1 Samuel 16:14-23 Only Therapy

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

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

Welcome to Recast Church. As Dave said, I'm Don Filsak. I'm the lead pastor here, and I want to start off by saying thank you for gathering together.

I hope that one of the reasons that you are here this morning is to grow in your faith. That is,

I think, why we gather. I hope it's why we gather. I hope it's a reason that you're here this morning, that you got up out of bed early on a day that you probably could have otherwise slept in.

Growing in faith is just one of the three components that we here at Recast Church believe that everybody needs.

We need to be growing in faith, that is, trusting God, taking in his word, and believing that it is true, and believing in it enough that we go out and do something different with our lives based on encountering

God through his word. But then we also need to be growing in community. That comes from the conviction of what we see in the pages of scripture, that God has created us, all of us, no matter whether you're an introvert or an extrovert, he's created us to be in community.

We need each other. We need others to help us and to guide us, particularly in the realm of our growing in God, growing in likeness to him, growing in our ...

We need accountability. We need all kinds of relationships surrounding us to help us out. So we need to be growing in community.

And then lastly, kind of a component of that growing in community is growing in service.

God has gifted each and every one of us with talents, abilities, things that he has given to us that we can in turn pass along to others and be a blessing to others.

And it is my conviction that everyone ... The apostle Paul likens a church to a body, a physical body.

And he says some are like the hands, some are like the eyes, some are like a foot. But each one has their part to play in contributing to the health of the church.

And so it's our conviction that all of us need to be growing in faith, growing in community, and growing in service.

And everyone here has a part to play in the service of the king. We're going to see a specific individual in our text this morning in 1

Samuel who is in the service, is enlisted into the service of the king. Now in this context, it's going to be the king of Israel, enlisted into the service of King Saul.

I believe that we are once again going to be stretched in our faith as we come to this text. How many of you have found 1

Samuel to be stretching for you? Those of you that have been here for a while, it's been stretching for me as I'm preaching through it.

Our text this morning brings us to what I often think of as a not my

Jesus kind of feel to it. Now how many of you ever heard that phrase, not my Jesus? My Jesus would never fill in the blank.

It's often only used when someone wants to use Jesus, the name Jesus, or Jesus for their own purposes, to either defend something that's indefensible or something that affects them.

Someone might say, my Jesus would never condemn gluttony overheard at wedding receptions.

My Jesus would never drive an SUV overheard at a hybrid convention. But on a more serious note, the general tenor of our culture, the general tenor of the culture that we live in today, is a

Jesus who would never do anything to make a person uncomfortable. Would you agree with me on that?

Is that the general feel of the world that we live in today is that Jesus, or God, if you want to just keep it more generic,

God would never do something that would make a person uncomfortable. He would never judge.

He would never condemn. He would never reject. And certainly, he would never get angry. Not my

Jesus. And I'm talking like this because our text that we're about to read is going to show us an activity of God that will make most of us uncomfortable.

To some of us, it's going to make our head spin. It's going to make us uncomfortable. It's going to make us go, is that what God is like?

Does God do things like what he does here in 1 Samuel 16? And our text is going to send a harmful, tormenting, distressing spirit to King Saul.

And the text is emphatic that God is the one who sends the spirit to plague

King Saul who has rejected him. And so what I think we're going to do here this morning is we're diving in the deep end.

So I want to remind you that God is revealing something of himself in the pages of scripture. Correct judgment, justice, and righteousness belong to our

God. And what he does here in our text is set in the backdrop, must be in our minds, set in the backdrop of Saul's adamant rejection of the

Almighty God, of Saul's rejection of him before God ever does this.

And even more central to this text is the reality that God troubles Saul enough that Saul ought to know how to seek help.

As a matter of fact, we're going to see him to some degree seek help. But Saul is going to opt for, just like we often do in our lives, he's going to opt for therapy rather than repentance.

The do the right things or do things to try to appease the pain and push the pain away rather than push deeper into God.

And I think we do that often, don't we, in our own lives? So often that's exactly what we do.

We seek to remedy the pain without letting the pain push us deeper into our relationship with God and help identify for us maybe why the pain signals are going off.

But before I steal my own thunder, let's open our Bibles to 1 Samuel 16, verses 14 to 23.

If you don't have a Bible or means to navigate to the Bible, there's one under the seat in front of you or somewhere in your row there's one under the seat in front of you.

