The Upper Hand

I want to begin simply by talking about the 40 days of life. It's something that we're going to do as a church this

Saturday. The reasoning behind your leadership choosing a day and saying, hey, we're going to take this whole day, is that we desire to kind of dispel the myth of what this is all about and really empower you to be able to be involved even more beyond this

Saturday. So, hey, let's go out there as a church, let's do this together, and what you're going to find is as you arrive there at the

Planned Parenthood in Rogers, and as you're facing that building, to the right is a house called the

Patriarch House, and that's where you're going to begin. You're going to go there, you're going to go beside the house, and there's one of those outdoor boxes that's there on the side of the house, and you'll open it up, and there are signs that are inside that box, and you can grab one, and you can put it, some have a little rope you can put around your neck,

I would highly suggest the rope thing, it's very useful, that's why they're there. But then there's also a place for you to sign, you know, hey, here

I am, I'm here, and this is the time that I'm here, and if you haven't yet signed that statement of peace, that you can go ahead and sign that.

And then we just go out in front of Planned Parenthood on the sidewalk, please stay on the sidewalk, and we pray.

You might gather with somebody else who's there, or maybe if you're just alone, you just begin that time by praying, praying for God to bless that time that you're there, and to pray against that, what's happening in that building behind you.

And then we walk back and forth along the street, holding that sign, and every time we see a woman go in, either on the patient side or on the nurse side, we pray for that person.

Not just the women, too, we pray for the men who go in there, and we pray, God, bring conviction upon their heart.

God, we can't go in there, but You can go in there, and we pray, Father, that You would bring to an end what is happening, that You would stop the wickedness.

And then we continue to walk back and forth. People drive by, and they'll wave, they'll give you all kinds of different signs, you know, in support or not in support of what you're doing, and you just wave at them and fill your time that way.

That's what it's all about, okay? Now, I was talking with Lanny yesterday and just saying, you know, in the aftermath of our state avoiding having abortion being put on the ballot this

November, and then, you know, it would be very hard to keep it from getting into our

Constitution after that, because in every state that it's been voted on, it has become part of their

Constitution. And so, in a way, I kind of look at that, and I go, wow, we've been given a lot of grace by God.

We are, like no one so far, are winning in this battle.

God has given our state an upper hand in this fight.

And so, my question to you as we start with that is...start with that as my intro and as also an announcement is, what do we do when we're winning?

What do we do when God gives us the upper hand? In fact, that's the title of my sermon this morning is,

The Upper Hand. And what we see in 1 Samuel today is a caution.

It's a caution for us. It's a story of caution because we tend to get ahead of God's providence.

And there's a specific occasion that this story is showing us today that provides the context for that caution, which is in the day which

God gives us the upper hand, will we not get ahead of His providence?

Will we do what He has called us to do in that moment when He gives us that opportunity?

And I do want to point this out. If you're in here and you're a kid, Xavier has made our drawing today that you get to color, and I love how

David is sneaking up here behind this rock. I'm not sure what...no, we all know what

Saul is doing. But that's a great picture there. And then I think Stacey is responsible for the mountain goat, right?

Okay, thank you. So enjoy coloring that as we read the story together.

So in this story, which I'm calling, the sermon is called The Upper Hand, actually the

Hebrew word for hand is used 11 or 12 times. Last week in Josh's story, it was used, what, eight times.

In the next two stories, it's going to be used seven times and seven times.

So the idea of the hand is very important here, and the author is trying to communicate something to us using the repetition of this word over and over again.

Now in the Hebrew, of course, yad means our physical hand, but it also means power.

It also means advantage. It means strength. But even as we see this word being used over and over and over, we're reminded that the one who has the hand of power in this story, in the whole

Bible, in our world, is God Himself. We saw God's sovereignty on display two chapters in the last two chapters, one fulfilling the prophetic judgment against the house of Eli and how

He did that, and then also last week in revealing to David what he should do in the town of Keilah.

