His Timing

ReCAST Church of Mattawan

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listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan. This week, Pastor Don Filsack preaches from his series in 1

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Samuel, Timely Prophet, Tragic King. Let's listen in. Well, good morning,

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Recast Church. I'm Don Filsack. I'm the lead pastor here, and I want to start off by welcoming everybody, as Dave just did.

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Make yourself at home while you're here. If you need to use the restrooms, they're out the barn doors, down the hall on the left -hand side.

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You'll see those there. And then if at any time you want to get up and get coffee or juice or donuts, that's all back there.

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I'm going to start off with a quick announcement just to get us started here. Recast Church is a church that is led by a group of qualified and approved elders.

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We've started the process of reaffirming two of those elders for this next two years. Mark Klein and Greg Schrock have served for two years faithfully, and they have graciously agreed to two more years after an evaluation process that is really by the congregation.

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So I want to point out that ballots are available online as well as in the e -cast that is sent out.

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And so those, if you go to the website, recastchurch .com, you can find those there. Or if you get the e -cast that we send out each week, you'll find that there's a link straight to those forms.

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I want to point out that if you need a paper copy, notify the office and they will get you one if you're not online or whatever.

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And to clarify, I say this every time we go through this, and it is something that produces confusion. It is not a vote between Mark or Greg.

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We want both of them to be on the board. And so what it is, it's a form that basically you get an opportunity to give feedback about their qualifications according to what the biblical qualifications.

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It's a very intimidating form when you first look at it. If you don't know them very well, some people might even just say,

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I trust the elders at this point. And so I would just check yes, that's fine. But there's a lot of place for you to offer feedback, positive and negative comments about the way that they've interacted with you.

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And I just encourage you to take advantage of that. And I'm very grateful for the group of godly men that God has raised up here at this church to serve in that capacity.

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And don't confuse this by the way. This is a reaffirmation of two guys that are going to stay on the board.

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A couple of weeks ago, I made an announcement that we're hoping to also add to the board. That's going to be a process that takes place in November with hopes that they'll actually, we'll have two more guys join the board in January.

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It'll be very similar process, but don't get that confused with that. So ballots are due by October 14th.

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And with all that out of the way, let's turn our thoughts over to God's word, which is really kind of the point of why

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I'm up here right now. And that is that we could talk about the text that we're going to be reading through and studying through for the morning.

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Our text is in 1 Samuel chapter 26, and it's very similar to chapter 24.

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And it makes me think that God wants us to get it. It's so familiar and so similar to the content of what we've already talked about two weeks ago that we had kind of an interlude.

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So we saw David have an opportunity to kill King Saul and in integrity, he refused to.

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And then we're going to see the same pattern this time. And how many of you have ever noticed patterns in scripture? You see

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God saying the same thing to you over and over again. That's because, well, he knows that we can be thick, right?

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It sometimes takes him telling us multiple times the same thing for us to get it. You see chapter 24 told of a scenario where David was in a cave.

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Saul unknowingly went into King Saul, unknowingly went into the same cave to relieve himself. And David had a chance to kill him, but chose not to out of respect for the

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Lord and his anointing on King Saul. Now, remember the context, David has actually been told he's going to be the next king.

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So he had an opportunity to take the throne for himself in that situation, and he didn't. This week, the same thing's going to happen in our text.

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Again, David has a chance to end Saul's life, to take the crown from him, but he refuses to.

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And in chapter 24, I focused on David's integrity, but this time this week, I want to focus on trust in God's timing.

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Trust in God's timing. And that's something that all of us, I think, it's something that's going to relate to all of us where we're at in our lives.

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You see, we live in a culture that's really caught up in self -promotion. How many of you have noticed that? Maybe social media has kind of spurred that on a little bit, right?

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But we're all into making ourselves look the best that we can. That's what the selfie culture is all about.

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Nobody takes a selfie that looks terrible and posts it, right? You want it to look good before you post it.

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You always post the good stuff about your life. Further, we're constantly encouraged to make it happen for ourselves.

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That's part of the fabric of American culture. You make it happen.

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Your effort, your work, and hard work will pay off, and you'll make it happen. But much of what is passed off as Christian self -help is really an attempt to make sure that we're in the driver's seat of our own lives, controlling every aspect toward our own goals.

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How many of you have read some books like that? How many of you have heard some things on the radio about that? It's very easy.

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I'm sure you can tune in and hear sermons about that. Moving you toward your own goals, and that's what

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God is all about, is getting you to your goals. But as we dig into this text, we're going to see that David lived for something more than a carpe diem, seize the day for himself kind of life.

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He had opportunities to make it easier for himself. He had an opportunity to make it easier for his 600 men who were following him around out in the desert.

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He had a chance to take, in our text, a shortcut to his goals, a shortcut to the throne.

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The reason that he chose a different route was his radical trust in the timing of God Almighty, that God said it was going to come to pass.

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He wasn't going to make it happen. He was going to let God give him the throne. He was not going to be guilty of taking it by murder.

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He believed that God would handle things in his own timing. That whole nabal thing from last week, you can go back and listen to that message if you weren't here.