Page 136 is where that's found there. All bets are off on what number it is in your

Bible. And again, if you have a phone or an iPad or something that you can navigate to the

Bible, by all means use that. But my hope and desire is that as I read this, that you're able to give your attention to God's Word this morning, not to me standing up here reading it, but really ultimately thinking about the words, thinking about what

God is saying to us. My conviction is that God speaks to us, and one of my greatest privileges every week is to get up and read

God's Word. So 1 Samuel 16, we're going to read 14 through the end of the chapter.

Follow along please. Now, the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a harmful spirit from the

Lord tormented him. And Saul's servants said to him, Behold, now a harmful spirit from God is tormenting you.

Let our Lord now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is skillful in playing the liar.

And when the harmful spirit from God is upon you, he will play it, and you will be well. So Saul said to his servants,

Provide for me a man who can play well and bring him to me. One of the young men answered,

Behold, I have seen a son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in playing, a man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech, and a man of good presence.

And the Lord is with him. Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said,

Send me David, your son, who is with the sheep. And Jesse took a donkey laden with bread and a skin of wine and a young goat and sent them by David, his son, to Saul.

And David came to Saul and entered his service. And Saul loved him greatly, and he became his armor bearer. And Saul sent to Jesse, saying,

Let David remain in my service, for he has found favor in my sight. And whenever the harmful spirit from God was upon Saul, David took the liar and played it with his hand.

So Saul was refreshed and was well, and the harmful spirit departed from him.

Let's pray. Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you even just in this potentially confusing text at first read is a revelation of you.

You have been faithful in my life to use a whole host of things to get my attention. And I believe that you have so many things at your disposal to try to win back the heart and bring someone back into your folds, to bring somebody to repentance, to bring us to the place of brokenness before you and recognizing that you indeed are

God and we are not. And so, Father, I pray that you would open our eyes to what you desire to communicate to us.

I thank you so much for salvation in your son that has given us a sealing of your spirit.

That even as we read at the start of this text that your spirit departed from Saul, that we have a promise that is like a down payment or the earnest or the foretaste of the kingdom that is to come.

And that you have granted to your children eternal life that no one can pluck us from your hand.

I thank you for that hope that we have in you that we can sing and rejoice and be moved to joy. Not live a life of fear of, oh no, have

I done enough, but live a life of you have done enough for us. So, Father, I pray that that would be a reality for each one of us as we come from a variety of different things going on in our week.

Some of us have had a great week. Some of us have had a down week. I pray that you would help to wash all of that distraction away and help us, even as we sing these songs, to do so much more than sing, but to lift our voices up in gratitude and thankfulness to you.

We love you and we want to honor you this morning in Jesus' name, amen. And I encourage you to get comfortable and keep your

Bibles open to 1 Samuel 16, verses 14 through 23. If you lost your place, reopen to that or navigate back over to that.

And then, if at any time during the message you need to get up and get more coffee or juice or donuts while supplies last,

I'm not even sure if there's any donuts left, we crush those things. So, but awesome, well played.

But yeah, if you need to get up and stretch out or whatever over the next half an hour or so. Just to kind of catch us up to speed with where we've been in 1

Samuel, I recognize that not everybody in the room has been part of this series. You can go back and listen to previous messages, by the way, if you're interested.

But over the last few weeks in sermons, we've beheld the rapid decline of the kingship of King Saul over Israel.

That's really kind of what we see is the sermon title or the sermon series title has been Timely Prophet, Tragic King, following the interplay between Samuel, the life of Samuel the prophet.

You know, a guy who was born at the right time and season to actually be, some people have called him the king maker.

And then King Saul, the very first king over Israel. Now I want to just point out that King Saul was a relatively decent military leader.

He made a couple of blunders here or there, but by and large, the scope of his life was one of military, you know, pushing back the military invasions of other nations in the area and basically defending and protecting

Israel. But he never took up the calling, the primary central calling that was placed on his life to be the spiritual leader of the nation of Israel.

He didn't, you see, he didn't have a really genuine personal relationship to the almighty. He conveniently disobeyed

God when it was to his own personal benefit, keeping back even spoils for himself and things like that.

He made rash and foolish oaths and eventually he was told a couple of weeks ago that God was going to raise up a new king to replace him.

And that new king would be one who has a heart after God, who really pursues him, who really loves

God, who really wants him. And actually it was even declared to him that the man that would be raised up to replace him would be better than him.

How many of you would love to know that there was somebody hanging out there who was going to replace you in your current job and they were better than you at it?

