her who that is, 00:06:21.000 --> 00:06:24.283 and then this stuff starts happening and she starts doing her thing hey there's a guy named. 00:06:24.283 --> 00:06:26.443 Samuel I just need you to ring him up

for me real quick. 00:06:26.443 --> 00:06:27.053 Yeah yeah. 00:06:27.053 --> 00:06:27.783 Samuel okay. 00:06:28.503 --> 00:06:31.833 She starts doing her thing and then Samuel the prophet shows up and this is 00:06:31.833 --> 00:06:33.400 apparently she knows who this is 00:06:33.824 --> 00:06:38.333 so she loses her mind because she realizes what's happening it's samuel the 00:06:38.333 --> 00:06:43.643 prophet and it's saul the king and she like it was absolutely like like my read 00:06:43.643 --> 00:06:47.063 is like she kind of loses it in the story so anyways but, 00:06:48.743 --> 00:06:53.583 saul is like my he tells samuel you know my prophets won't tell me what what 00:06:53.583 --> 00:07:01.163 god wants i can't hear from hear him anymore and samuel delivers the coldest hardest line in, 00:07:01.970 --> 00:07:05.952 you know this whole sort of range of David and Saul's life right, 00:07:06.531 --> 00:07:12.111 he's basically like and by the way first of all he scolds Saul for you know 00:07:12.552 --> 00:07:16.093 doing what he's not supposed to do he's like and also by the way you and your 00:07:16.093 --> 00:07:19.646 sons will be joining me tomorrow like, 00:07:20.766 --> 00:07:25.399 I got your tickets ready you know like goodness gracious I mean, 00:07:26.113 --> 00:07:30.283 That's like hardcore right there. You know, it's cold. 00:07:30.283 --> 00:07:31.627 Samuel. That's cold. 00:07:31.952 --> 00:07:38.678 I know. So anyways, of course, Saul is distraught by hearing this because of course he is. 00:07:39.038 --> 00:07:41.894 Yeah. Who wouldn't be? Hey, by the way, you're going to die. 00:07:42.190 --> 00:07:45.963 Just as a heads up. It's going to be tomorrow. I'll see you then. 00:07:46.387 --> 00:07:46.653 Yeah. 00:07:47.033 --> 00:07:49.523 I guess there's a little bit of comfort in the sense of like, 00:07:49.523 --> 00:07:51.478 hey, where I am, you're coming. 00:07:53.213 --> 00:07:53.513 Maybe. 00:07:57.473 --> 00:07:57.943 Well if. 00:07:57.943 --> 00:07:59.893 Samuel's there it can't be that bad right. 00:08:00.233 --> 00:08:04.673 Yeah I don't know I mean the prophet's there so we move on David is with Ashish 00:08:04.673 --> 00:08:09.333 who is the Philistine king the one he was hiding from now he's kind of allied 00:08:09.333 --> 00:08:13.028 with them and they're going to go to war tomorrow with Israel, 00:08:13.592 --> 00:08:17.876 David wants to fight he's told not to and this is presented as a small mercy 00:08:18.265 --> 00:08:21.284 right because they're afraid he's going to betray them the Philistines are, 00:08:22.173 --> 00:08:25.876 David's going to betray them But this spares him from having to be on the battlefield 00:08:26.189 --> 00:08:29.693 when Israel is like routed and, you know, 00:08:30.113 --> 00:08:35.893 really like hurt and loses in this fight when Saul dies and all of his sons, 00:08:35.893 --> 00:08:37.402 including Jonathan, dies. 00:08:37.889 --> 00:08:43.084 So this sort of saves him from

having to face that, which would have been awful. 00:08:43.421 --> 00:08:45.773 Yeah. Not only face it, but be a part of it. Right. 00:08:45.773 --> 00:08:46.068 Right. 00:08:46.214 --> 00:08:47.823 To the destruction of Israel. 00:08:47.823 --> 00:08:49.043 Yeah. And that's exactly what 00:08:49.043 --> 00:08:53.638 happens. Israel's routed, their towns and villages are sacked and sieged. 00:08:53.981 --> 00:08:59.103 All of Saul's children, or his sons, the three sons that are there die, 00:08:59.103 --> 00:09:01.021 including Jonathan, which is very sad. 00:09:01.543 --> 00:09:05.673 And Saul is mortally wounded. He asks his armor bearer, hey, 00:09:05.673 --> 00:09:08.673 kill me because I don't want, you know, then torture me. And his armor bearer 00:09:08.673 --> 00:09:09.652 is like, I ain't doing that. 00:09:10.024 --> 00:09:13.933 So he falls on his sword, and so does his armor bearer. 00:09:14.333 --> 00:09:19.731 And that's kind of the end of Saul. Everything happens exactly as Samuel said. So... 00:09:20.310 --> 00:09:28.161 Not great. Pretty rough day. Now, David, he hears word about this from an Amalekite, 00:09:28.161 --> 00:09:31.911 and the Amalekite tells him that he was the one who killed Saul. 00:09:31.911 --> 00:09:37.933 We don't quite know what's going on there. Is he lying to make himself look better? Don't know. 00:09:38.581 --> 00:09:41.625 But he claims that he killed Saul. He has the crown and the armband, 00:09:41.962 --> 00:09:46.251 and David is like, bro, I told you you're not supposed to kill the Lord's anointed. 00:09:46.638 --> 00:09:49.495 So he kills the Amalekite, and then they grieve, and they mourn, 00:09:49.733 --> 00:09:51.880 Which is really tells about David's heart. 00:09:52.581 --> 00:09:57.622 You know, this is the guy who has thrown spears at him and tried to kill him is now dead. 00:09:58.029 --> 00:10:03.411 I think you would maybe relieve or celebrate. But David mourns for the death 00:10:03.411 --> 00:10:05.250 of the king and especially for Jonathan. 00:10:06.141 --> 00:10:11.046 Yeah. What's interesting about this to me is you see this kind of like paralleled 00:10:11.406 --> 00:10:16.526 elsewhere in the Bible of this idea that like, even though I'm estranged from 00:10:16.526 --> 00:10:20.057 my people in my homeland, I long for the day that I'm not. 00:10:20.601 --> 00:10:24.456 Right. I think about the story of Joseph, where if you look at the story of 00:10:24.456 --> 00:10:27.966 Joseph, even when he becomes like the most powerful person in the world, 00:10:27.966 --> 00:10:31.891 where he's second in command over the whole nation of Egypt, 00:10:32.186 --> 00:10:34.027 most powerful nation in the world at the time. 00:10:34.352 --> 00:10:38.786 It's like you can tell that he's like despite all the wealth and, 00:10:39.446 --> 00:10:44.084 prestige he's claimed at this point he still longs to rejoin with his people, 00:10:44.566 --> 00:10:49.226 right and you see that in when he names his kids his the names the meanings 00:10:49.226 --> 00:10:53.866 of the names of his kids like echo back to oh hey, 00:10:54.486 --> 00:10:59.183 one the place where i'm at right now even as the most second most powerful person in the world, 00:11:00.006 --> 00:11:03.716 i still recognize this place is a place of suffering for me. 00:11:04.790 --> 00:11:11.100 And the other one is like, I believe hearkening back to the promise of God to his people, right? 00:11:11.779 --> 00:11:14.926 And so you just see the desire to rejoin with the people. 00:11:15.326 --> 00:11:19.706 And you see that like very clearly in David, like even though he's estranged, 00:11:19.706 --> 00:11:23.508 even though he's separated from his people at this time, even though he's separated 00:11:23.944 --> 00:11:25.669 really from the people of God at the time, 00:11:26.232 --> 00:11:30.708 you see that he still has a heart for that promise that God has for him. 00:11:31.210 --> 00:11:37.416 Yeah. And it continues. David's separation continues just because Saul is defeated 00:11:37.416 --> 00:11:39.767 doesn't mean that everything goes right immediately. 00:11:40.246 --> 00:11:43.446 David doesn't jump on the throne. He prays to the Lord, says, 00:11:43.446 --> 00:11:47.447 what do you want me to do? And tells him to come. He wants to be king of Judah. 00:11:47.900 --> 00:11:50.680 Judah and Israel are separate kind of providences. 00:11:51.766 --> 00:11:53.287 So it's not unified yet. 00:11:53.856 --> 00:11:56.809 David's not the king of Israel yet, but he's king of just Judah, 00:11:56.809 --> 00:11:59.489 part of it. So he gets the kingdom of Judah. 00:12:00.023 --> 00:12:07.249 And then one of Saul's sons takes over Israel. Let me make sure I get the name right here. 00:12:07.633 --> 00:12:09.792 It's Ish-bosheth, right? 