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All of those are available online. The whole nabal thing from last week helped him to trust God with his future because he had an opportunity to front and center see that God will take care of his own business.

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Let's open our Bibles, if you're not already there, to 1 Samuel 26. We are going to read this in its entirety.

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If you don't have a Bible in front of you, you can grab the Bible that's under the seat in front of you and check that out there or navigate in a device and follow along in 1

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Samuel 26. Recast, this is God's very word to us.

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This is what he desires for us to hear, a powerful word from him in story form, obviously, a real life story of what happened in history that has an impact and ought to have an impact on our lives.

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Let's follow along. Then the Ziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, Is not

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David hiding himself on the hill of Hakala, which is on the east of Jeth Shimon? So Saul arose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph with three thousand chosen men of Israel to seek

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David in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul encamped on the hill of Hakala, which is beside the road on the east of Jeth Shimon.

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But David remained in the wilderness. And when he saw that Saul came after him into the wilderness, David sent out spies and learned that Saul had indeed come.

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Then David rose and came to the place where Saul had encamped. And David saw the place where Saul lay with Abner, the son of Ner, the commander of his army.

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Saul was lying within the encampment while the army was encamped around him. Then David said to Ahimelech, the

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Hittite, and to Joab, Joab's brother Abishai, the son of Zariah, Who will go down with me into the camp of Saul?

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And Abishai said, I will go down with you. So David and Abishai went to the army by night, and there lay

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Saul sleeping within the encampment with his spear stuck in the ground at his head. And Abner and the army lay around him.

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Then Abishai said to David, God has given your enemy into your hand this day. Now please let me pin him to the earth with one stroke of the spear.

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I will not strike him twice. But David said to Abishai, Do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the

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Lord's anointed and be guiltless? And David said, As the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish.

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But the Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord's anointed. But take now the spear that is at his head, and the jar of water, and let us go.

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So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul's head, and they went away. No man saw it or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the

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Lord had fallen upon them. Then David went over to the other side and stood far off on the top of the hill with a great space between them.

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And David called to the army and to Abner, the son of Ner, saying, Will you not answer, Abner?

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Then Abner answered, Who are you who calls to the king? And David said to Abner, Are you not a man?

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Who is like you in Israel? Why then have you not kept watch over your lord, the king? For one of the people came in to destroy the king, your lord.

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This thing that you have done is not good. As the Lord lives, you deserve to die, because you have not kept watch over your lord, the

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Lord's anointed. And now see where the king's spear is, and the jar of water that was at his head.

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Saul recognized David's voice and said, Is this your voice, my son David? And David said,

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It is my voice, my lord, O king. And he said, Why does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done?

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What evil is on my hands? Now therefore let my lord, the king, hear the words of his servant. If it is the

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Lord who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering. But if it is men, may they be cursed before the

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Lord. For they have driven me out this day that I should have no share in the heritage of the Lord, saying,

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Go serve other gods. Now therefore let not my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of the

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Lord. For the king of Israel has come out to seek a single flea, like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains.

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And Saul said, I have sinned. Return, my son David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day.

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Behold, I have acted foolishly and have made a great mistake. And David answered and said,

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Here is the spear, O king. Let one of the young men come over and take it. The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness.

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For the Lord gave you into my hand today, and I will not put out my hand against the Lord's anointed. Behold, as your life was precious this day in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight of the

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Lord, and may he deliver me out of all tribulation. Then Saul said to David, Blessed be you, my son

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David. You will do many things and will succeed in them. So David went his way, and Saul returned to his place.

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Let's pray. Father, I thank you so much for your word.

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Your word is such a grace to us in that it reveals your character, your timing, and really calls us all into a deeper understanding of the way that we ought to put our trust in you, the way that we ought to wait on you, the way that we ought to consider your timing and your ways.

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Father, we ought to be impacted by the reality that you indeed are present, and you ought to shape our decision making.

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That when we're confronted with shortcuts, when we're confronted with those opportunities to get ahead through sin or through cheating or through stealing or through lying or through whatever other sin makes us think that we're going to get ahead,

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Father, that we ought to live in such a way that recognizes your face, your presence, and not just for judgment but because you love us, and you have loved us so much that you have been willing to pay for our sins.

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And so, Father, I pray that from a place of recognizing your forgiveness, from a place of recognizing the hope that we have in you, that our voices would be raised up now in praise to you, that our very lives, that really our voices would just express what our lives have been doing or should be doing all week, and that is testifying of your goodness, testifying of your grace, testifying of your unmerited favor in our lives, what we don't deserve you have given us.

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So, Father, I pray that that reality would just spark an enthusiasm and a joy in our worship this morning.

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In Jesus' name, amen. And a big thanks to the band for leading us.

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I appreciate the time and energy that they put into that each week, and hopefully you were able to worship God through that this morning.

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And again, as I say this every Sunday at the start of my message, if at any time you need to get up and get more coffee or juice,

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I know we just took a break to do that, but you can take advantage of that if you need to get up and use the restrooms. But really, I just want you to make yourself comfortable for the purpose of getting the focus on God's word, and I'd love it if you would keep your

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Bibles open or your app open to 1 Samuel chapter 26. We're going to keep referencing that throughout this message.