That would not be a good way to live day by day, wake up, go back to your job, knowing that oh, it's today the day that I'm getting replaced, how is this going to work?

So last week we saw the anointing of a young shepherd boy named David. We find out so early in the book of 1

Samuel that it's before we're halfway through the book that we find out that there's a new king coming.

So rather than title this sermon series The Timely Prophet, The Tragic King, and then The Replacement, it's actually interesting that we're going to see

Saul as king all the way up to the end of this book. So what's going to happen? So we're actually informed of Saul's replacement and now we're going to get a chance to see over the next, really the remainder of this sermon series, the interplay between Saul and David who is going to be replacing him.

And what we're ultimately privy to in these coming chapters is Saul's kingship in a slow fade for the remainder of the entire book.

Now many have called the text that we're looking at this morning here at the latter half of chapter 16 the theological hinge of the entire book.

It actually serves as the center place, the center chapter of the entire book. There's 31 chapters in 1

Samuel. We're in chapter 16. It's actually right dead center. But last week, the spirit of the

Lord, it was said, rushed upon the newly anointed to replace the king,

David, and here in verse 14 we see the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul.

The spirit rushes on the new guy and departs from the old. Now just this alone is a significant statement that needs some explanation.

Even in my prayer I kind of talked about that whole sealing of the Holy Spirit. The Old Testament followers of God were not promised a sealing or indwelling work of the

Holy Spirit in their lives. It was not the same promise that we've been given in the

New Testament. So we have a little bit of a theological understanding that's important for us as we hear the spirit leaving

King Saul. Some of you might have feared at times in life that what if God leaves me?

What if he gives up on me? What if his spirit departs from me? And then you read a passage like this and it goes, you go, oh no, oh no, oh no, he really could.

Well, that's not the way that it is in the New Testament era of grace. It's important that we recognize that there are distinctions between the way that the

Holy Spirit here departs from Saul and identify the promises that we have in the New Testament that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

The Holy Spirit is declared to be a down payment, a sealing, a completion of the work that God is going to finish in you, and that is something that we can hold to in the

New Testament. I challenge you and encourage you to go through the New Testament looking for those promises that declare that God will never leave you nor forsake you, unlike those promises never existed in the life of King Saul.

But at the end of verse 14, we find that not only did the spirit of the Lord depart from Saul but we actually find something that could be even more troubling to us than even that.

A harmful spirit from the Lord was sent to torment him. Now this phrase in our text, harmful spirit, is going to be used five times this morning, four times in conjunction with where the spirit came from.

Four times it's going to tell us it came from the Lord or the spirit came from God. And so if we're honest, we're a little confused by this.

How many of you are confused when you read this passage? A little bit confused. And the fact of the matter is some of your translations, you're looking at me a little sideways because you're like,

Don, harmful sounds a little bit more tame than the word that my translation uses. Anybody got an

NIV in here? Anybody looking at NIV? Anybody looking at New American Standard, other versions? They will say evil spirit from the

Lord. Now the interesting thing is I would take a little bit of challenge with the translation. It doesn't matter a whole lot in our interpretation or understanding how it's to be translated, but I believe that the better translation is harmful or distressing spirit.

It's not talking about the nature of the angel that came, whether it's a demon or an angel.

It's not getting down to that detail of expressing to us the very nature and heart of the being that is sent to plague him.

Rather it's talking about the byproduct in the life of Saul. What is this angel actually producing there is the idea.

So a couple of years ago, some of you were here, you remember going through the series on the book of Revelation.

So a couple of years ago we went through that entire series again. That's all available online if you would be interested in seeing how we would go through Revelation.

It's all there. But time and time again throughout the book of Revelation, remember this is New Testament future events, things that God will do in the future.

We see angels routinely sent to bring war, famine, darkness, disease, and all types of human suffering at the end of time.

So we're not talking about just an Old Testament manifestation. Well in the Old Testament God could send a harmful or tormenting spirit to a person, but not in the

New Testament. And these are angels that do this thing. Angels that blow the trumpet, angels that break open the seals, angels that bring these difficulties at the end of time.

And I don't think that God here is enlisting the help of demonic forces, and it's not just because I believe that God cannot use them.

I think God can use anything. Anything in the existence of creation can be used by the

Almighty. I just believe that the word here in this context, as I've studied it this week, is better translated harmful or distressing.

Enough of that. But from this day forward, when he receives this, Saul was tormented by this harmful spirit from God.