00:12:10.779 --> 00:12:12.479 It's got a dash in it. 00:12:13.749 --> 00:12:15.419 Oh, yeah. That's how you know it's going to be hard. 00:12:15.919 --> 00:12:17.139 Yeah, Ish-bosheth. 00:12:17.586 --> 00:12:17.719 Yeah. 00:12:18.642 --> 00:12:23.879 Ish-bosheth. Probably it's Hebrew, so it's like Ish-bosheth. I don't know. 00:12:23.879 --> 00:12:24.379 Probably closer. 00:12:24.959 --> 00:12:29.209 Yeah, maybe. So he ends up on the throne of Israel, and now there's this long, 00:12:29.209 --> 00:12:33.499 drawn-out power struggle where there's people loyal to David, 00:12:33.499 --> 00:12:37.247 there's people loyal to Saul's son, Ish, 00:12:39.219 --> 00:12:42.429 and there's now this division in the kingdom, right? 00:12:42.429 --> 00:12:45.019 I mean, this is some, like, Game of Thrones sort of stuff. 00:12:45.420 --> 00:12:47.016 You know, very dramatic, right? 00:12:47.845 --> 00:12:50.789 But David does what the Lord tells him. I mean, don't take the whole throne 00:12:50.789 --> 00:12:53.325 yet. You know, in time, it'll happen. 00:12:53.632 --> 00:12:59.659 So there's a period of some time here that passes where David and his, 00:13:00.339 -->

00:13:06.210 reign and his people become stronger and Saul's dynasty becomes weaker and weaker 00:13:06.547 --> 00:13:11.319 until eventually through a series of very bloody events where sons show up and 00:13:11.319 --> 00:13:15.276 kill each other and lots of this sort of discord happens. 00:13:15.916 --> 00:13:21.679 Ish is assassinated and the assassins come to David to kind of brag about it, 00:13:21.679 --> 00:13:25.799 receive an award. And David's like, you know how I am. You're not supposed to 00:13:25.799 --> 00:13:27.625 kill the Lord's anointed. So he has them. 00:13:28.072 --> 00:13:32.153 I think it specifically says they cut off his hands and the feet and then they're executed. 00:13:33.027 --> 00:13:33.448 Brutal. 00:13:33.788 --> 00:13:36.359 Yeah, I know. David's serious about this stuff. 00:13:37.404 --> 00:13:43.000 David does something that, like, anybody else in that position likely would never do, right? 00:13:43.511 --> 00:13:47.388 And really, the entire time he's making these decisions to, like, 00:13:47.388 --> 00:13:52.329 execute certain people based on their actions against God's people, 00:13:52.619 --> 00:13:57.774 it's continuing to really point back to the integrity that David walks with. 00:13:58.210 --> 00:14:01.348 Yeah, at least in this part of his life, he's very consistent. 00:14:01.808 --> 00:14:06.258 Like you know we don't take and through murder and we don't kill the lord's 00:14:06.258 --> 00:14:10.556 anointed you know we wait on him for everything to happen so, 00:14:11.066 --> 00:14:15.658 he puts them to death and the assassins and at this point the tribes of israel 00:14:15.658 --> 00:14:17.988 sort of gather around david and they kind of, 00:14:18.448 --> 00:14:23.338 fall in behind him throw their support behind him and now finally we have our 00:14:23.338 --> 00:14:28.728 shepherd king right david assumes the throne of Israel and now God's sort of 00:14:28.728 --> 00:14:30.251 promise of David becoming 00:14:30.692 --> 00:14:35.087 the king of Israel is fulfilled in this and he reigns over Israel starting in this point. 00:14:36.193 --> 00:14:39.293 And that's kind of where we leave the story of David in the sermon. 00:14:39.587 --> 00:14:45.650 A lot of stuff happened. But the main point is all of that is very messy, very difficult. 00:14:45.998 --> 00:14:50.278 None of this. I mean, taking not only from this sermon, but everything back 00:14:50.278 --> 00:14:54.818 to the anointing of David and the defeat of Goliath, everything from then on 00:14:54.818 --> 00:14:56.615 is very, very difficult. Right. 00:14:56.761 --> 00:15:00.198 And we know the Lord's in it because the Lord told David and he's just been 00:15:00.198 --> 00:15:01.439 following what the Lord has said. 00:15:02.548 --> 00:15:07.237 So that's kind of leaves us with that that moral that we're going to kind of work through. 00:15:07.997 --> 00:15:11.300 The idea that just because God's in it doesn't mean it's easy. 00:15:12.028 --> 00:15:17.611 Right. So let's start there. That idea, if it's hard, God must not be in it. 00:15:17.855 --> 00:15:19.266 Where have you believed that? 00:15:20.177 --> 00:15:23.068 Maybe ministry or personal life and marriage or something. Those are some of 00:15:23.068 --> 00:15:24.788 the examples that Steve uses. 00:15:25.487 --> 00:15:29.945 And then how do you think that David's timeline confronts that idea? 00:15:30.271 --> 00:15:34.847 Yeah. So I think it's important to bring this into perspective of like, 00:15:35.044 --> 00:15:41.517 well, why would people even believe that just because God's in it, it would be easy? 00:15:42.033 --> 00:15:44.488 And I think part of that goes to, you know, in the New Testament, 00:15:44.488 --> 00:15:49.278 we see Jesus and he says this phrase that we have probably all heard in a sermon 00:15:49.278 --> 00:15:51.008 before about rest, right? 00:15:51.308 --> 00:15:56.218 Hey, take my yoke upon you for my burden is easy and my yoke is light, right? 00:15:56.218 --> 00:16:00.628 Meaning, hey, if I'm involved in whatever you're doing, it shouldn't be heavy 00:16:00.628 --> 00:16:04.088 for you to carry. It should be light because it's not you carrying it, 00:16:04.088 --> 00:16:07.601 it's me carrying it, right? And you're just walking alongside me. 00:16:08.072 --> 00:16:11.748 And, you know, I think it's important to point out that there's some truth in 00:16:11.748 --> 00:16:15.601 that statement, right? That like, if we're walking with Christ, 00:16:15.943 --> 00:16:19.275 There should be a lightness to the way we live our lives, right? 00:16:19.711 --> 00:16:24.082 But it's also important to point out that what he's discussing there is rest, right? 00:16:24.587 --> 00:16:27.339 And we're not always resting. 00:16:27.577 --> 00:16:28.070 No. 00:16:28.610 --> 00:16:31.774 In fact, most of the time, the majority of the time we're working. 00:16:32.073 --> 00:16:38.521 And so just because he calls us into rest and he calls us into not bearing that burden alone—, 00:16:39.188 --> 00:16:42.395 doesn't mean we're not going to have hard times. In fact, the New Testament 00:16:42.395 --> 00:16:45.758 puts it kind of this way. It says, in this life, you will have trouble. 00:16:46.096 --> 00:16:50.565 Well, right. I mean, the same person who says, my yoke is easy and my burden 00:16:50.565 --> 00:16:54.872 is light, says, you must deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow me. 00:16:54.999 --> 00:16:55.870 That's exactly right. 00:16:56.120 --> 00:17:00.585 So, yeah, I mean, it's not two separate messages. They're two congruent messages, 00:17:00.585 --> 00:17:02.485 just at different times and different moments. 00:17:02.485 --> 00:17:07.149 Yeah, and I think part of what's at the core of this confusion is like, 00:17:07.521 --> 00:17:12.235 you think when you sound, when he says something like, hey, take up your cross 00:17:12.235 --> 00:17:16.711 and follow me, that it's this very difficult thing,