So what does David do when he's given the upper hand? And this is the first time he has actually had the upper hand, and this is what we're meant to see.

What do you do? Does David get ahead of God's providence with an impatient, wicked act, or does he trust in the

Lord? Does he trust in the power of his own hand, taking the law into his own hand?

And we see this example of people getting ahead of God's providence throughout

Scriptures. We've seen it in the book of Samuel, Saul himself, right? He's supposed to wait for Samuel to perform the sacrifice, but he can't wait, so he gets ahead of that, and he does it himself.

Or Abraham, what a great example of this. Abraham, afraid because he's got such a beautiful wife, he starts to worry about all these powerful men in the region, in the places that he travels, and he says, you know,

I'm going to start calling you my sister, not believing in God that He's going to take care of him.

Or the prime example is Abraham having a child with his maidservant,

Hagar. Instead of believing in the promise of God that God was going to give him a son through Sarah.

Now, these examples and this whole concept, this whole idea make me ponder and make me pause as we are planting a new church,

Grace Covenant Reformed Baptist Church. And I got to be honest with you, there are times that I feel impatient.

There are times that I feel like, man, we should just do this thing. I mean, how hard would it be?

Go out, rent a building, man, we could be up and going next week. I could make this thing happen.

And yet, there are some things that we as a leadership have put before God and we're asking

Him to do, asking Him to provide. God, we need a place to meet, and we want you to do that, provide that supernaturally.

Not us choosing a location or a place to be, but you choosing our location, where you want us to be, and you providing that for us.

We're going to wait for you. Or God, we need leadership, leadership for this church.

As Josh and I part ways, we divide our forces, and we don't want to be alone.

We can't be alone. God didn't start this with us being alone. He gave us one another.

So God, you need to give us support. There needs to be leadership that goes.

There needs to be leadership that stays. We're not going to move until you provide that.

It reminds me of that church that was just right over there. When was that? Six, eight months ago? We were asking about that, inquiring about that.

Man, what an opportunity, right over there, just about three miles away. And as we went and we looked at it, we realized, man, this is an opportunity, but it is not for us.

But boy, I really wanted to make it happen. Man, I wanted to make it happen. I was conjuring in my head ways to make it all work, but I wasn't waiting.

I wasn't waiting. We're committed to wait. This story that we're going to read today is going to challenge us with a specific day, not just in a general sense, but in a specific day that God gives us the upper hand.

And I believe that it's in the Scriptures to be a powerful example to us. And why?

Because we've all felt the injustice from an authority, maybe a boss, a family member, a spouse, or a parent, even the government.

And maybe we've been wrongly judged, we've been unfairly treated, we've been made to suffer and bear a burden that we don't deserve.

All of these things David is feeling in this story, but we felt it too. And what will we do in the day that God gives us the upper hand?

I know for me, if I'm going to be honest, in the past, when I felt those feelings in those types of situations, here's what

I've thought. Man, I've dreamed of the day when I have the upper hand, when that happens to me.

I've thought to myself, somehow I'm going to make them pay. I can't wait for them to feel how this feels, right?

And that sense of justice and vindication is just so sweet and soothing to my wounded heart.

You know what I'm talking about? Our days, the reality is our days are filled with all kinds of opportunities for us to act in that way and act those things out.

From a macro level of a big thing, of a big gotcha on somebody, to micro things, just small little jabs that you insert into a conversation, right?

And I want us to be aware of those things. I want us to think about those things because we're all prone to do those things.

And we have to pay attention and we have to think deeply about what we're going to see and what we're going to hear today as a result of that.

Now, this is a super long intro for me, but I'm just loving it.

I'm just in it. And I haven't even started my... Okay, I'm back.

All right. What I want to do is I want to begin, before we even get into the text, reading a couple of the

Psalms that are...could be around what

David's experiencing in the chapter that we're looking at. These Psalms are short and to the point because when you're on the run, you don't have a lot of time to be very wordy.