And that's what we need to understand in the text. It came from God. And we know that part of this torment led him to fits of rage.

We're going to see that bear out in his life down in the chapters coming. He had fits of rage, unsettledness, even some apparent irrational behavior.

We're going to see David playing his harp in a couple chapters in the future here. We're going to see him try to pin

David to the wall with a spear. One of his best commanders in his army, one of the people who has proved to be most valiant on the side of Saul, and he's going to try to kill him multiple times.

There's all kinds of irrational behavior that happens in the life of Saul. And some have wanted to diagnose this as some form of mental illness.

Now, I want to give a little bit of a caveat here and say that I believe that there is a legitimate thing called mental illness, that there is a genuine chemical imbalance that can happen in a physiological sense in a human body, in the brain, in the chemistry that requires medication, that there's an actual diagnosis given and things like that.

But I want to be careful that we let Scripture tell us what's going on here because we need to be very cautious to say that not every spiritual evil thing that happens to a person manifests itself in something that appears to be mental illness.

Do you realize that? So in the book of Acts, Paul and Silas encounter a young girl who in the city of Ephesus is possessed.

It tells us in the text, she's possessed by a demon. She doesn't act irrational. She doesn't go crazy and cut herself or do all kinds of crazy stuff or demonstrate examples of mental illness.

What she does is she tells the future. That's the thing that the spirit gives to her. This is the ability that she receives from an evil spirit.

It doesn't say she was foaming at the mouth or that she exhibited schizophrenic tendencies or anything like that.

It's straight up, she just told the future. So I want to point out that not every time that somebody is spiritually oppressed is there this kind of irrational behavior and simultaneously, not every time somebody shows irrational behavior is there a spirit behind it.

Are you getting what I'm saying there? The text is not giving us a recipe for understanding mental illness or even a recipe for understanding demonic influence.

But where we're at in the text here, we've got to think this through carefully because Saul is going to exhibit some strange things and we want to make sure that we let the text tell us what's going on here.

Some of the commentaries that I read this week pertaining to this text go straight to the physiological side of things.

But no matter how much this may appear like mental illness, the text ... We take our cues from the text.

Are we people of book? Are we people of the Bible? The Bible tells us that this is spiritually induced.

This is because a spirit comes upon him. It was not merely mental illness in the case of Saul. There was a spiritual cause between the dark demeanor of the king of Israel.

The Lord has all kinds of things at his disposal to get our attention. There's multiple ...

I could go over a bunch of illustrations that came, but one particular one that came to my mind is he is going to, in the future, from King Saul, he's going to take the arrogant

King Nebuchadnezzar and drive him insane until he lived like a wild animal because he took all the glory for his kingdom on himself and said, look at me,

I'm like a god. And God says, no, watch this, you're going to be like an animal for a while. I'm going to let you live like an animal until finally he turns his eyes towards the heavens and says glory to God and then he's restored.

So God can use things like insanity or things that appear like mental illness. God can use donkeys.

God can use talking donkeys. God can use global floods. God can use the pain of childlessness.

God can use the enmity of a family member to get us where he wants us to be. And in Saul's life, he uses a tormenting spirit as a wake up call.

Now that might make us uncomfortable, but it's no less his right to do so regardless of whether we're uncomfortable with that.

But Saul, here in the text, moving forward, taking for granted that God is able to do this, and he's declaring to us in this text he is able to do this, but now moving forward we see that Saul had not surrounded himself with stewards and servants in his service who were close to the

Almighty. I say that because the prescription that they offer for Saul's spiritual problem is not the real heart.

It doesn't get down to the heart issue. In verse 15, his servants correctly diagnose him. You have an evil spirit that's tormenting you.

But in verse 16, they offer a band -aid to staunch an arterial bleed. It's like he's bleeding out.

It's squirting here. Okay? And they're like, we got a little band -aid. How about a Hello Kitty or a Flintstone band -aid or something?

I mean, here's something for you just to kind of, looks like there's a little blood there if you could put this on there.

You see, Saul did not have a temperament problem. Saul did not have a temperament problem.

Saul doesn't need to just, you know what, what you need is you just need to calm down. Let's dim the lights in here and play some soft music for you.

He didn't need to take a chill pill. Okay? It wasn't just like, dude, bro, like, calm down, okay?

It's gonna be all right. Here, let's just tell you how this is gonna work out. You're gonna be fine. You see, what Saul needs more fundamentally is he needs a deep and genuine repentance in his heart that acknowledges

God as his master, as God who is king over all. Do you see that need in Saul's life?