right? 00:17:17.238 --> 00:17:22.685 He's basically saying, hey, you have to, like, I pick up my cross and I go to 00:17:22.685 --> 00:17:26.138 die on that cross, right? Free your sins to be forgiven. 00:17:26.717 --> 00:17:31.875 You pick up your cross because you're dying to yourself. That's what it means, right? 00:17:32.295 --> 00:17:35.599 He's saying you need to die to yourself in order to be able to follow me. 00:17:35.854 --> 00:17:41.020 And ultimately what Jesus is trying to point us to is this like great exchange, 00:17:41.438 --> 00:17:46.355 right? That we are trading one life for another. And I think a lot of people 00:17:46.355 --> 00:17:50.326 will look at this exchange and will say, oh, it's such a difficult, challenging exchange. 00:17:50.639 --> 00:17:53.436 It's like, okay, but have you actually considered what you're exchanging? 00:17:54.215 --> 00:18:00.275 Right? You're exchanging shame, guilt, and sin, right? The life you were leading 00:18:00.275 --> 00:18:05.685 before, which led you into those things for a life of joy, love, 00:18:05.685 --> 00:18:08.075 and freedom in Christ, right? 00:18:08.675 --> 00:18:14.655 And so, yeah, it's going to be hard as you pick up your cross and follow Jesus 00:18:14.655 --> 00:18:16.383 into a death like his own. 00:18:17.305 --> 00:18:21.633 But it's going to be freeing. It's going to be joyful. It's going to be filled 00:18:21.633 --> 00:18:23.254 with love and adventure. 00:18:24.203 --> 00:18:30.293 So I think where I have kind of run into this and kind of made mistakes in my 00:18:30.293 --> 00:18:34.893 life is where I've believed the other thing, right? Where I think, 00:18:34.893 --> 00:18:37.586 oh, just because Jesus is in it, it should be easy. 00:18:38.118 --> 00:18:41.053 In fact, another way I've thought about it is like, you know, 00:18:41.053 --> 00:18:45.343 there's that song and I think there's some truth in it And I think there's some 00:18:45.343 --> 00:18:49.543 naivety in it when it comes to how we interpret the song. 00:18:49.543 --> 00:18:53.800 And that's the song, hey, I'm not going to move until you tell me to move. 00:18:54.491 --> 00:18:58.673 Right? It's like, sure, there are certain areas of your life you don't want 00:18:58.673 --> 00:19:00.890 to move until God says, all right, time to move. 00:19:01.574 --> 00:19:06.262 But there's a lot of stuff you can be doing while you're waiting to hear from God. 00:19:06.599 --> 00:19:11.683 Right. I mean, you know, before you go into battle, you have to make sure your 00:19:11.683 --> 00:19:14.523 armor is set and you're ready, right? 00:19:14.523 --> 00:19:16.037 Yeah, you gotta be training. 00:19:16.177 --> 00:19:19.787 Yeah, I'm not gonna go into battle until the Lord leads me into that battle. 00:19:20.333 --> 00:19:24.054 But in the meantime, I'm going to train and be ready for when that time comes. 00:19:24.332 --> 00:19:24.553 Yeah. 00:19:24.553 --> 00:19:26.805 You know, I think part of that is also to remember... 00:19:27.430 --> 00:19:30.925 Jesus is talking about that yoke, my yoke is he's going to burn his light, 00:19:31.343 --> 00:19:36.242 to a group of people who are suffering under this religious pressure to perform, 00:19:36.561 --> 00:19:41.569 you know, and to live up to this religious standard set upon them by the religious 00:19:41.569 --> 00:19:42.796 leaders of their time, right? 00:19:42.999 --> 00:19:46.879 So that's like part of that context is the, you know, you have all these laws, 00:19:46.879 --> 00:19:49.923 all these rules, all these regulations that are laid upon you. 00:19:50.463 --> 00:19:53.899 And he says, but following me relieves you of all that. Right. 00:19:53.899 --> 00:19:58.669 My way is easier than all the rules and laws and regulations and all of those 00:19:58.669 --> 00:20:01.869 things. So that's part of that. It's not that I like to point out, 00:20:01.869 --> 00:20:04.041 you know, the yoke is still a yoke. Right. 00:20:04.244 --> 00:20:04.449 Yeah. 00:20:04.449 --> 00:20:09.405 You put a yoke on an animal to work it. You know, that's how it works. Right. 00:20:10.009 --> 00:20:15.329 So it's important to remember that, too. The yoke is easy, but it's still work. 00:20:15.789 --> 00:20:18.469 Yeah. And it even goes back to that one passage where it says, 00:20:18.469 --> 00:20:23.825 you know, hey, God works all things together for your good and for his glory. 00:20:24.162 --> 00:20:27.919 It's like, yeah, but you're missing the part of the phrase where he says he 00:20:27.919 --> 00:20:31.619 works all things together. It's like, hey, you're going to go through some stuff 00:20:31.619 --> 00:20:37.391 that's really difficult. And guess what? He is working that stuff for your ultimate good. 00:20:37.839 --> 00:20:41.629 But honestly, our ultimate good isn't always what we expect it to be. 00:20:41.629 --> 00:20:47.609 And often requires us to go through processes where God is shaving things off of us, right? 00:20:47.989 --> 00:20:55.001 It's kind of like, why does God use the illustration of silver being refined in fire seven times? 00:20:55.291 --> 00:20:59.699 It's like, because there's some really hot moments that are gonna have to be 00:20:59.699 --> 00:21:02.449 used to help shave things off of us, right? 00:21:02.449 --> 00:21:06.009 These things that God doesn't want us to, because those are the corruptions. 00:21:06.009 --> 00:21:11.509 Those are the things that need to be shed away to make for more pure metal, right? 00:21:11.509 --> 00:21:12.183 Absolutely. 00:21:12.315 --> 00:21:15.242 So it's difficult stuff that you have to go through to get there. 00:21:15.847 --> 00:21:18.273 But the other side of it is so much better. 00:21:18.529 --> 00:21:21.585 Yeah. And I mean, for me, you know, I've had that experience. 00:21:21.585 --> 00:21:26.646 And I think you talked about it earlier. It's the prosperity gospel mindset, right? 00:21:26.820 --> 00:21:31.012 That is very prosperity gospel. If

it's hard, God must not be in it, right? 00:21:31.250 --> 00:21:33.850 Your life is easy as long as God is happy. 00:21:34.106 --> 00:21:36.505 But that's, well, first of all, there's many things wrong with it. 00:21:36.505 --> 00:21:40.391 That's idolatry, first and foremost. That's not how the Bible ever works. 00:21:40.512 --> 00:21:40.745 Yeah. 00:21:40.745 --> 00:21:44.995 At the same moment, like, if we're going to go off of that mindset, 00:21:44.995 --> 00:21:48.976 that like, well, life is only hard if God's not in it. 00:21:49.110 --> 00:21:53.400 So if life is hard, I'm doing something wrong or I need to correct myself. 00:21:53.708 --> 00:21:56.485 Well, Jesus' life was very hard. 00:21:57.065 --> 00:21:57.285 Yeah. 00:21:57.285 --> 00:22:00.125 You know, so like, and I think he was doing pretty good. 00:22:00.665 --> 00:22:07.195 So, you know, it's, I find I fall into that sometimes and like ministry and 00:22:07.195 --> 00:22:09.895 laboring over something like that and going, man, things just aren't going my 00:22:09.895 --> 00:22:12.279 way or they're not going the way I thought, right? 00:22:12.665 --> 00:22:16.345 Right. Then I start like getting doubt about like, is this what I'm really supposed 00:22:16.345 --> 00:22:17.942 to do? Am I supposed to be doing it this way? 00:22:18.273 --> 00:22:23.778 Maybe I misunderstood or whatever. So to get out of that is like what David does. 00:22:24.143 --> 00:22:27.625 You know, it's to have that confidence, not in myself, but in God. Right. 00:22:28.145 --> 00:22:31.295 Like God's promise that this is the way it's going to go. And even if it takes 00:22:31.295 --> 00:22:37.348 forever to get there, you know, that this is the way that he's the path that he has charted for me. 00:22:37.742 --> 00:22:41.445 And I'm not going to stray from it. Right. So I think that's kind of the important 00:22:41.445 --> 00:22:44.639 kind of pushback on the, if it's hard, God must not be in it sort of thing. 00:22:45.103 --> 00:22:50.624 Yeah. And, and also like it helps to address things like, you know, 00:22:50.838 --> 00:22:53.635 in ministry, things are going to get hard. It's like, well, Hey, 00:22:53.635 --> 00:22:55.506 if in ministry things get hard, you know, 00:22:56.178 --> 00:23:00.038 That means God's not in it, therefore I should quit. No, that's not what God 00:23:00.038 --> 00:23:03.858 intended. God puts us through hard things to develop our character. That's important. 00:23:04.358 --> 00:23:08.028 Book of James teaches us that, right? It's another place I can't remember where 00:23:08.028 --> 00:23:11.961 else, but it says it multiple times. The other thing is like marriage. 