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And we're going to start right at verse 1. Verse 1 is a repeat of 1 Samuel chapter 23, verse 19.

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Some people have conflated the account and the events of 1 Samuel chapter 24 with this event, but they're obviously very different circumstances, same type of event, same kind of undercurrent of a test for David, and both similar tests that he would actually have an opportunity to slay, or even have one of his men slay

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King Saul and take the throne. But the circumstances are very different, and there's probably a couple of years separating these two events, the event in the cave versus the event with the spear here.

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But David has remained in the area of Ziph, even according to chapter 25, which is the southern Judean wilderness.

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He's out there. There's some settlements. There's a settlement called Carmel down there. There's a settlement called Ziph. And then he also goes back and forth out into the wilderness, all this time seeking to hide from King Saul, who wants to kill him, until the time that he's able to become king.

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He's been promised to become king. He's been anointed as king. But the people of Ziph have shown themselves to be opportunistic in the past.

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They would like to get on King Saul's good side, so they go to him a second time.

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They had gone to him back in chapter 23. They go to King Saul again and say, hey, David's down here. If you have any interest in getting rid of him, we know where he is.

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And again, they're trying to make themselves look good to the man in charge. Maybe they'll get some favor. Maybe they'll get some wealth.

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Maybe he'll give them something good because they've turned in David. And we may be tempted to think that chapter 24, back then, those of you who were here during that message, that that resolved the animosity between Saul and David.

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At the end of that text, David had saved Saul's life, and he's standing there holding a swatch of the corner of his robe, saying,

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I could have killed you, but instead all I did was cut off a corner of your robe. See, I was this close to you. I could have just put the sword in you and been done with this whole thing.

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And in that context, Saul said, oh my goodness, I'll never hurt you, David. I'm so sorry. I've been following you and trying to take your life.

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I will never do that again. And so David is not fooled by that and doesn't go back into the service of King Saul, but stays out in the wilderness going, we'll see how all of this pans out.

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We'll see if he's being honest. What we're going to see in this text, no, it doesn't stick. Saul is not an honest man.

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He's not a man with integrity. He will not stand behind the things that he said. And even in that context, he had said to David, I know you're a better man than me.

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And he proves it. He's going to prove it here, even in this text. So it didn't resolve it.

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So there's still animosity between Saul and towards David.

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And it only takes a subtle nudge. We learn something about human nature here in this text. The human nature, the human heart, our hearts, are always ready to commit sin.

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Did you know that? It's geared in us. We're ready to do that. I mean, it just takes temptation in the wrong direction.

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Saul only needed a subtle nudge to get back into the pursuit of David, something he pledged he wouldn't do.

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And now just a subtle nudge from the people of Zipf saying, oh, by the way, just a reminder, David's here. If you need to get at him, we know where he is and he's back on the hunt again.

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And so for the third time in the course of 1 Samuel, Saul heads down south into the wilderness to seek out

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David. Presumably, it doesn't say directly in the text, but presumably to put him to death. And when

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Saul arrived, David wasn't in Zipf. His 600 men were encamped out in the wilderness on one of these forays out into the wilderness areas, not thinking wilderness like the

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Upper Peninsula, thinking wilderness like Tatooine. Desert, like the It's a barren place.

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There's not a lot of water out there. And they had to travel with these 600 men.

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He would have been hard pressed to use wells and to find places to get water. So he's going from place to place to place to try to feed his men and take care of them.

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And so David sent out spies. He's there in the encampment. Fortunately, he doesn't get caught in Zipf when David shows up or when

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Saul shows up or else he's in trouble. But he's out in the wilderness on one of these forays. And so David sent out spies to confirm that the rumor was true, that Saul has indeed come to seek his life.

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And when it was confirmed, then he snuck into the encampment with a few men under the cover of darkness. One night, he says, let's go in and let's spy out

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Saul's camp. Let's see what his strength looks like. Let's see how things are going there. And David spied out the encampment of Saul and found

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Saul sleeping in the center surrounded by 3 ,000 chosen soldiers.

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These are special forces of Israel. They were hand -selected soldiers by Saul for this purpose of going out and trying to get the wily

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David and his 600 men. A little bit of overkill, 3 ,000 men, 3 ,000 crack troops out seeking the life of one man.

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Okay, how many of you think that's a little bit of overkill? But that's Saul's rationale. That's Saul's thinking.

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That's what paranoia does in the life of Saul. And Abner, who is Saul's commander, was also there, it says, fast asleep beside Saul.

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Not a good idea for the commander of the bodyguard to be asleep next to the, you're not supposed to see that.

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Okay, so that's not supposed to be happening. How many of you know that if you're on watch, you're not supposed to be asleep? But he is.

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So David turned to two of his men and asked who would go down into the camp with him. Now, I don't know what in the world these two guys thought.

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I mean, put yourself in that situation. What do you think is going to go down? Okay, I'm thinking, David asked me in this situation, you want to go into the camp?

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I'm thinking, suicide mission? Right, like two of us, 3 ,000, you want to walk into the camp? Are you kidding me?