Those of you that have been here through this series, have you seen Saul's need for repentance? His need for a heart change?

And they're like, well, let's get you into some therapy here. You see,

Saul's heart wasn't beating toward his maker. He was dead in his heart to the

Almighty. So what Saul really needs is a new heart and all of his chosen servants try to mask the symptoms in our text with a specific type of therapy, music therapy.

Now, this idea of therapy as over and opposed to heart surgery is a common problem in our culture.

We are in a culture that doesn't do pain. Would you agree with me on that? We don't like pain.

We don't do pain. We have pills for that. We have entertainment for that. We have music for that. We have distractions and diversions for that.

But have we ever stopped to think that pain, and I'm not talking about necessarily physical pain, as much as emotional and spiritual pain?

How many of you would just raise your hand and say, I've experienced in my life some emotional pain? Sometimes that's worse than physical pain.

Would you agree with me on that? Sometimes that's the harder thing. It's like you can't shake it. You can't get rid of it.

There's no, ibuprofen doesn't help. And spiritual pain as well.

That dark loneliness of, is God really there for me? Is he really watching out for me?

How could he allow this, fill in the blank, how could he allow it to happen? Would you ever stop to think that that emotional or spiritual pain could be pointing to something?

Could be there for a reason? Maybe the fact that you feel like you can't cope.

Maybe the fact that you feel like you're in over your head. Maybe the way that the waves feel like they're lapping at your chin, and just one more wave and you're done for, you're under.

Maybe that's so that you will see something that is deeper and more true. Maybe that is simply a byproduct of a deeper problem, that you don't perceive

Christ to be enough for you. Is Christ enough for you?

Anybody who's medicating their life with illegal drugs. Now I say illegal in front of that on purpose,

I'm not talking about prescriptions prescribed for real chemical issues in the brain, but anybody who is medicating their life with illegal drugs to mask the hardship of life is a person who

I can point to and say they are looking for a deep satisfaction that can only be found in Christ.

Anybody who is running to pornography, anybody who is running to Netflix or shopping or baseball stats or risky sexual behavior or music or any of a whole host of diversions, maybe

I didn't name yours so you feel off the hook, name it for yourself now. Anybody who is masking their pain and their emotional turmoil is not listening to the deeper issues that God is seeking to express to you about your life.

They say that one of the hardest things for Americans is silence. One of the hardest things for us is to be alone with our own thoughts.

Do you know what I think we're most afraid of? That some voice in our head is going to be honest with us about ourselves.

I think we fear that. But what's at stake here? Listening to God.

Hearing what He wants you to know about yourself. You see, because at the end of the day, what

God wants most from each one of us sitting here in this room, what He really wants from everyone, is

He wants your heart. He wants your heart. He loves you. And He has a whole host of alarms at His disposal to seek to get your attention.

I fully believe that this messenger sent from God to Saul was there to get

Saul's attention. And He masks it with therapy. He pushes it to the side.

If all you ever do is run to shut off the alarm, or if worse, you just disable it,

I believe that you will grow numb to the voice of God in your life. You will grow numb to His calling.

Well, a young man in Saul's court knows this skillful musician. All of the other people in the court say, hey, you know what you need?

You need some music therapy. I've heard that this thing works. It's this new, fan -dangled type of therapy that we can get for you.

Check it out. We'll get somebody to come in here and play a short, handheld lyre, a harp, and we'll get this going.

And so one of the guys in his entourage has heard of this guy from Bethlehem.

He's the whole package, this young shepherd. He's skillful at playing the harp. He's a man of valor.

He's a man of war. I want to point out that David has obviously, a little time has passed, at least enough time for him to distinguish himself as a man of valor.

And since his anointing last week, some things have changed. He's a good communicator.

David is declared here in the text a good communicator. He carries himself well, has great presence about himself.

In other words, he would be fine in the courts. He wouldn't be undignified. But most importantly and most ironically, the text tells us what's most fundamentally important about this new guy, about this young guy.

The Lord is with him. The Lord is with him. You see, the spirit departed from Saul, but the spirit rushed upon David.

And now the Lord has driven Saul to be in need of the one who possesses his

Holy Spirit. Do you see how that chain of events happens? He's like, you need my spirit. You need my spirit in here.

You will find my spirit in this young boy named David. So we see in this text that they're looking for a skilled musician.