00:23:12.526 --> 00:23:16.988 Marriage is like, it is the, I always put it this way. 00:23:16.988 --> 00:23:20.038 It's the greatest sanctifier that God has blessed us with, 00:23:20.593 --> 00:23:25.278 because it is often in the conflict of marriage that we find ourselves growing 00:23:25.278 --> 00:23:31.188 closer to God and in godliness, because we have another person who loves us, 00:23:31.188 --> 00:23:34.028 even though for some reason, more than anybody else in the world, 00:23:34.028 --> 00:23:35.253 we fight with this person, 00:23:35.720 --> 00:23:39.798 whose desire for us is to grow and look more like Christ, right? 00:23:39.798 --> 00:23:40.908 And that's the hope, right? 00:23:41.380 --> 00:23:45.508 That's what you ultimately want to have for and in your spouse, 00:23:45.508 --> 00:23:48.332 somebody who wants you to grow and look more like Christ. 00:23:48.488 --> 00:23:52.298 Yeah, I mean, and that's certainly true inside of marriage, but it's also true 00:23:52.298 --> 00:23:55.588 outside of marriage, too. I mean, you don't have to be married to someone to 00:23:55.588 --> 00:23:58.508 have those relationships in your life, too, that are where you grate against 00:23:58.508 --> 00:24:00.290 each other and you bump up against each other. 00:24:00.423 --> 00:24:02.931 That is Christian community, right? 00:24:03.111 --> 00:24:03.558 That's right. 00:24:03.558 --> 00:24:08.918 So, yeah. All right, so let's talk about Saul. This is Saul's final moments, right? 00:24:09.618 --> 00:24:14.032 And his whole, I mean, we get, like, the perspective of his whole kind of reign and rule. 00:24:14.403 --> 00:24:19.778 And it is a character study in insecurity. like that is the marker of his kind 00:24:19.778 --> 00:24:24.103 of rule he's told at that moment like God's taking away the kingdom from you 00:24:24.457 --> 00:24:26.750 and suddenly he spirals out of control, 00:24:27.748 --> 00:24:32.251 Last week, he's thrown spears at David. This week, he's consulting, 00:24:32.251 --> 00:24:34.862 you know, witches and witchcraft and sorcery. 00:24:35.373 --> 00:24:42.401 So what's the difference then, you know, between fear that prays and is driven 00:24:42.401 --> 00:24:48.081 to prayer and fear that reaches for some sort of forbidden counsel or to consult 00:24:48.081 --> 00:24:49.330 something outside of God? 00:24:51.081 --> 00:24:57.008 Yeah, this one's so difficult because, like, there's a part of me that feels sympathy for Saul. 00:24:57.520 --> 00:24:59.661 And I think we should Honestly Like I think He's. 00:24:59.661 --> 00:25:00.846 A pretty tragic character. 00:25:00.991 --> 00:25:04.551 Yeah And I think that's a good way Of looking at people in general You know 00:25:04.551 --> 00:25:11.388 Just like Like we shouldn't Hate or despise people Who just happen to Do things bad Or wrong Or poorly, 00:25:12.169 --> 00:25:15.392 But we should have sympathy for them because they, I mean, ultimately, 00:25:15.392 --> 00:25:17.307 they lack a light we possess. 00:25:17.673 --> 00:25:21.882 You know, we have the joy and grace of knowing we have the word of God available 00:25:21.882 --> 00:25:23.780 to us. And Saul did not have that. 00:25:24.286 --> 00:25:31.972 Now, he takes that and goes to the medium to try and contact Samuel to basically,

00:25:31.972 --> 00:25:37.478 ultimately, he wants wisdom to continue following God. But he never does it in the right way. 00:25:38.322 --> 00:25:43.702 Right he almost always fails to follow through with what god is saying wants him to do, 00:25:44.482 --> 00:25:47.993 and so like the other part of me feels sympathy for him because like, 00:25:48.756 --> 00:25:54.555 it seems like his heart behind it is still in pursuit of like god's ultimate, 00:25:55.046 --> 00:25:59.392 direction but the thing is every single time he's pursued god's direction when 00:25:59.392 --> 00:26:03.486 god has been crystal clear with him he has been like what if i do it my way a little bit. 00:26:03.968 --> 00:26:08.508 Yeah i mean i think it's telling that like samuel even, 00:26:09.059 --> 00:26:14.372 after his death continues to repeat the same thing because samuel's like god 00:26:14.372 --> 00:26:20.142 has not changed his mind you're still gonna lose the kingdom like he's like 00:26:20.142 --> 00:26:22.292 i don't know what like i assume, 00:26:22.930 --> 00:26:29.382 that is why saul goes to samuel and goes to the medium to call up samuel because 00:26:29.382 --> 00:26:33.162 maybe he's just holding out hope that like maybe the lord changes mind and he 00:26:33.162 --> 00:26:37.058 gets to keep the kingdom right tell me something good tell me that it's different, 00:26:37.588 --> 00:26:42.362 and like multiple times now you know he goes to samuel and samuel's like no, 00:26:42.842 --> 00:26:48.716 like it's the same as it always has been like i am sorry but the lord has kind of, 00:26:49.285 --> 00:26:54.752 he's done with you you know like this is it and this last time is even punctuated 00:26:54.752 --> 00:26:58.701 by the and you're going to die tomorrow just to make it real final, 00:26:59.562 --> 00:27:01.539 so i mean i do feel for him because like, 00:27:02.351 --> 00:27:07.982 I do think, you know, I want to know what the Lord wants for me in the situations in my life, too. 00:27:08.185 --> 00:27:08.434 Yeah. 00:27:08.434 --> 00:27:12.624 And I do think that there are times that are frustrating because it feels like 00:27:12.624 --> 00:27:14.524 the Lord is silent about it. 00:27:14.780 --> 00:27:15.308 Right. 00:27:15.598 --> 00:27:18.174 For one reason or another, it feels like the Lord's far away. 00:27:18.174 --> 00:27:25.527 And usually, you know, usually, or probably every time, really, that that happens. 00:27:25.643 --> 00:27:29.573 The Lord isn't speaking. It's because he already has. And I just don't want to accept what he said. 00:27:29.927 --> 00:27:30.304 Yeah. 00:27:30.304 --> 00:27:30.710 You know. 00:27:30.710 --> 00:27:31.184 That's a good word. 00:27:31.484 --> 00:27:32.696 That's exactly what Saul's doing. 00:27:33.464 --> 00:27:36.644 I mean, that's a good word for anybody to hear, just that, hey, 00:27:37.304 --> 00:27:40.704 a lot of the times it's not that God hasn't spoken, it's that he has, 00:27:40.704 --> 00:27:41.924 and you haven't listened. 00:27:41.924 --> 00:27:45.691 You haven't listened. You haven't gotten the message. It's the same as it always was. 00:27:45.969 --> 00:27:49.584 You know, it's a message about the future and what I want you to do with it, 00:27:49.584 --> 00:27:52.744 even if you don't agree with that. Or it's a message about the situation, 00:27:52.744 --> 00:27:54.317 and you know exactly what you're supposed to do. 00:27:54.613 --> 00:27:57.874 And here's the thing that gets me a lot with some of the people I talk to, 00:27:57.874 --> 00:28:00.627 because, you know, you counsel someone and they're like, God, 00:28:01.132 --> 00:28:02.204 the Lord's just not speaking to me. 00:28:02.224 --> 00:28:04.824 The Lord's not like, I want a word from the Lord. 00:28:05.259 --> 00:28:09.654 And you know, like you said, Saul doesn't have the benefit of scripture. 00:28:09.845 --> 00:28:13.269 But you go to that person and you're like, well, have you been reading your Bible? 00:28:13.818 --> 00:28:15.790 And the whole, no, you know, no. It's like, well, 00:28:16.436 --> 00:28:21.080 The Bible is sort of the word of God. Like he speaks to us through that. 00:28:21.237 --> 00:28:26.366 And I think if you read the Bible and maybe I would even give them some direction 00:28:26.366 --> 00:28:29.596 on where to go or what to read, I think you'll find like this will give you 00:28:29.596 --> 00:28:30.670 the answer you're looking for. 00:28:30.821 --> 00:28:33.276 Right. And it might not be the answer you want. 00:28:34.656 --> 00:28:38.013 It isn't. At least in my experience, it's not always the answer I want, 00:28:38.210 --> 00:28:39.871 but it is an answer from the Lord. 00:28:40.473 --> 00:28:42.836 So, yeah, I think that's important to remember. Just like Saul, 00:28:43.176 --> 00:28:46.191 I do the same thing. I can answer some God that I don't want to hear. 00:28:46.591 --> 00:28:49.186 And God's silent because he's like, what else is there to say? 00:28:49.186 --> 00:28:51.938 I've already told you exactly what you need to do and what you know. 00:28:52.257 --> 00:28:56.486 And I think that brings us kind of back to what is the difference between the 00:28:56.486 --> 00:29:02.555 type of fear that plays on Saul and the type of fear that ultimately is for God, right? 