This morning we continue our study in the history of the Old Testament. Basically what happens in the Old Testament, or if you just wanted to say in the history of the world, is that mankind rebels against God and ruins the relationship between the Creator and the people. It's not God's fault, but only God can fix it. Old Testament history is a history of God making promises and then mankind waiting to see how God will bring these things about that He has said He will do. As we've been walking through the Old Testament so far, here's some key promises God had said to Satan and to Eve that Eve would have an offspring who would be wounded and then crush Satan's head. Then God promised to Abraham Guess we have this one over here. God promised Abraham that He would give him the land of Canaan forever that he would give him offspring as innumerable as the stars and that he would bring blessing to all the families of the earth not just Abraham's descendants and then God made this covenant. It was through Moses, but really it's between the people of Israel and them. We call it the Mosaic Covenant because Moses mediated it. But if the Israelites would obey God's law, then God would bless them. But if they would disobey God's law, then He would curse them. That Mosaic Covenant was doomed to fail from the very beginning because it's based upon Israel's obedience. And as we're already beginning to see in Israel's history, they're unable to do it consistently. Okay, now where we left off in our last study is in the time of the judges. In the time of the judges, there's three or four hundred years where this takes place and they're in this cycle, right? And so the people of God, instead of worshiping the one true God, they would worship idols. And in response to that, the Lord would send an oppressor to defeat them and to oppress them. In the midst of their misery, then they would eventually call out to the Lord for deliverance. They'd call out to the true God, and He would send a judge. That's what the book of Judges is named after. A judge to deliver them, to bring them military victory, to free them so they could have peace in the land once again. And usually that peace would last until the judge died, at which point they would go and worship a false god again. That's the cycle that goes through three to four hundred years of Israel's history after they first move into the land until we get to first Samuel Now as we come to this book of first Samuel, we transition from the time of the judges into the time of Kings and so in Samuel, we're going to learn about the last two judges Eli and Samuel and then the first two kings of Israel Saul and David Here's a simple outline of the book. I You could you could outline it just basically by three people So Samuel the last of the judges who's also the high priest and a prophet covers the first seven chapters of the book and then there is the rise of Israel's first King Saul and his rejection Saul fails in the eyes of the Lord and Then we go into the rise of king david from chapter 16 through the end of first samuel. We see david's rise and david Pleases god What's the difference between these two kings between saul and david? There's a couple of ways you could point out the difference between them in by looking at the book one one way would be by looking at In what way are they impressive turn with me to 1st Samuel 13 We we read if we were reading the first part of 1st Samuel, we'd read that Saul the first king. He was impressive outwardly He was rich and he was handsome and he was really really tall while David was impressive in his character in his hearts and First Samuel 13 14 is kind of in a transition in the middle of the book from Saul to David and it points out What's better about David? Why is it that David pleases the Lord look at first Samuel 13 14 what it says? This is Samuel that last judge talking to Saul First Samuel 13 14, but now your kingdom Saul will not continue the Lord has sought out a man after his own heart And the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people, because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you." See, David was a man after God's own heart. David was a man whose heart was like God's heart. So he loved what God loved, and he hated what the Lord hated. So one difference between Saul, the first king, and David the second, was that Saul was impressive outwardly, but David was a man after God's own heart. Question is how does that express itself? How can you tell if someone is a man after God's own heart? Is there any way that you can see it? I can't see into your heart and you can't see into mine. What's the difference outwardly? Jesus answered that question this way in John 14 15 Jesus said if you love me You will keep my commandments And this is where the rubber meets the road lots of people say that they love the Lord and Lots of young Christian men will say to the young women that they're dating. Well, of course, I'm a Christian. I go to church. But how do you know if that young man really loves the Lord? Here it is. Watch what he does when he's confronted with a clear command from God. What do you do when you're confronted with a clear command of God? Here's what Saul did. This is the first point on your sheets here. As we look at Saul's life, you could sum up his life this way. Saul, when he got clear commands from God, he came up with reasons why, in his particular situation, God could not really expect him to obey. That's what Saul did. When he got a command from the Lord, he would come up with reasons for why, in his situation, God couldn't really expect him to obey. Want to show you two situations in which Paul Saul did not obey God. The first one has to do with Waiting for Samuel the prophet when the Philistines attacked. Okay, so come