They find a David. Coincidence that our corporate worship director is a skilled musician named

David? I think not. In obedience to the word, I sought out a skilled

David to lead us with his six -stringed harp. I'm really just kidding, but he does have some sick skills.

Thanks, bro. Good, you left. I didn't know if that was going to fly or not. But really,

Saul sent to Jesse and requests this boy from the field. He's out there. He's a shepherd. He's out tending to the sheep.

And he says, send me. Which is really ironic because Samuel had warned the people when they first asked for a king, he said, remember what kings do.

What do kings do? Can anybody remember from that sermon the one word? They take. They're takers.

What is he going to go do? He's going to go take Jesse's boy. He's going to go take

Jesse's boy. And the best of the best is going to be in my court helping me.

He's going to be my music therapist. So he sends for him. And this is the second time, by the way, that in one chapter that David was pulled from the field to strange events.

The first time he's pulled out. Guy dumps oil all over his head and says, hey, you're going to be the next king of Israel.

He's like, that's creepy and weird. And then he goes back out to the field. This time he comes back. Dad's like, you're going to take some stuff to the king.

I think you're going to work for him now. What? What in the world is going on? So he sent David to the king with bread, wine, a young goat, probably for the king.

And just as a way of honoring him as he sends his son into the service of King Saul. Now, the text is, of course, filled with delicious irony.

The newly appointed youth is about to get training in the court of the king, the very king that he will one day replace.

And the current king doesn't even know that this is the guy. You and I know it. The author has given us all kinds of cues to know this is going to happen.

But Saul doesn't know it. And as a matter of fact, the current king will be quite pleased with the service of the one who will be his replacement, even endorsing him and thinking great thoughts of him.

So David entered the service of Saul as his music therapist. Saul liked him, and David eventually became even one of his armor bears, the text tells us.

His armor bearer, Saul had more than one armor bearer. A king during this time would have had more than one armor bearer at his disposal.

And we will see clearly by the end of his life that that's the case. There's going to be multiple guys who are declared the armor bearer of Saul.

But the idea that Saul and David were super tight at this early stage, or that the two of them hung together in the privacy of the throne room and just chilled together, misses the reality of the ancient court of royal servants.

And I'm saying that because we're going to actually see that David doesn't distinguish himself to Saul yet.

There's going to be something that comes next chapter. I think you guys kind of have a little bit of an idea of what it might be. But there's something that's going to distinguish him.

And then Saul's going to be like, who is this kid? Like, who is this guy? And people have gotten all bent out of shape, commentaries.

Everybody's like, oh, this is wrong. This is an error in scripture because Saul clearly knows

David here in this text. And then next week he's going to act confused like he doesn't know David. Well, it's just that he's not that distinguished among all of the servants that would have been in the throne room during this time.

Certainly, he pleased the king. And David was able to deal with this whole spiritual issue that's going on.

But the king had many attendants. And further, we actually see that during the season of David's life, it's clear that he was going back and forth between service to Saul and going back to serve his family and bouncing back and forth because it's actually going to be stated in the beginning of chapter 18.

And then he remained permanently in the service of King Saul. So he doesn't remain permanently.

We're going to see him in the fields at the start of chapter 17 again. So here at the end of our text, we see that David's music therapy was blessed by God.

And I want to point out that his music therapy was blessed by God. I don't believe for a second that certain music repels tormenting spirits.

If you play Bach or Beethoven or a certain style of music, then no spirits can touch you, right?

Or whatever it is, Metallica, no angels can be in the presence of heavy metal or whatever.

I don't know. Whichever direction you want to go with that. Just listen to this to whatever.

Deal with the spiritual realm. Get back, Matt. I'm not even going to get into any of that.

But yeah, it's not that the song was effective.

But God blesses David. And therefore, he has success. Saul would get relief from the harmful spirits whenever David played because that's the way that God wanted it to be.

And we find out that the relief was temporary. And over the course of Saul's life, he went through cycles of spiritual oppression and cycles of peace.

And those cycles of peace surrounded David's therapy, playing the harp, playing the lyre for him.

So what are we to make of this short but bizarre text? How can we apply this to our lives?

What does that have to do with where we live here in Matawan in 2018? As usual,

I want to point us all to the reality that all applications of God's word must begin with believing the right things.

If we don't have the right belief, then we will apply this incorrectly. And so fundamental, anytime we come to the word of God, is to see what it's telling us to believe.

So let's start with the beliefs that come naturally, flow naturally from this text. The first is that God can use whatever means he needs to get our attention.