00:29:03.196 --> 00:29:07.746 And that is, one, there's a biblical concept that's mentioned time and again 00:29:07.746 --> 00:29:11.346 known as the fear of the Lord, right? It's much different than any other kind 00:29:11.346 --> 00:29:17.633 of fear, and it's because the result is good, and the result of every other kind of fear is bad. 00:29:18.111 --> 00:29:21.006 And often what you see with Saul is he has a fear of people. 00:29:21.006 --> 00:29:24.406 He has a fear of what's going to happen. He has a fear of what he can't control, 00:29:24.406 --> 00:29:29.519 and because he has that fear, it consumes him, and it leads him to make lots of bad choices. 00:29:30.564 -->

00:29:34.746 And that's something that guides him throughout his life, and you see that in 00:29:34.746 --> 00:29:36.259 his character constantly. 00:29:36.729 --> 00:29:40.366 You don't see that in David. But David is a man who he makes mistakes, 00:29:40.366 --> 00:29:42.506 but generally speaking, he fears the Lord. 00:29:42.506 --> 00:29:47.726 And because he fears the Lord, he strives to obey him, even in the situations 00:29:47.726 --> 00:29:50.026 where it doesn't make sense, which is why he does things like, 00:29:50.026 --> 00:29:54.414 oh, hey, I'm going to execute you because you've killed the Lord's anointed. And that was bad. 00:29:54.901 --> 00:29:59.416 And you deserve like I'm here to exercise justice on the Lord's behalf. 00:29:59.916 --> 00:30:01.989 And he's he's anointed to do that. 00:30:02.378 --> 00:30:05.876 And so there's there's that difference there. Right. 00:30:06.356 --> 00:30:09.736 And so, one of the things I think is very important for us to understand, 00:30:09.736 --> 00:30:14.827 and where Saul is so often getting it wrong, is that fear of the Lord is obedient. 00:30:15.575 --> 00:30:17.386 And it does not wait to be obedient. 00:30:17.746 --> 00:30:20.509 Well, that's the other thing is the delayed obedience part too. 00:30:20.660 --> 00:30:21.088 That's right. 00:30:21.088 --> 00:30:26.198 You know, in the story of Saul and David, we like to think that David and Saul 00:30:26.198 --> 00:30:29.443 are opposites of each other, right? I don't think that's true. 00:30:29.832 --> 00:30:33.907 I think the opposites in this story are Saul and his son, Jonathan. 00:30:35.114 --> 00:30:40.675 They respond in completely different ways to the same issue that David is the future king. 00:30:41.093 --> 00:30:44.634 Saul responds selfishly. He responds out of fear. 00:30:45.064 --> 00:30:50.775 He goes after David, tries to kill him, tries to, you know, hunt him down and keep the kingdom. 00:30:50.995 --> 00:30:51.251 Yeah. 00:30:51.465 --> 00:30:55.788 And you see this clash like last week when Jonathan and Saul clash, 00:30:55.788 --> 00:30:59.238 you know, at the dinner, or that was last week for the kids. 00:30:59.417 --> 00:31:01.618 It was two weeks ago for the adults. But yeah. 00:31:01.972 --> 00:31:06.231 And like Jonathan, he's the promised future king under Saul, 00:31:06.655 --> 00:31:10.608 you know, not promised by God, but he's the future king in the lineage of Saul. 00:31:11.055 --> 00:31:13.568 And Jonathan's like, but I know I'm not going to sit on the throne. 00:31:13.568 --> 00:31:15.148 God's already said it's going to be David. 00:31:15.560 --> 00:31:21.918 So his response instead is, let me work with David to do what God wants, 00:31:22.358 --> 00:31:28.656 to pursue his will, not mine, to lift David up, to prepare him for the kingdom. 00:31:29.625 --> 00:31:34.628 That is Jonathan's response. So it's the complete opposite of Saul's response. 00:31:34.628 --> 00:31:35.964 And that's the fear thing again. 00:31:36.266 --> 00:31:40.178 Saul is afraid, what might happen if I lose the kingdom? Jonathan's afraid, 00:31:40.178 --> 00:31:42.187 what might happen if I resist God's will? 00:31:42.396 --> 00:31:44.988 Right that's right that's a big deal. 00:31:44.988 --> 00:31:46.148 That's the big difference. 00:31:46.148 --> 00:31:51.368 Yeah yeah man how tragic is it when you look at this like you look at Saul's 00:31:51.368 --> 00:31:54.588 death and you're like oh what a tragedy it's like that's not the tragedy the 00:31:54.588 --> 00:31:55.934 tragedy is Jonathan died. 00:31:56.558 --> 00:32:00.204 I mean, absolutely. Jonathan was innocent in pretty much all of this. 00:32:00.204 --> 00:32:04.264 Yeah. So I guess I kind of, and this is like a question for a future podcast, 00:32:04.264 --> 00:32:07.997 it feels like, why is it that Jonathan has to suffer for what his dad did? 00:32:08.607 --> 00:32:13.747 I mean, we're going to see that in the life of David. You know, one of the lessons God, 00:32:14.235 --> 00:32:18.764 plays out in the kingdom of Israel is that, and we see this now, 00:32:18.764 --> 00:32:24.237 I mean, in that battle, the people of Israel suffer because Saul's actions, 00:32:24.771 --> 00:32:28.654 and they're going to continue to suffer because of David's actions. 00:32:29.020 --> 00:32:32.329 We're going to see that too, and later on in David's story. There was, 00:32:32.602 --> 00:32:36.799 in the small group or the class I was doing actually yesterday, 00:32:37.572 --> 00:32:40.840 there was a point someone made, and they briefly came up about David, 00:32:41.405 --> 00:32:43.834 and they're talking about, and these are spoilers for, I think, 00:32:43.834 --> 00:32:48.118 next week's sermon on maybe some of David's failings, like with Bathsheba, 00:32:48.702 --> 00:32:50.635 is he made the point, he said, I wonder, 00:32:51.273 --> 00:32:53.565 I wonder if David's, 00:32:54.364 --> 00:32:59.554 his encounter with Bathsheba would have gone differently if he still had Jonathan 00:32:59.554 --> 00:33:01.694 in his life. Like if he had. 00:33:02.034 --> 00:33:06.404 I have asked that exact question because I wonder like Jonathan, 00:33:06.404 --> 00:33:10.120 when David is rising up, Jonathan's like his closest friend. 00:33:10.648 --> 00:33:15.434 And it's like, we see time and again that like you need in the Bible, 00:33:15.434 --> 00:33:19.864 you need buddies to help you draw closer to God. You need people who will point 00:33:19.864 --> 00:33:23.254 you and push you in the right direction. Jonathan was a very faithful man. Yeah. 00:33:23.254 --> 00:33:25.909 So what would have happened if Jonathan served in David's court? 00:33:26.514 --> 00:33:27.936 If it was like his advisor, right? 00:33:28.203 --> 00:33:31.273 What would have happened if he saw that friendship or he replaced that friendship? 00:33:31.715 --> 00:33:36.831 You know, the encounter with Bathsheba could have gone very differently. 00:33:36.965 -->