back with me to 1st Samuel chapter 9 1st Samuel chapter 9 so right Samuel is that the last judge and the high priest and so Samuel's gonna anoint both of the first two Kings He anoints all then he's gonna anoint David when Samuel anoints Saul this is not they don't arrange this the Lord arranges it and So Saul, actually, when he first meets Samuel, Saul is just looking for his dad's last, his lost donkeys. He's out wandering, looking for these donkeys and he can't find them. And so he thinks, well, there's a prophet nearby, Samuel, I'll go ask the prophet and maybe the prophet will tell me where the donkeys are. So that's all Saul's after. But when he meets Samuel, God has a lot more in mind for this meeting. Okay, that's 1 Samuel 9. Come with me there to 1 Samuel 9, 15. Now, the day before Saul came, the Lord had revealed to Samuel, tomorrow, about this time, I will send you a man from the land of Benjamin, and you shall anoint him to be prince over my people, Israel. He shall save my people from the land, from the hand of the Philistines. For I have seen my people because their cry has come to me. Okay, so Saul comes looking for donkeys, he meets Samuel, and Samuel anoints Saul to be the next king, the first king of Israel. And then, in this first meeting, Samuel gives Saul specifics of what he's supposed to do. In this first meeting, already he's told him, listen, I'm going to deliver you from the Philistines. I'm gonna use you to deliver my people from the Philistines and then he gives him here in this first meeting before Saul is even king He gives him a specific command that he's supposed to obey. So when the Philistine situation arises, here's what you're supposed to do So skip ahead to chapter 10 verse 8. We're looking for the What specifically is Saul supposed to do when he's king and the Philistines come? Okay, first Samuel 10 verse 8 Then Saul Go down before me to Gilgal and behold I Samuel am coming down to you to offer burnt offerings and to sacrifice peace offerings Seven days you shall wait until I come to you and show you what you shall do Okay, so instruction is when the Philistine problem comes up go to Gilgal wait for me seven days I'll come Samuel on the prophet. I'm the priest. I'll all offer a sacrifice and then I'll tell you what to do. I Now, what's funny in this story, this doesn't happen for two years. And so much happens in between this first command and when it happens. So when they first meet and he gets these instructions, he's not king yet. Samuel calls the whole nation together in between here and he introduces Saul as the king and they accept him as the king. But at first, people are like, is he really going to do it? But then there's another enemy that comes, I think it's the Ammonites, and Saul performs admirably and they defeat the Ammonites and Saul becomes established as king. So two years go by. But sure enough, two years later, the predicted problem of the Philistines raises its ugly head. Look at 1 Samuel 13 now. 1 Samuel 13, verse 5. And the Philistines mustered to fight with Israel. 30,000 chariots and 6,000 horsemen and troops like the sand on the seashore in multitude. They came up and encamped in Michmash to the east of Beth-Avon. When the men of Israel saw that they were in trouble, for the people were hard pressed, the people hid themselves in caves and in holes and in rocks and in tombs and in cisterns. And some Hebrews crossed the fords of the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. Saul was still at Gilgal and all the people followed him trembling. OK, here's a map. It's a little fuzzy. I apologize, but we kind of squint. Here's the purple is the the land of Saul his kingdom to the west here. This is the land of the Philistines They don't this is not part of Saul's kingdom. The Philistines gathered this huge army right innumerable And they come in to attack Israel and their new king Saul they come to mcmasters is right here So there's this huge force Two years ago before Saul was even King Samuel had told him okay when this happens you go to Gilgal you wait seven days I'll come and offer an offering so Saul does it he goes to Gilgal which is over here just to the East of where the Philistine army is he goes and he waits Wow Saul is waiting for Samuel By based on the instructions from two years ago The people are running And the Israelites, there's this huge army and they're hiding themselves in wells and in caves and in holes. And some of them are crossing the river and fleeing into other nations. And the people that are with Saul and Gilgal, they are trembling. And there's less of them every day. And it's, now it's been seven days. He's supposed to wait seven days and Samuel's supposed to arrive, but Samuel's still not here. Look. Verse 8. What's Saul going to do? Verse Samuel 13, 8. Saul waited seven days, the time appointed by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal. And the people were scattering from him. So Saul thinks, okay, time's up. Like, I'm the king. I got to take action. I know I'm supposed to wait for Samuel, but I waited seven days and he's not here and everybody's running. Everyone's looking to me to lead. I got to do something. And so Saul's like, I'll just take the next step myself. We're supposed to offer sacrifices. So, so Saul the king offered the sacrifice instead of waiting for Samuel. Probably late on the seventh day, maybe in the evening. Anyway, verse 10 says that as soon as Saul finishes presenting his burnt offering, Samuel arrives. Right at the end, the very last hour, Samuel arrives and Saul's like, Samuel, where were you? I was here and I waited seven days and so I had to go and do the offering myself. And look at what Samuel says, speaking to Saul. 1 Samuel 13, 13. And Samuel said to Saul, you have done foolishly. You have not kept