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But Abishai's like, sure, bring it on. It's like, let's do this thing. Okay, whoever this guy is, he's brave.

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He's, by the way, also, Abishai comes up later all throughout the life of David. He's actually

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David's nephew, just a little side note there. But this is David's nephew, his sister's son, and so he agreed to go with David.

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So with a stealth of ninjas, David and Abishai snuck into the center of the encampment, passed all 3 ,000 soldiers to Saul's side, where they find

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Saul asleep with his ever -present spear stuck in the ground near his head.

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Now, that spear has been in Saul's hand almost every time that we've seen him. It's gone, the text has gone to length to say he always has a spear next to him.

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He's ready to chuck it at people, and he does so often. And so this is his spear stuck in the ground near his head, ready to just be grasped at a moment's notice to chuck at somebody who's offended him or he doesn't like.

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Right? So he's always got that spear there. And Saul is apparently like the guy who sleeps with a sidearm under his pillow.

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You don't need to raise your hand on that if you're one of those guys, but I mean, there's always somebody who's a little like, you know, just a little trigger happy, right?

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And be careful with that. But just like David's men back in the cave at chapter 24,

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Abishai, who snuck into the camp with David, believes that God has orchestrated this moment so that David can be victorious over Saul.

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He says, this is the moment. This is your coronation day, David. Can't you see it? Open your eyes. Can't you see that this is the day that God has made for you to become king?

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Look at verse 8, and look at Abishai's enthusiasm. Look at the way that he says this. Exclamation point.

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God has given your enemy into your hand this day, David. You've got it. All you need to do is just make it happen.

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One quick stroke of the spear, and he goes on. Abishai offers to do the honors for him.

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He says, can I do it? He politely asks. This is kind of funny. This is a humorous conversation here in this context.

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Pretty please? Please, please, David, please. I mean, I'm asking nicely.

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Can I pin him to the ground? Will you let me pin him to the ground, please? Abishai even promises to make it quick.

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He won't have to struggle. I won't do it twice. It's only going to take one shot, and I'll get him with one shot, I promise.

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This might be an intentional reminder, by the way. There's some humor, something kind of a little bit funny in how many times

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David threw a spear at David and missed, with Abishai saying, it's not going to take me a second time. Okay, I'll get this done.

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This is going to be over quick. A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned in the context of the cave, thinking about a

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Latin phrase, a Latin phrase that's pretty common to us. The Latin phrase is carpe diem, seize the day.

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And I just mentioned that in the cave there, David was confronted with a phrase, I mean, with the concept of a phrase very similar to the one that we would, many would ascribe and would live by.

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It was made popular by the movie Dead Poets Society. Did any of you see O Captain, My Captain?

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You know, really moving performance by Robin Williams there, and all of that.

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But this whole idea of carpe diem, seize the day, it serves as a mantra of those who believe in self -determination, a type of living that has come to us in a lot of different forms.

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Very, very popularized in our culture with different phrases. I know that it's dating, it's dating that nobody talks about.

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This is so totally like three years ago, but the phrase YOLO, anybody ever, don't admit, don't raise your hand if you used it, like you don't want to admit that.

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But YOLO, you only live once, that's YOLO, that was a big popular thing on the internet for a while, and people were wearing t -shirts that said

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YOLO and stuff. You only live once, meaning live it up, seize the day, do whatever you want, because you only live once, which is kind of not what the

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Bible teaches. The Bible teaches you live twice. You actually live for eternity, right?

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So that's a phrase that Christians can't really even say with honesty, but YOLO, just do it, have it your way, eat fresh.

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Oh, maybe not the last one, I mean the last one's, go ahead and scrub that one, but YOLO, just do it, have it your way, carpe diem.

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But David got something different from his relationship with God that we need to learn.

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You see here, if he had just followed the mantra of our, the wave of our culture, if he had just bobbed along in the stream with his life jacket on and just gone where the current took him, what does he do here?

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He commits murder in the cause of developing his kingdom, the kingdom that God has promised to him.

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That's the threat, that's the temptation for David right here, is to flat out murder somebody in their sleep.

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That's what's being put before him. And I believe that we all need to be corrected in regard to our understanding of our own control over our lives, because I tell you what, control is a problem in my heart.

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And it's an ironic problem, isn't it? I mean, those of you, I mean, do go ahead and raise your hand if you actually struggle with control from time to time.

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Many of us, those of you who are raising your hand, you're the ones who would admit it, okay? I believe that all of us, to some degree, want control.

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And it's a myth of control at the end of the day, isn't it? We don't really have a control over whether we're in a car accident tomorrow or whether we get a bad phone call or our boss lays us off.

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We don't have a ton of control. Now, certainly there are some things that we like to acknowledge that we've got some choices, and we do indeed live lives full of choices, right?

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Do we have choices? Yeah, of course we do. David had a choice here before him.

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He had a choice. Abishai is waiting for an answer. Can I kill Saul? Pretty please, can

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I kill Saul? And he's standing there, ready to grab the spear. In a moment, just say the word and I'll do it.