00:33:37.234 Yeah. 00:33:37.234 --> 00:33:37.481 Right. 00:33:38.291 --> 00:33:43.068 So, yeah, and I think that's, I think, I don't know this either, 00:33:43.445 --> 00:33:47.252 but I do think the real tragedy in all of this is also that Jonathan probably 00:33:47.252 --> 00:33:48.676 always knew he was going to die. 00:33:49.742 --> 00:33:53.918 I don't think, I don't know. I mean, there's no way to know. We can't really tell. 00:33:54.406 --> 00:33:58.574 But as long as Jonathan lived, I don't think David could really have been king. 00:33:59.166 --> 00:34:03.632 As long as an heir to the throne could claim it. You know, I think the people 00:34:03.632 --> 00:34:06.675 would have rallied behind Jonathan, even if he didn't want them to, 00:34:06.890 --> 00:34:08.462 there would always be any resistance. 00:34:08.462 --> 00:34:12.062 Jonathan would either, I think Jonathan always knew this probably ended in two 00:34:12.062 --> 00:34:14.454 ways. He either died or he was in exile. 00:34:14.982 --> 00:34:18.088 And I think that's really the heartbreaking part of a lot of this, 00:34:18.528 --> 00:34:20.476 because that's just how kingdoms work. 00:34:20.662 --> 00:34:24.772 You know, as long as an heir lives, you can't, someone else can't ascend to 00:34:24.772 --> 00:34:26.152 the throne without bloodshed. 00:34:26.152 --> 00:34:30.622 So, yeah, I mean, I think that's really the real tragedy of a lot of this. 00:34:30.622 --> 00:34:34.752 You know, Saul's death is unfortunate because he's the Lord's anointed and everything, 00:34:34.752 --> 00:34:39.952 but it happens. But Jonathan, man, it feels almost unfair that the pathway to 00:34:39.952 --> 00:34:41.860 the throne goes right through Jonathan. 00:34:42.620 --> 00:34:49.292 Right. So now Steve talked about this long war kind of idea between the struggle 00:34:49.292 --> 00:34:54.333 between David and Saul's other heir who put on the throne. 00:34:55.154 --> 00:34:59.438 Kind of compares it to North Point story and the long kind of story of North Point, right? 00:34:59.769 --> 00:35:04.193 And talks about that and also some struggles in our own lives with marriage and things like that. 00:35:04.716 --> 00:35:08.252 What's the difference between a holy perseverance, right? Staying faithful in 00:35:08.252 --> 00:35:14.368 something that God is doing or hanging on to something that God's telling you to leave. 00:35:14.947 --> 00:35:17.088 How do we know the difference and what's the difference there? 00:35:17.657 --> 00:35:21.372 Yeah, so this always to me requires 00:35:21.372 --> 00:35:26.348 is like a growing understanding of the whole counsel of God, right? 00:35:26.739 --> 00:35:29.632 The more we understand scripture, the more we understand who God is, 00:35:29.632 --> 00:35:31.964 what he has taught us, and how he wants us to live. 00:35:32.822 --> 00:35:37.548 For instance, we would say, generally speaking, God hates divorce, 00:35:37.658 --> 00:35:40.710 right? Like, God is so against divorce. 00:35:40.710 --> 00:35:42.030 Those are the words of Jesus. 00:35:42.030 --> 00:35:46.080 I know. I mean, we don't have to guess at that. That's like Jesus says, 00:35:46.080 --> 00:35:49.374 he lays it out for us. It's not a difficult thing to grab. 00:35:49.605 --> 00:35:52.650 But if you don't have the whole counsel of scripture under your belt, 00:35:52.650 --> 00:35:56.530 like you've not read through the Bible, then you might miss something like that 00:35:56.530 --> 00:36:00.760 and say, well, I mean, it seems like it's fine. Moses gave certificates of divorce 00:36:00.760 --> 00:36:04.480 and I've read up through, you know, Leviticus, Numbers. 00:36:04.480 --> 00:36:05.820 Deuteronomy, Matthew. 00:36:07.440 --> 00:36:11.980 But Jesus lays it out. He's like, hey, the only reason divorce happens is because 00:36:11.980 --> 00:36:16.940 you got either one or two people whose hearts are so hard that they're unwilling 00:36:16.940 --> 00:36:19.860 to soften to the way that it's supposed to be. 00:36:19.860 --> 00:36:21.440 Right. Because when I join two 00:36:21.440 --> 00:36:24.598 people together, they're supposed to stay together. That's my intention. 00:36:25.095 --> 00:36:28.914 And so that's, I think, important to remember. 00:36:29.600 --> 00:36:35.649 Holy perseverance understands or requires understanding who God is and what he wants for your life. 00:36:36.769 --> 00:36:39.950 Versus, oh, hey, God wants you to repent and leave something. 00:36:39.950 --> 00:36:43.260 It's like, well, hey, that might be the case in certain situations, 00:36:43.260 --> 00:36:46.500 but there are certain things that God's word lays out very clearly. 00:36:46.500 --> 00:36:48.379 Hey, he wants you to persist in that. 00:36:48.968 --> 00:36:53.380 Now, mind you, that's not to, what's the word? 00:36:54.555 --> 00:36:57.860 Kind of right away things like extenuating circumstances. 00:36:57.860 --> 00:36:58.330 Sure. 00:36:58.330 --> 00:37:04.950 Right? Like, God, it leaves no room for or permits abuse within marriage. 00:37:04.950 --> 00:37:08.860 That's something that's like, okay, that needs to be discussed and counseled through. 00:37:08.860 --> 00:37:10.740 A violation of marriage at that point. 00:37:10.740 --> 00:37:15.640 Yeah, exactly. And there are other, like, extenuating circumstances that Jesus 00:37:15.640 --> 00:37:20.930 is like, okay, like, it's still not God's plan because ultimately it comes back 00:37:20.930 --> 00:37:22.837 to your sinful, hardened heart. 00:37:24.039 --> 00:37:29.630 But within certain circumstances, I would rather see my daughter spared this 00:37:29.630 --> 00:37:31.970 harsh treatment or my son spared this harsh treatment. 00:37:31.990 --> 00:37:35.717 Yeah, it's the result of someone's sin in the marriage at that point, right? 00:37:35.857 --> 00:37:43.305 Yeah. So kind of coming back to that, when it comes to this idea of the long war, 00:37:43.888 --> 00:37:48.920 the difference between holy

perseverance and staying in something God is actually 00:37:48.920 --> 00:37:53.320 asking you to repent or leave, is like it requires significant discernment to 00:37:53.320 --> 00:37:55.110 understand the difference between those two things. 00:37:55.470 --> 00:37:58.490 Yeah. Maybe even outside counsel from someone that you trust. 00:37:59.607 --> 00:38:05.980 And here's a good little tip. Like if if outside counsel is not permitted access, 00:38:05.980 --> 00:38:08.580 there's something unhealthy that needs to be addressed. 00:38:08.580 --> 00:38:14.911 Oh, that too. If you're not allowing people in to something like that. Yes, absolutely. Yeah. 00:38:15.515 --> 00:38:20.100 I mean, this one's one of those hard ones because it is it is a lot of discernment. 00:38:20.100 --> 00:38:23.830 And it is a lot of seeking the spirit to figure out, is this something I'm supposed 00:38:23.830 --> 00:38:28.376 to sustain and go? What I find is most helpful in these sort of circumstances, 00:38:28.851 --> 00:38:30.726 is to ask yourself about your... 00:38:31.540 --> 00:38:37.014 I guess we would say your bonds or your connection to something, 00:38:37.461 --> 00:38:41.346 is it more important than your connection to the Lord, right? 00:38:41.346 --> 00:38:45.368 And here's kind of like the model for this for me, right? 00:38:45.901 --> 00:38:50.566 Is John the Baptist is like, he's literally called John the Baptist. 00:38:50.566 --> 00:38:52.112 Like he baptizes people. 00:38:52.594 --> 00:38:58.036 He's doing this job, right? And then suddenly Jesus shows up on the scene and 00:38:58.036 --> 00:39:02.126 his followers start kind of baptizing people into his way. 00:39:02.532 --> 00:39:06.236 And John's followers come to him and say, hey, John, you got to do something about this. 00:39:06.696 --> 00:39:09.187 He's stepping on your turf like he's taking your job. 00:39:09.789 --> 00:39:13.934 And John makes it very clear. He says, he must become greater. I must become less. 00:39:14.536 --> 00:39:16.286 He must increase. I must decrease. 00:39:16.286 --> 00:39:20.486 Yeah, and John makes it very clear. John, and I actually have this like in a 00:39:20.486 --> 00:39:25.596 highlight from some article that I read, John was more concerned about the God 00:39:25.596 --> 00:39:28.073 of his calling than his calling from his God. 00:39:28.380 --> 00:39:28.961 Right? 00:39:29.585 --> 00:39:30.775 And that's really what it was. 00:39:31.605 --> 00:39:35.657 It can be in those situations, like the things that God calls us to can be the 00:39:35.657 --> 00:39:37.938 things that define who we are in some cases, right? 00:39:38.473 --> 00:39:41.817 But as soon as that starts happening, you know, this happens all the time in 00:39:41.817 --> 00:39:45.742 ministry. This is why pastors sometimes have such a hard time retiring, 00:39:46.310 --> 00:39:51.389 right? Because that's why we often have pastors who get very, very, very old, right? 00:39:51.604 --> 00:39:56.247