David says in Psalm 140, deliver me, O Lord, from evil men, preserve me from violent men who plan evil things in their heart and stir up wars continually.

They make their tongue sharp as a serpent, and under their lips is the venom of asps.

Selah. He says, guard me, O Lord, from the hands of wicked men.

Preserve me from violent men who have planned to trip up my feet. Oh, no.

That's right. Let's listen to Psalm 142. This is

David when he was in a cave. He prayed this, with my voice

I cry out to the Lord, with my voice I plead for mercy to the Lord. I pour out my complaint before him,

I tell my trouble before him. When my spirit faints within me, you know my way.

In the path where I walk, they have hidden a trap for me. Look to the right and see, there is none who takes notice of me.

No refuge remains for me. No one cares for my soul. Now, that sounds similar to what

Saul was saying earlier, right, when he was whining to his men. But David is bringing this to the

Lord, and he says, I cry out to you, O Lord. I say, you are my refuge, my portion in the land of the living.

Attend to my cry, for I am brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors, for they are too strong for me.

Bring me out of prison, that I may give thanks to your name. The righteous will surround me, for you will deal bountifully with me.

Now, I read this first before we jump into the passage, because I want to establish something that we've already seen in David.

David is a man who cries out to the Lord. He seeks the Lord. His heart is after the

Lord. So in our passage today, it's clear that God may be answering this very prayer of David.

So let's now jump into the text. First Samuel 24. When Saul returned from following the

Philistines, he was told, behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi. Now, En Gedi is a unique area among the wilderness that he has been hiding in, the wilderness of Ziph that he was just recently in.

En Gedi is this oasis. The rocks are really tall.

In fact, there's a huge...you can look it up. There's a waterfall that falls down in this area, and it just fills this huge, beautiful pool.

And you can imagine being in the wilderness with no water, no food, no nothing, and you get to this place, and it's just like a piece of heaven, right?

Now, the water is collecting in the heights of these rocks and the dews, and it's kind of flowing together, and it turns into this big, mighty waterfall.

In this area also, there are lots of caves, and this is a favorite place for shepherds to bring their flocks, not just to find water, but to find shelter and to find protection.

In fact, in a minute, we're going to see something called the Wild Goat's Rocks. So there is

Saul, and he's taking 3 ,000 chosen men. So who has the upper hand?

Who's stronger here? 3 ,000 chosen versus 600 not chosen, just random people who showed up, and he's chosen them out of all of Israel, and he went to seek

David, and his men were in front of the Wild Goat's Rocks. And he came to the sheepfolds by the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself.

It's very interesting, the Hebrew that's right here, and I'm not going to get into it today, but if you want to have an interesting conversation with me afterwards, ask me about that, relieve himself.

What is that in... How do they say that in the Hebrew? He's having a potty break, right?

Nature has called, and he feels pretty secure because he's got 3 ,000 men watching the door, right?

So he's going to go in and take care of business. What he doesn't know is that David and his men are sitting in the inmost parts of the cave.

This is amazing. This is ridiculous. Saul is completely guarded up and armed up, and he's vulnerable.

He doesn't even know how vulnerable he is. It says here that David's men who are with him say to him, here is the day of which the

Lord has said to you, behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do with him as it seems good to you.

Now, we don't know if this is a prophecy that just hasn't been recorded yet. We don't know that maybe his men are just kind of reading the situation and attributing this to God.

Man, God's told you about this day, hasn't he? This is the day. Man, you could do whatever you want to do right here.

Notice though it does not say David is allowed to kill Saul. So, David arose and stealthily, that's an interesting word in the

Hebrew as well, stealthily, and this is why he may feel remorse because he didn't face

Saul face to face. He's stealing from him. He's vandalizing his robe. He cuts off a corner of Saul's robe.

And afterward, David's heart struck him because he had cut off the corner of Saul's robe.

So, immediately, the question is, and as I discussed this with Brady this week, he was like, man, why does he feel guilty?

What has he done, okay? It could be that the robe is a symbol, and David knows this is a symbol of the king's authority.