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Now, I don't believe that this text is advocating for an abdication of just giving up of our choices. We do not throw up our hands.

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The Scriptures do not call us to throw up our hands, sit on the sofa, watch Netflix until God breaks in. He's going to do whatever he's going to do anyway, so I'll just be sitting here if you need anything,

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God. You come and let me know. But the reason I oppose the phrase carpe diem is simply because I believe that Scripture, and even

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David here, would exchange it for a better Latin phrase, one that I would encourage you to take on this morning, one that I would encourage you to live by.

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It is the phrase coram Deo. Not carpe diem, but coram

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Deo. Carpe diem is a phrase of capturing and seizing days, but coram

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Deo means before the face of God. Every moment of every day, every decision, every choice, measured by the reality that we live our lives before the very face of the

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Almighty. His eyes and his ears, his face taking in our decisions in our lives.

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David wasn't against getting stuff done, but what he was opposed to was seizing the day for himself and his glory.

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Instead, I believe that David lived his days coram Deo, recognizing God's presence, recognizing

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God's call. He knew that this choice before him, and every choice before him, was lived out before the face of God himself.

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Not that it led to a perfect life for him, but I believe that that's what motivates him here to hold back

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Abishai's hand. Keeping God in our minds throughout our day, and I'm talking about Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, moment by moment reflecting, doing things that you, whatever you can.

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If that means setting a Bible on your desk, if that means setting an alarm to just reflect on God at certain times throughout the day, or whatever it could take that could creatively help you to see and think about God's presence with you.

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We need that. David wasn't opposed, as I said, to getting stuff done, but he did not want his days to be all about him.

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He lived his days coram Deo. Keeping God in our mind throughout our day helps us to be restrained from the sinful impulses and temptations.

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Not just living before his face, by the way. A lot of us, when you hear that phrase coram Deo, some of you who are raised in the church, a church similar to my upbringing, which did not explicitly teach me that God was mad at me.

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I caught that for some reason. Anybody else that caught that at some point in your life, that God was angry at you and had it out for you, and so a lot of us, when we hear coram

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Deo before the face of God, our knees knock, and you start to sweat, and you're like, oh my goodness, he sees everything.

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Or is it, he's with me. He's with me every moment of the day to give me strength, to give me encouragement.

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He loves me through his son, Jesus, who died for me, to wrap his arms around me and say, let's not go that way, let's go this way.

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Every moment coram Deo, every moment before his face, certainly we can disappoint him.

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Certainly we can disappoint him at points along the way, but for those who are in Christ Jesus, there's no condemnation.

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Pick yourself up and let's move on, he says. Not just living in fear of judgment, but living before his smiling face, his face that's full of grace and kindness to us, because of his great love for us.

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His desiring, think about your heart in this, desiring his good pleasure, delighting in the light of his face that shines upon you.

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Now you might be looking for the phrase, you might be looking at the text going, Don, I don't see the phrase coram Deo in here, right?

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Like, I mean, I don't see it there, like, I mean, where are you getting all this? You don't find it written in the text, but the concept is in there.

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In verses 9 through 11, the personal name for the Lord, Yahweh, in the

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Hebrew, the personal name that God revealed to Moses is used five times to explain why

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David isn't going to let Abishai kill King Saul. It's the mindfulness of Yahweh, the mindfulness of God and who he is.

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David is mindful of the Lord, and that's what restrains him from sinning in this situation of temptation.

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And David spells out his decision to not allow Abishai to kill Saul, even though he's saying pretty please, all nice.

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He explains that Abishai would not be innocent were he to put out his hand against Yahweh's anointed. God has chosen

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King Saul. You cannot kill him and remain innocent. That's not possible, says David.

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And if you remember last week, that's kind of an interesting thing that David is showing some learning here. David has learned from last week.

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David was restrained from the guilt of murdering Nabal by his wife Abigail.

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And this week, David is paying it forward to Abishai. He is protecting one of his men from the guilt that would come upon his own head from the

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Lord if he was to murder Saul here. He says, you don't want that guilt. You want to remain innocent.

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You don't want that on your head, Abishai. I'm not going to let you do this to yourself. Further, David has learned a lot from that whole

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Nabal thing. There's a lot that he's grasped. See, I mean,

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David wanted to kill a man who had foolishly insulted him last week. David was restrained only to see the

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Lord deal with Nabal on his terms. God struck Nabal down at the end of chapter 25, and David has learned to wait on the

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Lord for his justice. He says, I don't need to take justice into my own hands. I don't need to slay my enemies.

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I doubt many of you are tempted to literally slay your enemies. But what about your verbal onslaught?

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What about the way that you shun? What about the way that you push out? What about the way that you avoid? What about the way that you badmouth people, gossip about them, slander them?

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You need to think about that in context of Jesus, who said that it is when you say, when you call somebody fool, you are liable to murder.

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You're not probably tempted to literally murder. If you are, please come and talk with me. We need to get some help. But David's confident faith in Yahweh, and God shines through in verse 10.

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He says, Yahweh will strike down Saul. He's talking about the future. He's saying where his trust is placed in the situation, where he has an opportunity to take

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Saul's life, or to see even somebody else take Saul's life. He says, no, no, no. Listen, Abishai.