the command of the Lord your God. with which he commanded you, for then the Lord would have established your kingdom over Israel forever. But now your kingdom shall not continue. The Lord has sought out a man after his own heart, and the Lord has commanded him to be prince over his people because you have not kept what the Lord commanded you. Why is Saul supposed to wait seven days? It's a test from the Lord to see if Saul will follow the word of the Lord, or if under pressure, he will do it his way instead. And he did not obey. And so now God is going to hand the kingdom over to someone else. Okay, the story continues here. The Philistine army is still there. Saul leads his army into battle against them. And because of a great work of God through Jonathan, Saul's son, they, Saul defeats that Philistine army and sends them running. And then over the next years, Saul continues to, the nations around, there's six different nations that are mentioned in 1 Samuel that Saul wins battles against. Some of them Saul defeats multiple times. And so maybe Saul's thinking, well, boy, this whole, Didn't obey and so God's gonna take away my kingdom doesn't seem like it's a big deal Cuz I'm I'm dominating here and he establishes himself as the king and a powerful ruler in this region Okay, then we're gonna come to a second time where God gives Saul a command This command is ahead in chapter 15 if you skip there with me for Samuel 15 this has to do with carrying out God's judgment on the Malachites Here's the second time that God gives Saul a command as king look there with me first Samuel 15 3 Samuel comes speaks on behalf of the Lord to Saul. He says now go and strike Amalek and Devote to destruction all that they have Do not spare them but kill both man and woman child and infant ox and sheep camel and donkey and Amalek is down here on your map God is the judge of all the earth in our day. God doesn't have a nation that he sends to carry out his judgment But in Saul's day, that's how that works. Israel was God's Nation God is the judge of all the earth in the same way that God sent the flood and destroyed all the people on the earth and Here he's sending Saul to do his work and God has determined that the people of Amalek have are so wicked that they deserve to all die. And so he sends Saul to carry out this judgment upon these wicked people. Go kill everything. Drive them out or kill them. And so 1st Samuel chapter 15 verse 7, Saul does go and attack the Amalekites. Look at 1st Samuel 15, 7. And Saul defeated the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt. And he took Agag, the king of the Amalekites, alive and devoted to destruction all the people with the edge of the sword. But Saul and the people spared Agag And the best of the sheep and of the oxen and of the fattened calves and the lambs and all that was good and would not utterly destroy them. All that was despised and worthless they devoted to destruction. Is that what God commanded Saul to do? Let's see what happens when Samuel the prophet arrives after the battle. Samuel shows up. And Saul greets Samuel and he says, Oh, the Lord bless you. I have performed the commandment of the Lord. I went and attacked the Amalekites. Samuel's response is, if you were so obedient, then why is the air filled with the sounds of animals? Why do I hear these sheep bleeding and these cattle lowing? Aren't they all supposed to be slaughtered? Saul's response is, well, the people decided to keep the animals, and instead of just killing them, we're going to offer them as a burnt offering to the Lord. Won't that be great? And look at Samuel's response to Saul. 1 Samuel 15, 22. This is what the prophet says to Saul. 1 Samuel 15, 22, when Samuel said, has the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying? The voice of the Lord. Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice and to listen than the fat of Rams for rebellion is as the sin of divination and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, he has also rejected you from being king. In Saul's mind, He's thinking, well, I, I obeyed the Lord. I did what he asked. I just did it a little differently in God's mind. That's clear disobedience to presume that you have the authority to tweak God's instructions and do it your way is the same thing as if you're worshiping an idol. It says in verse 23, see presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. So many people today are living the same way that Saul lived They say I'm a Christian I'm following Jesus But they don't do what the Bible says They say they follow Jesus and they live their life in a way. That's kind of like what Jesus asks, but Really they do it in a way that makes more sense to them They say to themselves well in in my situation I It applies a little different. They say, I mean, after all the pain that that person has caused in my life, would God really ask me to forgive them? Or another person asks, would God really want me to be committed to this marriage? With the husband or the wife that I have? Another person says, well, I know I'm going to submit an honor to my leaders, but would God really want me to honor these leaders? Do you see what kind of people they are? Another person says, well, would God really insist that I live out my life as a gender that doesn't feel like it's me? Another person might say, well, does God really prohibit me from preaching or being an elder just because I'm a woman? Or someone else might say, does God really care if I go to church in person and worship or or isn't it just that I worship him from my heart? Well, what did God say? What was his command? If I presume that I can change God's commands and follow him in a way that makes sense to me, then really I am following an idol of my own making instead of the God of the