So, by vandalizing it, he is threatening that he's disobeying or he's going against that authority.

This is an attack on Saul's reign, but it's not a lethal one. Laney brought up this morning, that knife was really close to him when he's cutting off that piece of his robe.

So, there is a very nearness and a very real threat.

But he says to his men, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord. This thing is, he just cut off his robe.

The Lord's anointed to put out my hand against him, seeing that he is the

Lord's anointed. So, David persuaded his men. I love what Josh's, the thing he read this morning, because it wasn't just persuaded.

What was it, Josh, that you said? It was he struggled with them, or in the

Hebrew, it's more like he wounded them with his words. So, David really had to go after his men to calm them down, because I'm thinking they're seeing this is an all -hands -on -deck, let's force

David's hand here to do this thing. This is our opportunity. It's not just his opportunity, it's our opportunity.

David has to back them down and did not permit them to attack Saul. And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way, and afterward,

David also arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, my Lord, the king.

And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage.

And David said to Saul, why do you listen to the words of the men who say, behold, David seeks your harm? Now, the only person that I know that possibly in this story has said that is

Doeg. Behold this day, your eyes have seen how the

Lord gave you into my hand. Now, David's going to repeat the word see over and over again, because I think he wants, he's trying to get

Saul to see. Behold this day, your eyes have seen. Can you see it?

How the Lord gave you in today into my hand in the cave. And some told me to kill you, but I spared you.

And I said, I will not put out my hand against my Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. Now, David approaches

Saul with a lot of humility here, and we can learn right here something very valuable.

He does not approach with anger, with accusations. There's no vengeance in his voice here.

He does not allow himself to react in kind. Even though the end justifies the mean, even though retaliation doesn't need permission, definitely doesn't need permission in our culture, right?

It's a right in our culture, retaliation. You can get somebody back. Tit for tat, right?

Instead, David displays wisdom, and he shows Saul respect. This is a defining moment for David.

He is respecting the office of the Lord's anointed, even though the man is not respectable.

My military friends have told me that a thing, I don't know if it's true, but they seem to be in the military, so they know.

They say, we salute the rank, not the individual. We respect the rank, the office, the role, not just the person.

David here is doing that. He's not getting ahead of God's providence, and he's actually being an example to his men.

He has actually chosen a very difficult path that his men are not on the same page with him.

He continues to say, see my father, and again, see the corner of your robe in my hand. For by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands.

You're in good hands, Saul. I have not acted or sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it.

May the Lord judge between me and you. May the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you.

David is taking, again, he's not taking the law into his own hands. He's leaving his vindication and justice in the hand of God.

And then verse 13, as the proverb of the ancient says, out of the wicked comes wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you.

He seems to be saying this over and over again. My hand is not against you. After whom has the King of Israel come out?

Whom do you pursue? This is real humility. After a dead dog, a flea?

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.

So David comes out and he gives this speech. And this is risky too.

The last guy who went out and gave his speech before Saul got killed, right?

So how does Saul respond? As soon as David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, is this your voice, my son

David? And Saul lifted up his voice and he wept. Okay, now is this real remorse?

Is he repentant here or is he simply caught? I think that's a good question.

He says to David, you are more righteous than I for you have repaid me good, whereas I've repaid you evil and you have declared this day how you have dealt with me, how you have dealt well with me in that you did not kill me when the

Lord put me into your hands. For if a man finds his enemy, here's another proverb, will he let him go safe?

So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. And now behold, I know that you shall surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand.

Saul is publicly acknowledging that David will be king. Jonathan did it in the last chapter.

Now Saul is saying it out loud. Swear to me therefore by the Lord that you will not cut off my offspring after me and that you will not destroy my name out of my father's house.

And David can swear this because God is going to accomplish this without using

David, without bloodying his hands. And David swore this to Saul and then Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.

Interesting. So we read this whole story, right? We read this whole story.