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Yahweh will strike him down. Yahweh's got his death in mind. Yahweh's got this all taken care of.

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And then he even goes on to say, but I don't know how that works out. I don't know the future, and God hasn't revealed to me

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Saul's end. So Yahweh will strike him down one way or the other. He's going to die of old age, or he will go down into battle, and he will perish.

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He's just throwing out options. He's saying, God's going to take care of this. He's going to take care of it in his own way. And it's very valuable for us to camp for just a minute on verse 10.

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Note that David didn't know how God would deal with Saul. Would he go down into battle and be struck down?

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Would he be struck with infirmity by the Lord? And further, David didn't know when God was going to deal with his enemy.

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And the same reality that David faced is the reality for all of us. God has issued some promises to us that we do not know how or when they will come to pass.

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But he's asking us to trust him with our futures. He has promised, for example, in Scripture, to return. He has promised blessings and a future for all who belong to him by faith.

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He has promised a future without sin and without suffering. He has promised a day of true justice.

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So as we go throughout our lives, at times in valleys and at times soaring in the clouds, we ought to be those who live quorum

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Deo. We should be mindful that we live each moment of each day, decision by decision, before the face of God.

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And we do not seize the day. We do not carpe diem for our own goals, our own plans, our own sales record, our own 401k.

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But any seizing of days ought to be for his glory and for his fame.

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See, David is mortified at the thought that he would put out his hand against Yahweh's anointed King Saul.

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And so they take Saul's spear, they take his water bottle, and they ninja their way back out of the camp.

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And I wonder if David and Abishai thought they were super stealthy and then later were disappointed to find out that God was the one who gets credit for the soldiers remaining asleep, a supernatural spiritual sleep settled on them.

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The Lord is the one who put them to sleep, so they weren't as cool as they thought. They're like, man, we got in there, we got out, we were super, you know.

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And then I wonder if they even had throwing stars and like, yeah, like this little guy here. But it wasn't as cool as they thought.

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I mean, maybe cooler, really. But supernatural sleep overcame Saul and company, and David wasn't as ninja as he thought he was.

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But David set a valley between himself. They take the spear, they take his Nalgene water bottle, whatever he was carrying at the time, they take that across a valley, set some distance between them and Saul, and then bellowed like an annoying alarm clock to Abner.

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And in verses 15 through 16, David insulted Abner, who has been given David's old job. By the way, he's kind of insulting the guy who took over his role.

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Abner is now the military commander and captain of the bodyguard. And Abner fell asleep while on watch.

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All the soldiers allowed an intruder to get to the king, which David is very quick to identify. Man, isn't that a capital offense in the

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Hebrew military force? That you would fall asleep and allow somebody to come in and take the king's spear from right by his head.

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And David proves again how close he was to the king by holding up the spear and the water bottle for all to see. Look, I was right there.

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I could have killed you, Saul. Again, God delivered you into my hands, and I did not take your life again.

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The amazing integrity of David shining through in this circumstance. So Saul recognized

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David's voice, and the remainder of the text is an interaction between Saul and David that will prove to be the last time—hear me carefully—the last recorded time that David and Saul have any interaction in Scripture.

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And David once again emphasizes his innocence to King Saul. He has done no evil, and challenges

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Saul to show what evil he has done. And further, David explained how confused he is with King Saul's pursuit.

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Why are you even pursuing me? He says, if I've sinned against you, then let me come and make an offering to the

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Lord that the sin might be expiated, and our relationship might be restored. But if that's not the case, then maybe your men have stirred you up against me, and then they should be cursed, because they're responsible for removing me,

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David, from the heritage of the Lord. The end of verse 19 might be kind of confusing, but it's powerful in explaining some of the character qualities of King David.

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You see, really at the end of the text in verse 19, he's actually missing the corporate gathering.

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It says this, Now, therefore, let my lord the king hear the word of his servant. If it is the Lord who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering.

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But if it is the men, may they be cursed before the Lord, for they have driven me out this day, that I should have no share in the heritage of the

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Lord—that's the worship of God—saying, go serve other gods.

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He's basically saying there he misses the corporate gathering of God's people.

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He wants to be in the place where he can go into the tabernacle and offer sacrifices again with his people.

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He's in exile in the wilderness, and exiling someone from the corporate life of Israel was to remove them from the central practices of their faith.

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It was a geographical faith in the old covenant. There was an actual tabernacle where you went to make the sacrifice that was replaced eventually by a permanent temple in Jerusalem.

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And so, there's geography to it, and being in the right place, and taking the sacrifices to the right place.

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But beyond it being geographical, it was also communal. In ancient Judaism, the faith was a community faith.

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They came to the same place together on specific days to make sacrifices.

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They celebrated together. They celebrated religious festivals and feasts together. And David wrote in poetry to God, hear me carefully, the guy who is being exiled from the corporate worship of God said this in a psalm, for a day in your courts, speaking to God, for a day in your courts is better than a thousand elsewhere.

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And he is spending thousands elsewhere. Do you know where that came from?