And in the pulpit so long, because they can't imagine a life outside of that. 00:39:56.247 --> 00:40:01.187 I mean, and this goes for me too, You know, I haven't felt this way before that 00:40:01.187 --> 00:40:05.020 I'm defined by this this calling that I have. Right. 00:40:05.548 --> 00:40:09.077 But as soon as that starts happening, that's a problem because I'm not supposed 00:40:09.077 --> 00:40:10.261 to be defined by my calling. 00:40:10.534 --> 00:40:14.887 I'm supposed to be defined by, well, who God says I am, by my identity in him, 00:40:14.887 --> 00:40:16.751 not my identity in what I do. Right. 00:40:17.297 --> 00:40:21.816 So I think as soon as we start finding that happening. 00:40:22.170 --> 00:40:27.537 Right. Then I'm starting to find I'm more connected to the things that I'm in 00:40:27.537 --> 00:40:31.457 or the things I'm involved in. the thing I'm doing, right? As soon as I start 00:40:31.457 --> 00:40:34.456 identifying myself more as, for instance... 00:40:35.765 --> 00:40:39.280 I'm starting, you know, for someone out there, start identifying yourself more 00:40:39.280 --> 00:40:41.686 as a mother than a follower of Jesus. 00:40:41.872 --> 00:40:45.366 Start identifying myself more as a soldier than a follower of Jesus. 00:40:45.802 --> 00:40:51.270 Identifying more as, you know, a business person, more as a father, 00:40:51.270 --> 00:40:57.234 more as a whatever that is, that identity starts eclipsing our identity in Christ. 00:40:57.635 --> 00:41:00.630 God might suddenly be telling us to step away from that. 00:41:00.827 --> 00:41:01.379 Right. 00:41:01.872 --> 00:41:05.840 And the thing is, and here's the trick, is if you check yourself and make sure 00:41:05.840 --> 00:41:07.840 that doesn't happen, right? 00:41:07.840 --> 00:41:11.970 If you are on guard to make sure that your identity is always rooted in God 00:41:11.970 --> 00:41:16.730 first, when God calls you away from something like that, it becomes easy and 00:41:16.730 --> 00:41:21.842 obvious, right? Because it never was what I defined myself as. I can let it go. 00:41:22.225 --> 00:41:27.548 I can go because I'm still child of God. I'm still called by the Lord, right? 00:41:28.455 --> 00:41:32.395 And I think that's really the big difference for me, where I think the difference lies. 00:41:33.454 --> 00:41:37.923 So, we talked a little bit about, but Steve sort of gave us a little sneak peek 00:41:37.923 --> 00:41:39.048 on what's happening next week. 00:41:39.280 --> 00:41:45.903 He said we will revere David and cringe, which I believe are coming up on some of David's failings. 00:41:46.203 --> 00:41:49.831 You know, David Bathsheba, David and his census and stuff like that. 00:41:50.463 --> 00:41:53.377 The moving of the Ark of the Covenant, some of those sort of things. 00:41:53.924 --> 00:41:57.397 Why is it pastorally important, just to help preempt us for next week, 00:41:57.793 --> 00:42:02.623 why is it pastorally important that a man after God's own heart is not a man who never fails. 00:42:03.070 --> 00:42:10.105 But returns as i've thought about this like my my main thought is like because that's all of us, 00:42:11.403 --> 00:42:15.863 you know like just to be very straightforward with it like if david was this 00:42:15.863 --> 00:42:19.875 perfect guy who never failed he would be entirely and completely unrelatable 00:42:20.281 --> 00:42:24.385 right he wouldn't be somebody who he could recognize and kind of empathize and 00:42:24.768 --> 00:42:30.013 and connect with very well but david is a man just like any other man's a man, right? 00:42:30.013 --> 00:42:35.581 He is a man who in moments of weakness or temptation, he fails, 00:42:36.081 --> 00:42:37.463 you know, just like the rest of us. 00:42:37.463 --> 00:42:42.953 And that's, that's not like, that's not to make light of his mistakes because 00:42:42.953 --> 00:42:47.146 his mistakes are great, many and grave, right? 00:42:47.462 --> 00:42:53.843 But to say, Hey, the God who has grace for David is the same God who has grace for us. 00:42:54.278 --> 00:42:55.550 Yeah. I mean, yeah. 00:42:56.224 --> 00:43:01.988 You know, this sounds weird, but it's sort of one of the lessons that Jesus 00:43:01.988 --> 00:43:06.978 himself embodied in his ministry couldn't really show us what it looks like 00:43:06.978 --> 00:43:08.466 to repent and turn back to God. 00:43:08.890 --> 00:43:12.838 I mean, he lives a sinless life, right? So, like, he doesn't, 00:43:13.438 --> 00:43:18.868 he himself can't be the one to show us, like, what restoration, 00:43:18.868 --> 00:43:21.114 repentance kind of looks like in that way. 00:43:21.665 --> 00:43:26.078 Which is why we have examples like David, who shows us what that looks like. 00:43:26.078 --> 00:43:29.415 And examples like the people that Jesus calls, right? 00:43:29.898 --> 00:43:35.018 Like very, in a very real sense, Peter plays a very important role in denying 00:43:35.018 --> 00:43:38.326 Christ to show us what coming back to Christ looks like, right? 00:43:38.430 --> 00:43:38.860 That's right. 00:43:39.063 --> 00:43:43.578 And David plays that same role for us. He shows us what a life looks like on 00:43:43.578 --> 00:43:47.588 the roller coaster of God, when we're up in the heavens with God and when we're 00:43:47.588 --> 00:43:51.712 down in the pit away from him and we're struggling to climb back out, right? 00:43:52.257 --> 00:43:55.271 He shows us what all of that looks like. And I think you're absolutely right. 00:43:55.784 --> 00:43:59.128 It's important that we see a man after God's own heart. There's also a man who 00:43:59.128 --> 00:44:01.241 struggles with his own heart, right? 00:44:01.801 --> 00:44:04.434 Because that is us, you know? 00:44:05.638 --> 00:44:06.670 And it's very real. 00:44:07.946 --> 00:44:11.569 And it's also a good reminder for us to know, like, how does God see us? 00:44:11.825 --> 00:44:17.031 At the end of the day, when I've lived my life and I've

breathed my last, how will God view me? 00:44:17.311 --> 00:44:23.743 Will he view me by my last, my greatest mistake? Or will he view me as something else? 00:44:24.015 --> 00:44:26.928 And it's like, well, we get a little bit of a picture of that when we look in 00:44:26.928 --> 00:44:30.696 the book of Hebrews and you see how Hebrews points back to David. 00:44:30.963 --> 00:44:34.498 And when it refers to David, it doesn't say, hey, that man who screwed up with 00:44:34.498 --> 00:44:41.267 Bathsheba or that man who screwed up with with the ark or the man who screwed up with the census. 00:44:41.557 --> 00:44:44.256 It says a man after God's own heart. 00:44:44.732 --> 00:44:49.946 Right. I mean, and that's kind of the the hope. That's the lesson that. 00:44:50.533 --> 00:44:56.169 We are not defined by our failures. We are defined by God and who he calls us, right? 00:44:56.616 --> 00:45:01.239 I mean, take any of those heroes of the faith. Abraham has this moment of weakness 00:45:01.239 --> 00:45:04.463 in where he sleeps with his wife's servant to get her pregnant, 00:45:04.881 --> 00:45:08.029 and that causes a big problem. And yet, the hero of the faith, 00:45:08.029 --> 00:45:11.530 you know, there's large portions of the book of Hebrews that's dedicated to him. 00:45:11.960 --> 00:45:14.851 There's, I mean, one of the most extreme examples is Samson, 00:45:15.199 --> 00:45:18.334 who lives most of his life basically as a heathen. 00:45:18.583 --> 00:45:18.859 Yeah. 00:45:18.859 --> 00:45:22.899 And yet, in the end, he has this moment of faith, and that's what defines him, 00:45:22.899 --> 00:45:24.470 is that God calls him to this thing. 