David has the upper hand. He could kill Saul. He doesn't do it. He comes out, he confronts

Saul. He has this great speech and then where he's saying over and over, I'm not going to raise my hand against you.

I'm not that kind of guy. Saul says, man, you're righteous. The Lord bless you.

And then they go different directions. Interesting, huh? Why didn't they both go back to Gibeah?

Why didn't David go back to playing the harp for Saul? It's good questions.

I think it's because maybe, maybe David is wise and he knows that Saul, although he's caught, he's not really sorry.

Chapter 24 describes one event and then we have following it two speeches, two conversations.

Now David's men believe that David has missed an opportunity. They say to him, here's the day of which the

Lord has said to you, behold, I will give your enemy into your hand and you shall do as it seems good to you.

They believe that God has put Saul into David's hand and that's a green light to murder

Saul because of course Saul has attempted to murder David multiple times and in multiple ways.

Instead, David sneaks up and tears off a little bit of Saul's robe. Now they are not wrong.

David's men are not wrong. This is an opportunity. He has not missed it.

He would have missed it if he did nothing and just hid there in the cave. Just shh, he'll go away soon.

That would have been a missed opportunity. Saul, it is an opportunity because Saul is usually heavily guarded and now

Saul is in David's hand. They're right. So what does he do? He tears off a piece of his robe.

Curious thing to do. Is David simply saying,

I need an evidence from Saul that I was so close that I could have killed him? Is that merely what he's doing?

And I would present to you, maybe there's something else going on, okay? So if we remember, if we remember chapter 15, chapter 15 has become this haunting chapter for Saul because his mistakes in chapter 15 keep coming back to remind him of his mistakes.

When I say it's haunting, I mean that everything seems to point back to the failures of that chapter. One, not killing the

Amalekites, big mistake, okay? So what does Saul do? He kills all the priests of Nab, bigger mistake, right?

It is haunting him. It's coming back to him. So if we remember back to Saul's last interaction with Saul, it was in Samuel 15, as Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you for you have rejected the word of the

Lord and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel. And as Samuel turns to go on his way,

Saul reaches out and he seizes the skirt of his robe and he tore it. Do you remember that?

And Samuel said, the Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to the neighbor of yours who is better than you.

And Saul begs Samuel for mercy. He begs him for mercy, but that's the message.

The Lord has torn this day the kingdom of Israel out of your hand and put it into the hand of your neighbor.

So I think this plays into why

David is convicted of cutting Saul's robe. I think that David may be questioning himself and thinking, maybe

I've gone too far in this act against God's anointed one. Maybe this message that tearing off a piece of his robe is just a little bit too much.

And here's what I mean. Have you ever been in a conflict with somebody and you've said something a little too harshly?

You know you've kind of gone a little bit over the line and then later you kind of playing it back in your head, you go, yeah,

I probably shouldn't have said that. I think there's a way that even though we're presenting truth to people, we can say it in a way that they can't hear.

Why? Because it wounds them, right? It wounds them and they can't hear it. And so I wonder if David is going, maybe this calling back to this thing that happened with Saul and Samuel was a little too much.

In order for that to happen though, David would have to have been privy to that conversation between Saul and Samuel and he wasn't there.

So then I started thinking, well, was there a time where Samuel and David hung out together? There was, chapter 19, when

David runs to Ramah. So during that time, remember in Saul's trying to capture

David and he's sending people and they're falling out and prophesying and they're raving and then Saul goes himself and he rips off all his clothes.

You remember that, right? How could you forget? Did Samuel and David have that conversation?

Did he tell him about that interaction that he had with Saul and the tearing of his robe? I wonder,

I wonder, because at the very end of this story in verse 20,

Saul says, it almost seems like he confirms it. He says, I know that you shall surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand.

Did he get the message? But I still have a question. Is this a missed opportunity?

I don't think so. I think that may have been the opportunity that David was supposed to take.

You don't often get an opportunity to eliminate your enemy.