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How many of you heard the song? Better is one day, yeah. So you've heard the song, but the meaning behind that comes from the heart of a man who experienced what it was to be exiled from the worship of God.

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Who experienced what it was like to be pushed out from the community of faith and was not allowed in by Saul.

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David missed the corporate nature of worship, and being cast out of the community, he says, was tantamount to being told by these wicked men who are counseling

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Saul, go serve other gods. You're not welcome here in the worship of Yahweh.

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I want to ask you something, and I want you to think about it honestly in your heart. Would you miss it?

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Would you miss it? David knew that God has not given him a merely private and personal relationship with him, but the faith that the scriptures bring us into, old and new covenant, is a community faith.

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A communal faith where he connects us in relationship to others. It is a faith that leans on others and lets others lean on us.

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We need one another. David's faith was one that longed for the gathering of God's people, and we should check ourselves on this point.

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It requires faith to re -engage, by the way, after painful experiences. I know I've heard some of your stories. I know that some of you have been hurt by churches in the past.

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You've been burned, but it requires faith, and the reality is many here have been hurt by those past church experiences.

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But ask yourself now, do I believe that God knows better than me? Do you believe

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God knows better than you? When he says that we need others in the body of Christ, when we need the gathering of one another, was he right or was he wrong?

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Did he get it right when he says that we should not forsake the gathering together of the saints?

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Was he right? Think about that in your own life and what that means for you. Now further,

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David feared being driven further away. Eventually, he says, I don't want my blood to be spilled away from the

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Lord and from the place of worship in Israel. I want to be back in Israel. Kind of almost expressing some sense of like,

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I'm out of my element out here. I belong in Israel. And he criticized Saul for coming out and forced to chase him, saying basically what you've done is you've rallied together 3 ,000 guys to go search for a flea, a single flea.

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His humility showing. He said, I'm being driven to exhaustion like a partridge hunted in the mountains.

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And Saul once again appears to have a heart change in this interaction. He admits that he has sinned. The first time that we see

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Saul actually say, I've sinned. I've sinned against you, David. And he asked for him to return to his service.

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I've sinned against you. Would you come back and would you serve in my courts? Would you serve in my military again? How many of you would sign up for that?

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How many spears do you have to have chucked at you before? It's kind of like, I think this is a broken relationship. I mean, I'll accept your apology and all, but I mean,

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I'm not sure that I'm going to be best buds with you. We're not buying a business together, you know. There's times when that is the reality, and we see that here.

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So he admits it. He admits that he sinned. He sounds genuinely sorry, and he promises to do David no harm.

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But David's heard it all before, and in verse 22, David draws attention to his spear. It's like David interrupts

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Saul in the middle of his apology, and he calls him out on it. He says, isn't this your spear? Isn't this your spear?

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What's your spear doing here, Saul? The spear that you've chucked at me three times and tried to pin me to the wall.

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What's this doing here? You're apologizing for coming out here, and what were you doing here? What was the purpose of being here?

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He lets him have it. He gives Saul back his spear through his servant. Why don't we end it this way?

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You send your servant over here. I'll give him your spear. He can run it back to you. Doesn't give him back his water bottle though.

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Maybe it was David's favorite color. I don't know. But David declares a general theological truth then in this context to remind both himself and Saul.

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I think he has both because he's giving a generalized theological principle here. The Lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness, and this is true.

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We may be confused by this statement at first because I thought that we believed that nobody is righteous, that nobody is genuinely faithful on their own, but true righteousness and faithfulness comes first out of faith and trust in the

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Lord. That's where righteousness comes from. That's where faith comes from. This is not

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God teaching karma here. What goes around comes around, and if you're evil to people, they'll be evil back and stuff like that.

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It's a generalized principle though, right? Isn't there a general principle that we understand? You reap what you sow, but David restrained

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Abishai from killing Saul because of his faith in the Almighty God. This act was an act of faith based on the belief that God's way is the best way, and that's moving towards righteousness, moving towards faithfulness, and I think

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David here in general is saying that what a man sows he reaps. He trusts that the

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Lord will reward him. He doesn't need Saul's reward, and he makes that clear in verse 24. He says that Saul's life, he says, speaking to Saul, your life was precious to me on this day, and therefore

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I didn't slay you, and so now all that I'm asking is that my life would be precious, and we expect him to say, in your eyes,

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Saul, but he doesn't. He says, I don't need anything from you, Saul. I want my life to be precious in God's eyes.

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It's not about pleasing you, Saul. It's about pleasing the Lord, and I want him to be glad over me.

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I want him, again, Coram Deo. I want his reflection on my life to be pleased, not living for others.

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How many of you have ever been in a cycle of living for others and their pleasure over your life, where you've had people that you needed to please, or else you felt like you were going to spiral out of control?

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Even in marriages, that is so dangerous. I mean, you certainly need to serve your spouse, but my goodness, they cannot be

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Jesus to you. They cannot fill his shoes. If you lean on them too heavy, they will crumble.

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They're going to let you down at times, and David here is saying, I need God's pleasure, not yours,

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Saul. That's what he's getting at here. He doesn't really care whether or not Saul finds his life to be precious, whether or not he preserves him or not.