I believe fundamentally that's what God desires to communicate to us through this text. He can use torment, pain, turmoil, circumstances, his word, feelings, and even other people.

Underlying the way we deal with this evil or harmful spirit coming from the Lord is the reality that God is indeed sovereign, meaning above us.

He is the one responsible for this entire cosmos. He doesn't commit sin. We must always hold that to be true as Scripture declares, but he is indeed sovereign.

He is in charge. I believe that texts like this serve to challenge our provincial tendencies to try to domesticate our

God, put him in our nice little churchy boxes. But we need to open our eyes to accept

God as he reveals himself in the pages of Scripture. He is not tame, but he does love his people.

Think that through. God can use whatever means he desires to get our attention. The second belief that flows from this text is that we need so much more than merely therapy.

We need so much more than just therapy. Many of us know about physical therapy. Probably some of us in the room have gone through physical therapy.

Maybe some of you are going through physical therapy right now. A few of us know about occupational therapy. There's a couple of occupational therapists that attend here.

Again, a little bit more of a misunderstood therapy. But I would very boldly tell you to be cautious and careful.

Beware of spiritual therapy. Beware of spiritual therapy. You see, the only true prescription that can truly remedy our broken relationship with God is a repentant faith that is turning away from our sin and to God for salvation that only he can provide.

So much spiritual therapy is a bunch of books, a bunch of writings, a bunch of pastors, a bunch of radio personalities and TV personalities will tell you what your next step is, what you need to do to be close to God.

And there's all kinds of spiritual therapists who will tell you that the number one thing is, well, you've got a barrier in your life, and you need to do this, this, or this to get rid of that barrier in your life.

But what you need most is repentance, a turning away from sin, and a trust in the power of the

Almighty. We can turn to all kinds of things to try to mask the spiritual pain caused by the distance that we have from our

Creator. And by the way, every human heart experiences that level of pain. Every human heart knows, and even those who would declare themselves to be openly atheistic in writing books, they still experience a pain and a gap and a loss in their heart.

They may not be able to put words to it that it's separation from their Creator, separation from the way that things are meant to be in their hearts, but it's always, always there in every human heart.

But if we try to mask things, we may be drowning out the very messengers that God has sent to us to try to awaken us from spiritual lethargy, or even revive us in spiritual death.

How many people have drowned out the pain with service and volunteering to make themselves feel better for a time?

How many give, give to others, give to the poor, give to the church, give to all kinds of nonprofits because it's therapy?

It makes them feel better. I'm convinced that many will attend church around the world today because it makes them feel better.

Not because God is worth it. Not because they want to express the joy that they already have in Him, and they just want to gather together with others and express that same joy.

But it's just a thing to do. See, if we're not careful, Dave Bunt could be your

David, playing music that makes you feel better and eases the rage in you for a few minutes every week.

Or I could be to you a David of sorts, speaking words of inspiration that calms the raging for the five minutes that you remember what

I said. Further, some of you might even just feel like you've gained some credit for enduring yet another message by Don.

Right? I mean, maybe that's the extent of it. It's like, I just feel like I did my penance for the week. I don't know. But seriously, seriously, ask yourself, do

I love God? Do I love God? Is He trying to get your attention through some emotional pain that you keep dismissing and you keep ignoring

Him, you keep pushing it off, you keep masking the pain that you're feeling inside? Let me encourage you, please, oh please,

Recast, stop masking the pain. Let Him reveal the truth of what's going on inside of you.

Take some moments of silence to listen to what He's saying. It could be very well that He has sent you pain for a reason.

Identify a part of your heart that isn't given to Him. Let Him reveal the truth of what's going on inside of you.

And I'd love to meet with anyone who would admit here that you've been covering up what God is trying to say to you.

You've been masking it. You've been going the road of therapy rather than the road of really dealing with your heart.

Despite the fact, the third point here, despite the fact that I indicted Saul for seeking only therapy,

I'm now going to turn around and suggest to you that the follower of Christ is always at least an accidental therapist.

You see, in the wake of a moving Christian, there is always salt and light.

If you belong to Christ, in your wake at your workplace is salt and light.

In your wake in your neighborhood is salt and light. In your wake in your family, there is salt and light.

For those who are in Christ, consider your role in being an influence for good to those around you.

Just like David, who as the Spirit came upon him could not help but be of benefit to even the king of Israel.