00:45:25.549 --> 00:45:30.907 Peter, you know, is a person who denies knowing Christ three times, 00:45:31.145 --> 00:45:36.654 and yet he becomes the person that Jesus says that he's going to build his church on. 00:45:37.815 --> 00:45:41.609 And he's not defined by the thing that he does. He's defined by what God, 00:45:41.609 --> 00:45:46.089 what Jesus calls him to be, the cornerstone of this sort of movement, 00:45:46.089 --> 00:45:47.789 the person who's going to spearhead it, right? 00:45:47.789 --> 00:45:51.759 Yeah. And that's important because the order of those things that take place 00:45:51.759 --> 00:45:55.669 is like, oh, hey, Peter, that profession of faith you just gave, 00:45:55.669 --> 00:45:59.340 it's on that, that I'm going to be building my church. You're going to be the 00:45:59.706 --> 00:46:01.575 kind of the president of the church, right? Whatever. 00:46:02.436 --> 00:46:03.522 And then he fails. 00:46:03.963 --> 00:46:04.233 Yeah. 00:46:04.233 --> 00:46:09.033 And then he betrays Jesus. And it's like, oh man, did I just like give away, 00:46:09.433 --> 00:46:10.753 did I just give away my calling? 00:46:10.753 --> 00:46:11.153 Yeah, yeah. 00:46:11.153 --> 00:46:11.453 Right. 00:46:11.453 --> 00:46:12.067 It's over. 00:46:12.409 --> 00:46:15.983 But then we see the redemption of Jesus. We see the restoration of Jesus. 00:46:15.983 --> 00:46:22.013 And then we see it's after he denies Jesus and is restored by Jesus that he 00:46:22.013 --> 00:46:25.929 then proclaims Jesus to thousands and thousands turn in faith. 00:46:26.103 --> 00:46:29.103 Yeah. I mean, and that's exactly what we see with David. You know, 00:46:29.103 --> 00:46:33.513 David receives the anointing up front, goes through all this stuff, right? 00:46:33.513 --> 00:46:37.163 And he has these moments of fear that we talked about and these moments of real, 00:46:37.163 --> 00:46:41.718 you know, sort of conviction about attacking the Lord's anointed and all that. 00:46:42.136 --> 00:46:46.821 And then we're going to see he's now king. The promise has been fulfilled, 00:46:47.117 --> 00:46:48.383 you know, and he's ruling. 00:46:48.632 --> 00:46:52.153 And God gives him even more promises that from you will be the savior, 00:46:52.153 --> 00:46:56.293 right? And all that stuff. And, you know, your family will rule kind of on the 00:46:56.293 --> 00:46:58.063 throne of Israel forever. And that's 00:46:58.063 --> 00:47:00.913 where we get the prophecies of Jesus coming out of the line of David. 00:47:01.458 --> 00:47:07.043 And yet, God never rescinds any of that because of the bad things that David ends up doing, right? 00:47:07.043 --> 00:47:11.273 Those things aren't taken from him because of that. He's not defined as the 00:47:11.273 --> 00:47:15.953 adulterer or the murderer, right? He's defined as the man after God's own heart 00:47:15.953 --> 00:47:19.056 still, even if he's done all these horrible things, right? 00:47:19.306 --> 00:47:23.398 And the hope for that is, well, I mean, I've not done anything that bad. 00:47:24.113 --> 00:47:29.453 You know here's hoping I haven't you know well I guess we'll get into it a little 00:47:29.453 --> 00:47:35.366 bit more next week but murdered and stolen kind of people. 00:47:35.534 --> 00:47:36.811 Yeah I mean yeah so like, 00:47:37.374 --> 00:47:40.726 And clearly, you know, and that's the hope that we have is that, 00:47:40.726 --> 00:47:44.966 well, I'm not as bad as David was, which is a weird thing to say. 00:47:44.966 --> 00:47:47.896 And yet David's the man after God's own heart. And it's not because of anything 00:47:47.896 --> 00:47:50.325 David does. It's because what God calls him to. 00:47:50.545 --> 00:47:51.121 Right. 00:47:51.524 --> 00:47:55.076 And anyone who is in Christ is called a brother of Christ. It's called a son 00:47:55.076 --> 00:47:56.517 of God or a daughter of God. 00:47:57.016 --> 00:48:01.776 That's really the important part. Not what we do, but who we are called through God. So. 00:48:02.303 --> 00:48:06.239 All right. Got a little application. I want to challenge our listeners to. 00:48:06.652 --> 00:48:11.703 Let's, this week, refuse the sinful shortcut Right, so what would it look like. 00:48:12.461 --> 00:48:16.229 To get what I want in a way God has forbidden,

right? 00:48:16.722 --> 00:48:20.799 I mean, we all have those ideas about getting what we want in a way that's sneaky, 00:48:20.799 --> 00:48:22.428 underhanded against God's word. 00:48:22.637 --> 00:48:27.043 Saul did this by confronting the medium of Endor, right? 00:48:27.368 --> 00:48:34.241 David refuses to do this when he is handed the kingdom after the murder or the killing of Saul, right? 00:48:34.717 --> 00:48:38.689 So here's what I'd like us to do. Let's ask ourselves that question and then 00:48:38.689 --> 00:48:44.881 confess that specifically and then replace it with one act of costly obedience this week. 00:48:45.165 --> 00:48:50.098 You know, apologize first in that argument. Tell the truth even when it's hard, right? 00:48:50.313 --> 00:48:55.956 Do that act of obedience. Resist the sneaky, sinful shortcut in doing that. 00:48:56.316 --> 00:48:59.177 So I'd like us to try to do that. And I got a memory verse. 00:48:59.578 --> 00:49:02.679 This one I think is very relevant to what we sort of talked about. 00:49:02.679 --> 00:49:06.149 And it's a really good one to memorize. Galatians chapter six, verse nine. 00:49:06.696 --> 00:49:11.759 Let us not get tired of doing good for we will reap at the proper time if we 00:49:11.759 --> 00:49:14.493 don't give up, right? And that's the whole story of David. 00:49:14.893 --> 00:49:19.279 David, you know, has this very big struggle. It takes him until he's 30 years 00:49:19.279 --> 00:49:22.022 old to ascend to the throne and receive God's promise. 00:49:22.422 --> 00:49:27.235 And he never gave up in doing good. He always returns to God and is long-suffering 00:49:27.386 --> 00:49:31.623 and is in for the whole battle. So, as again, Galatians 6, 9, 00:49:31.925 --> 00:49:37.074 let us not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don't give up. 00:49:38.638 --> 00:49:42.351 Well, hey, thank you for joining us. We want to invite you to review and subscribe 00:49:42.351 --> 00:49:47.011 and share this podcast, especially with anyone who you know might be walking 00:49:47.011 --> 00:49:51.058 through something difficult that we address here in this podcast. 00:49:51.296 --> 00:49:52.745 We want to encourage you to share those. 00:49:53.052 --> 00:49:55.691 And also, we want to invite you to join us for church on Sunday. 00:49:55.691 --> 00:50:01.039 We have service 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. here in the Lutz Land O'Lake area. 00:50:01.370 --> 00:50:05.931 And also, if you have any questions or anything that you want us to discuss 00:50:05.931 --> 00:50:11.586 on the pod or anything like that, feel free to drop us a line at pod at northpointfl.org. 00:50:11.911 --> 00:50:16.991 We try to look at that and respond to those as often as we get them. So please let us know. 00:50:17.431 --> 00:50:19.942 And then, Pastor Robbie, could you close us in a word of prayer? 00:50:20.215 --> 00:50:24.865 Absolutely. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the example we have in your servant, David. 00:50:25.508 --> 00:50:30.821 We pray that you would help her just like you did for him, that we would persevere 00:50:30.821 --> 00:50:37.825 through difficulty, that we would not become shaken, become weary, 00:50:38.748 --> 00:50:42.871 that we would not doubt just because something is hard that you're not. 00:50:44.447 --> 00:50:50.291 Let us be reminded that even the things that you are in oftentimes are also 00:50:50.291 --> 00:50:56.318 hard and difficult, but it's overcoming that difficulty that we receive, 00:50:57.305 --> 00:51:00.805 you know, you, who you are in your character, Lord. 00:51:01.543 --> 00:51:03.391 It's in your son's name we pray. Amen. 00:51:03.391 --> 00:51:03.772 Amen.