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He wants the Lord to be pleased with him. So Saul's final words to David are recorded in verse 25.

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Again, remember, a monumental thing in this course of studying 1 Samuel, the very final words of King Saul to David are blessing.

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They're blessing. Blessed be you, my son David. You will do many things and succeed in them.

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Prophecy over David's life of good, even from his enemy Saul. And with that blessing, they departed to separate endings.

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And there are three application points I'd like to highlight from this text as we wrap up here in the next couple minutes. The first is to live your lives quorum

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Deo. Live your lives before the face of God. We need to remember the Lord in our present.

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We need to be mindful of his presence with us, and then let our decision -making be seasoned by his commands and what he desires of us.

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And a large part of living quorum Deo before the face of God is trusting in the Lord's timing over our lives.

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Sin is never a method for achieving the Lord's will for you. It is never the pathway forward for you in a relationship with God.

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Living quorum Deo means living in patience on the Lord's timing over your life. Patience is not something that Americans in general do well.

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It's something that convicts me to think about, and it's hard sometimes. I'm being honest. Isn't it hard sometimes to know when to wait and when to press forward?

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I am not proposing that this solves all issues in your life, but I would suggest to you that taking a pause often for us to breathe in for a second and recognize

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God is here with me to give me strength. And sometimes that actually gives you the ability to make the tough decisions with more confidence going,

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God is here. He loves me, and if I mess up, guess what? He's proven grace upon grace time and time again in my life.

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Oh, that's right. He loves me. He sent his son to die for me, so if I buy that house and it goes south, he still loves me.

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If I go into this business venture and it doesn't work out, he loves me. You're getting what

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I'm saying? And so stopping to think about quorum Deo is a way of life that recognizes him in your presence.

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In the present, he's with you, and he is indeed an ever -present help in times of trouble.

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It means living in humility, acknowledging that your life is not primarily about your pleasure. That's not a very

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American thing to say, but your life is not about your kingdom and your pleasure and your satisfaction and your comfort and your retirement.

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Living quorum Deo means that we live moment by moment with the goal of pleasing God and being used for his purposes.

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So how would your life be different if you considered the face of God in each and every moment, and what could you do to take steps to be more mindful of his presence with you throughout the day?

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And like I said, some of you, it's taking your Bible and setting it on your desk at work. Some of you, it is setting a timer to just remind you when that alarm goes off.

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I'm going to turn my thoughts and my prayers to God at that time. The second thing, real quick, and I recognize our time is almost up.

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The second thing is live your life in community. I say this often, but at Recast, we believe that everyone needs to be growing in faith, growing in community, growing in service.

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Those are the three things that we believe everybody needs in your life. We gather together on Sunday mornings to grow in faith.

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We have community groups that meet in homes during the week for growing in community, and then God has made you for community.

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Certainly coming together on Sundays is a good first step, but God has a more vital connection for you in the body of Christ, more than just walking in here, taking a message, and scooting out the door every

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Sunday. So I recommend that you consider joining a community group the next time sign -ups come around. And if community group times don't work for you, as I know they don't for some of you, then

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I would encourage you to just go rogue. Seek some friendships here. Get together and connect with others in the body of Christ.

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The New Testament church, by the way, I think was much more organic and less programmatic. It was about programming opportunities for you to connect in community.

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It was about relationships, full of relationships. Older men teaching younger men. Older women mentoring younger women.

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David here in the text knew he needed community worship, and he longed for it, and he missed it. And we need it as well.

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And lastly, let me encourage you to put your trust in God so that you can live a life of righteousness and faithfulness.

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It's by trusting in Him and putting your faith that righteousness and faithfulness comes to you. God rewards righteousness and faithfulness, and both righteousness and faithfulness begin for us in trust that God is good and that He has loved us.

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He expressed His love and goodness most clearly at the cross of Jesus Christ. It's there that He took our sins so that we could be set free.

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And so anyone in this room who has asked Jesus Christ to save you, you can come to the tables in the back for communion during this next song.

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We do this each week, unashamedly do it each week, because I'm convinced that I know personally

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I need the reminder to come back to the place of my healing, the place where my brokenness was taken by Him.

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And that's why we do this together. So take a moment during this next song to remember His love and mercy poured out for us.

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And if you belong to Jesus Christ by faith, then let me encourage you to go out this week with a renewed commitment to live moment by moment, quorum

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Deo. And let's ask for God's grace to help us remember His presence with us for both blessing and restraint.

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Let's pray. Father, I thank You for Your grace. And as we have an opportunity to take communion together,

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I am just so blown away that You would send Your Son here to live a sinless life, face the persecution that He faced, to take that trial that we all deserved on Himself.

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And Father, even to face Your scorn, Your wrath, and Your judgment, that we might be set free, that He would pay our penalty for us.

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So Father, I pray that You would allow that reality to sink in as we have an opportunity to take this cracker to remember

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His body broken for us, and this cup of juice to remember His blood shed for us. Father, that You would propel us out into a week of living quorum

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Deo before Your face, recognizing that that is the way that we will grow in You, and make better choices, and be restrained from sin, is recognizing