Although in two weeks, I'm going to be preaching another very similar sermon. And for some reason, and the question that I'm going to try and answer on that Sunday is why is this happening again?

Why are we right back where we were two weeks ago? Why did

David pause? Why didn't he pause and ask the Lord? Why didn't he pause in that moment and go,

God, what do you want me to do? Now remember all those Psalms that I read to you at the beginning, establishing that David is a man who seeks the

Lord. He cries out to God. God has not explicitly said that David should kill

Saul. He certainly has been clear with David in the past.

Remember in Keilah? Philistines are in Keilah. God, should I go up against the

Philistines? Yeah, go up. Okay, my men are... They're not so sure. Lord, are you sure?

Should we go up against the Philistines? Yeah, go up. Okay. Now that we've won, Saul knows that we're here,

God, is Saul going to come here and try and capture me? Yes. Will the men of Keilah turn me over? Yes.

Okay. So it seems like God has been very clear when David seeks him. So in the absence of that,

I believe that David may be acting very cautiously in the lack of a specific answer and specific instruction.

So David has a split second to decide what he's going to do. He doesn't seem to ask

God what to do in the passage. I wonder if God's already spoken with him, or maybe he is restrained from a wicked action because he knows the righteousness of the

God who serves. That could be. Because we know that when

God gives power into the hand of his Nagid, his prince, he expects his servant to act according to his will, doing what

God intends with the power that he provides. Saul has failed in this over and over and over again, and we see

David seems to be seeking the Lord and following the things that God is instructing him to do.

So David, now, the anointed Nagid of God, the prince of God, with his hand empowered by God, must act according to the purpose of God.

So how do we act when we're in a similar situation? Of course, we call on God.

You're in a similar situation. You ask God for guidance, for wisdom. He's promised to give that to us.

But what if it's a split -second decision? What can you do? And let me add some complexity to that.

Let me make it on the next level. In this moment, David somehow knows that killing

Saul is not righteous. In the Bible, there's another person named Jael in Judges chapter 4.

There, she kills Sisera, and it's righteous. Or David himself on the battlefield with Goliath.

He doesn't just tear off a piece of his robe. He kills Goliath, and it's righteous.

Like I mentioned before, a Himelech coming before Saul and trying to reason with him about his innocence ends up getting him killed.

So this is complex, and the consequences of these actions are very serious.

We can't say from Scripture that we're to just let every injustice slide.

The government has been given the sword to punish evil, to protect good. And in the situation that you're in, you may need to seek the justice that our government provides and turn someone over to that justice, turn them over to the authorities.

But in this passage, we don't seem to come away with a formula that we can follow in every situation.

And so we must have discernment to know what God desires us to do in each situation.

Also, consider the facts, and I believe this, and others do.

Joel Webben specifically, I keep hearing him say this over and over again, that most Christians today are afraid of this moment.

They're afraid of a moment or an opportunity when God gives them power or advantage.

We, of course, are a little skittish because we've seen the abuses of that, right?

And we cower at the thought that God would give our enemies into our hands or empower us as His servants.

So we avoid these opportunities. If we were David in his situation, we would have hid in the cave and not done anything.

We would have said, this makes me nervous. I don't want to be that guy. I don't want to overreach my power.

So we don't seek positions of power. Instead, we give the power away and we allow our enemies to have, who have no qualms being powerful and wielding that power, to wicked ends.

See, but power is not the problem. Power is not the problem. We are waging a war.

Yes, it's a spiritual war, and in that spiritual war, we need power over our enemy, the devil, the world, and our flesh, but we're also in a physical war.

In this world, we're in a war. I mean, babies are being killed.

Does that not put us at war? Children are being mutilated.

Does that not put us at war as God's people? And so why would we not use the power that God gives us?

Why would we not seek positions of power? We could actually affect change and bring about the things that God desires.

Think about Dusty Deavers in Oklahoma as a senator. We need more people like him, but sadly,

Christians don't want to enter into that. Again, the problem is not power.