We should not be insiders and instigators of conflict and turmoil. We should be peacemakers who bring the grace and mercy of God to those around us.

Christianity in general, as well as Christians specifically, has been a cause for good down through the centuries.

We've been a cause for good. Do you believe that? Christianity and Christians have done a lot of good.

Not for salvation, but because they are being redeemed. You see, the non -Christian world benefits from the common grace of a church in the world that is stemming moral decay and bringing hope to those caught in darkness.

Consider that you have a role to play in that. In your family, in your workplace, in your neighborhood, all around.

Anyone here in Christ, let me encourage you to consider the way that you can bring peace and hope to those around you each day.

I love a story about Charles Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, who lived in England in the middle of the 19th century.

An amazing man. If you get an opportunity, I've got some books, some biographies, some things that you could read on him if you're interested in more about his life or if you've just kind of heard about him but don't know who he is.

Dale Davis, in his commentary on this passage, recounts this story that I'm going to quote in its entirety.

Quote, One day an agnostic confronted Spurgeon, challenging his Christian beliefs. Spurgeon pointed out how unbelievers' organizations, unbelievers' organizations, failed to provide any definite and ongoing program of help to the thousands of needy around them.

Now remember, this was a dark time in England. By contrast, he pointed to the various works that flowed from the evangelical faith.

Then he closed the conversation by paraphrasing Elijah's defiant challenge before the prophets of Baal.

The God who is attentive to the plight of the world around us.

How does that happen? Through his followers. Salt and light.

A person who has a heart for God, a person receptive to his spirit, a person receptive to his guiding work, will be a force for good to all.

But a person who rejects God, like King Saul, a person who rejects his guidance, who refuses to delight in him, that person is a liability to all around them.

Do you see the difference between Saul the needy and David the giver here in this text?

Do you see how desperate Saul is in need? Do you see that David has something to give, has something to offer?

The difference is simply that David had a heart after God. Are you the needy this morning?

Are you the giver? And the only way we can be transferred from needy to giver, because by the way, every human that was ever born on this planet, aside from Jesus Christ himself, is needy.

Every single one was born in deep and desperate need. So how in the world could we ever say,

Oh, I'm a giver. I'm a giver. Well, it's the transfer. You see, our need for salvation, we're born with that need.

Our need for hope, our need for forgiveness, our need for purpose will be an all -consuming emotional journey until we come to the place where God Almighty gives us salvation, where He gives us hope, where He gives us forgiveness, where He gives us purpose.

The cross is the place where my need was lifted off of my shoulders and the blessing and the benefit of others became my mission.

Why? Because I'm now satisfied in Christ. The mission of the one far from God, the mission of King Saul and everyone who is like him, the rejection of the

Almighty. Their mission will only ever be self -therapy, self -healing, self -forgiveness, self -help.

But once we receive the help that God provided through the death of His Son, Jesus Christ, on the cross, then we're set free to help others.

Does that make sense? Once we have the oxygen mask on, properly affixed, then we can turn with a stable footing to help others, with confidence to be a giver.

So as we come to communion, I want you to thank God for setting you on solid ground, if that is indeed you this morning.

For His rescue, just thank Him for His rescue of you, so that you can now be a blessing and a benefit to others.

If you've been set free from self by faith in Jesus Christ, then come to the tables in the back and thank

Him for that grace that He has given to you. And let me encourage you, if that's you, to go out from this place in gratitude that God will use you as an influence of peace in the lives of others around you.

Don't forget that people need more than therapy, though. They need more than your therapy. They need more than your kindness.

They need a call to repentance. And part of the calling in our lives is to point out the deeper reason for pain.

Let's pray. Father, I thank You so much for Your grace and Your mercy.

I thank You for hope that we have in Christ, that You can transfer any heart, even the darkest of hearts, even the most needy of hearts,

You can transfer to become a giver of Your grace, based on what

Christ did on the cross. And Father, if there's anybody here who's identifying even now in their heart that they are definitely categorized as the needy, they definitely would reflect more

Saul's life than David's life in this text. Father, I pray that You would give them boldness to skip communion and come and talk with me at the door.

Father, today might be a day of fresh starts and new beginnings where the need might be lifted off of someone's shoulders here today and hope granted.

Father, I thank You that You're faithful and gracious to use a whole host of things, some of them painful, some of them difficult, but a whole bunch of things in our lives to not let us slip away.

And Father, that You would even just do that in Saul's life is amazing after so much rejection that You would still be throwing out alarms and warning bells to him.