Paul encourages us this way in Ephesians 5 .15, look carefully then how you walk. Pay attention to how you live, not as unwise, but wise.

Be wise. Make the best use of your time, or it means redeem the time, or buy back the time, or make good use of that opportunity because the days are evil.

Therefore, don't be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. So important right at the end there.

Don't be foolish, understand what the will of the Lord is. When we have an opportunity, we must ask

God for wisdom and act in that wisdom, which can be extremely uncomfortable, it can be risky, and it can be really hard.

But in order for us to do that in real time, because our decisions often have to be made within a split second, we need to be prepared with wisdom, and that comes from a knowledge of God that comes from the

Scriptures. I've heard Josh say many times, I love how we quote one another.

This is a fun thing for me. Josh says to people, he says, discernment is a quality of spiritual maturity.

Discernment grows as we grow closer to God. As we learn who

He is, we have a better understanding of the things that He desires, and that helps us to know what to do.

My wife, Kristen, and I have been married, we've been together more than we've been apart.

That's one of those wonderful things about growing old together, or growing older together.

I'm old. I just had a birthday. I feel old. One of the things that's interesting is at the beginning when we first got married, one of the things that I learned that I didn't have a lot of insight into who she was was around birthdays, right, and you give,

I would look for that perfect gift, right, and then you know, I would know on her face as she opened it that it was not the perfect gift, but I thought it was, right?

She goes, oh, this is a great gift for you, right? Also another clue that maybe you missed it, right?

I would say I'm still learning in this, right? I'm still learning in this, and sometimes when

I pay attention and she says something, I make a mental note, and I go, oh, that is something that I should remember.

And then when I present that gift to her, she opens it up, and she goes, oh, you remembered.

You knew. How did you know, right? Why? How do I know? It's because I'm spending more and more time, and I'm paying attention to her, right?

And that kind of maturity comes in our relationship with Christ as we spend time with Him, as we grow with Him, and as we pay attention to Him, when we get in those situations, we will know what

He desires. Listen to this in Romans 15. What then?

Are we to sin because we are not under the law but under grace? By no means. Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?

But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching which you were committed.

See, you've become slaves from the heart, obedient from the heart to the standard of living that you've been...the

standard of teaching that you have been committing yourself to. And having been set free from sin, you've become slaves of righteousness, right?

Through that standard of teaching, paying attention to God. Or in Romans 12, 17, repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to what is honorable in the sight of all.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all. Beloved, never avenge yourself, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine, saith the

Lord. To the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him something to drink.

For by doing so, you will keep burning coals on his head. Do not overcome evil.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. I was just listening to Proverbs this week, trying to catch up.

I want to finish the Bible. I know many of you have already finished reading the Scriptures from cover to cover, and I want to be just like you.

So I've got some time, about 30 days behind. And I read this in Proverbs 24, 29, do not say,

I will do to him as he has done to me. I will pay the man back for what he has done.

So as we're given opportunities by God, they are never the green light for us to do whatever we want.

They are not an opportunity for us to be slaves to sin and do wickedness or evil.

It is always, though, it's always, always an opportunity for us to do whatever God wants us to do.

And we have a total green light for that. I believe the whole chapter, though, turns on this verse.

I believe David is making an appeal to Saul, giving him an opportunity to see his wickedness and repent.

And here's the verse, verse 13. As the proverb of the ancients says, out of the wicked comes wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you.

So the proverb of the ancients, this is not in the Bible, I looked, okay?

That phrase means it's an old saying. It's a saying that has been long in use.

It's a proverb of the ancient one, perhaps, meaning the oldest person, maybe the oldest person who lived.

Certainly, it could be referring to Adam or of the Lord Himself, the ancient of days.

It can be interpreted in two ways, okay? One, David could be saying this of himself.

Listen to this. David could be speaking and saying, if I have been the wicked man, if I'd been the wicked man you say that I am,

I would have committed wickedness. I would not have had remorse. I wouldn't have the second thought about taking your life because it was in my power, it was in my hand, but my heart wouldn't allow me to do it.

My heart wouldn't allow me to do it. Or David could be using this to refer to Saul himself.

He could be saying to Saul, the wickedness that comes from the wicked man will eventually kill him or be the cause of his ruin.

The wickedness that he does may actually get him killed by wicked men just like him.

This could be true in your case, Saul, unless you repent. Even so,

I choose to leave it to a righteous judge and my hand shall not be upon you to take away your life.

Saul replies to David, you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. So may the

Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day. Notice the two common opposite words that we see in Scripture.

They're right here, they'll be in next week's passage as well, good and evil. These two words take us back to the beginning of Scripture, don't they?

To a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The temptation there by the serpent was to bypass

God. Instead of Adam, instead of walking with God, instead of ruling the earth and filling it with your righteous children, you can be just like God, knowing good and evil.

You don't have to be His servant, you can be His equal. Jesus also was tempted to bypass

God's plan. You don't have to suffer, you don't have to go to the cross, you don't have to lose your life.

All you have to do is bow to me, bow down, you can go straight to the end. And David right here has that same temptation.

You could bypass all of this wilderness stuff and you could go right to the throne. In fact, if he did that, we would finish our series in 1

Samuel today and we'd go straight to 2 Samuel because David would be on the throne. But David says this twice to Saul.

He says, may the Lord judge between me and you. He says it in verse 12 and in verse 15.

And what he's saying is he's saying, I choose to trust in Yahweh.

So I'm not going to walk the line between wickedness and righteousness. I'm not going to get close to that line because when

I do, I feel conviction. Instead I'm going to lean hard into righteousness.

Instead I'm going to lean hard into the character of my God. Instead I'm going to lean hard into His unfolding plan which was ordained and which has perfect timing.

I'm going to be right in that timing. I'm going to lean hard into trusting God with all of my heart, leaning not on my own understanding.

Yahweh, you direct my paths. Yahweh, you lead me into paths of righteousness.

Now, Josh, do you see how that verse that we opened with kind of ties into everything?

And we didn't even talk about that this week. But when I saw it, I was like, oh, wow. So my question is, can we learn from the heart of David to say these same words?

Why wouldn't we respond in prayer to God? God, let those words, let those words be my words.

In the day of opportunity when you give me the upper hand, give me discernment. Let me trust in your beautiful, perfect, matchless plan.

God, I'm going to leave vengeance up to you and let your will be done on earth as it is in heaven through your servant.

Two weeks ago, I encouraged us that the passage was, as we looked at the sovereignty of God, and maybe that feels very deterministic, that we have an opportunity to cooperate with God's sovereign plan rather than fighting it.

And I think today what we learn here is that how we cooperate is also important.

What we do matters. Obedience matters. And when we act, we must serve

God's purposes, not our own. The story points us backwards into the beginning of Scripture, but it also, this story points us into the future.

And as we prepare for communion, consider Christ given into the hands of wicked men. They use their opportunity to do a wicked deed to an innocent man, and blood stains their hands.

You and I sin against God with our opportunities, with our wicked deeds, and we have guilt on our hands.

The question is, is what do we do with that guilt? When we fail, what do we do with that guilt?

My prayer is that we would see our own sin and that we would turn in repentance and walk according to our

Master. That is the path of the Christian. Listen to Acts 2 .22

as we wrap up. Men of Israel, hear these words, Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst as you yourselves know.

This Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men.

God has raised him up, has loosed him, loosing the pangs of death because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

For David says concerning him, I saw the Lord always before me.

He is my right hand. I shall not be shaken. From Psalm 16 .8,

which says differently, a little bit differently, I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is my right hand,

I shall not be shaken. Out of wickedness comes wickedness. That is true.

Christ is the Redeemer, crucified for us. Death could not hold him.

He is alive again, proving that he alone can forgive, he alone can save. So like David, like David said, we must set the

Lord always before us with our confidence in him, standing firm, not shaken, without fear, able to do what our master has for us to do.