Bible. Right? Verse 23. Rebellion is as a sin of divination and presumption is as iniquity and idolatry. So Saul said, yeah, I'll obey you, God, but he did it his way, not God's way. And so God rejected Saul from being king. And after this, God never speaks to Saul again. Even when Saul goes to God and seeks direction, God ignores him. He won't speak to him. Saul becomes so frustrated at the end of his life because he can't get direction from God that he goes and he asks a witch to raise Samuel from the dead so he might find out what he's supposed to do. But really, Saul never repents. Saul has his own agenda and he's pursuing that agenda. You know, he's doing his own thing instead of what God has commanded. And so, that's Saul's life. He came up with reasons why, in his particular situation, God couldn't really expect him to obey. Okay, now let's contrast that to King David. What's King David do? In the same situation, when David gets a command from the Lord, what does he do? Well, David obeyed God, and then he trusted God to work it out for his good. He just obeyed God and then trusted God to work it out for his good. Let's look here first Samuel 15 on our outline of the book So the rejection of Saul kind of takes you through verse 15 of chapter 15 of the book and then chapter 16 We shift our focus to David Chapter 16 Samuel comes and he anoints David as the next king of Israel, but there's quite a bit of time So David is probably 16 when he gets anointed as the king. He doesn't actually start to reign until he's 30 and So there's 14 years of David just waiting for God to do what he said, quite a long time. And the first part of those 14 years, David was serving King Saul. So sometimes he was, well, he was a warrior for Saul, and then he was a musician for Saul, and then he was a leader of one of Saul's units. He was a commander in his army, and he did so well, and God so blessed David in all of these pursuits that Saul began to see David as a threat, which he really wasn't. Not from David anyway, so Saul decided I've got to put down this threat and he became more and more Obsessed with killing David So David eventually has to flee from Saul and he hides in the wilderness That's kind of the storyline as we go through here, I just want to pull out some times where David got a command from God What did David do? Was it like what Saul did? Okay, turn with me to 1st Samuel chapter 23. Okay, 1st Samuel chapter 23, David is hiding, it says, in a cave, the cave of Adullam, which is right here, Adullam. And there's a little, there's a little Israelite town close to where he's hiding out from Saul. It's called Keilah. They're, they're very close over here to the Philistines. David and when he's hiding from Saul, he's gonna get this report about Something happening in Akilah. Okay. Look there at 1st Samuel 23 verse 1 now They told David behold the Philistines are fighting against Keilah and are robbing the threshing floors Now whose job is it to protect Keilah against the Philistines It'd be Saul's job. Saul's the one that has the army right it's it's Saul's job to go and protect them and and But David decides, I'm going to ask God, does God want me to go over there and help protect the city that's close by? And so he does. 1 Samuel 23, 2, David therefore inquired of the Lord, shall I go and attack these Philistines? And the Lord said to David, go and attack the Philistines and save Keilah. Apparently at this point, David goes to his men. He says, men, we're going to save Keilah. And they say, Do you understand the situation here? Like, we're hiding from Saul. Look at verse 3 as their response. David's men said to him, Behold, we are afraid here in Judah. How much more then if we go to Keilah against the armies of the Philistines? It's like, David, don't we have enough enemies? Like, Saul's trying to kill us with his army. That's why we're hiding. Now we're going to go attack another country? So we'll be fighting two nations at the same time? And David's like, hmm. That is an issue. So, David goes back and he's like, Lord, really? You want us to attack the Philistines? Look at verse 4. And David inquired of the Lord again. And the Lord answered him, Arise, go down to Keilah, for I have given, or I will give, the Philistines into your hand. And David and his men went to Keilah and fought with the Philistines and brought away their livestock and struck them with a great blow. So, David saved the inhabitants of Keilah. As we walk through these events in David's life, I kind of want to just highlight some of the excuses that we tend to use, right? Why, in my situation, I shouldn't do what God said. And that's not what David does. So, on your sheets there, in 1 Samuel 23, David obeyed God even when it wasn't technically any of his business. It's not his responsibility. He obeyed God even when it wasn't his responsibility or his business. Letter B, David obeyed God even when he was afraid. Letter C, David obeyed God even when others said it was unwise and unsafe. Right? His men are saying, David, what in the world? This isn't the right plan and this will happen to you. Sometimes God will ask you to do something and you go and ask people around you, Christians even, and they'll say, no, no, no, no. In this situation, you don't want to do what that verse says, because it's not going to be safe. It's not wise. But David did it, even when others said that. Okay, let's go to another example of a time when David obeyed the Lord. Go over to 1 Samuel chapter 26. 1 Samuel 26. Now, maybe you say, okay, well, this is kind of easy for David, because David had God coming and talking straight to him. Right and if I if I had God and God came and spoke to me and told me what to do Well, then for sure I would do it but my problem is that all I've got is the Bible and it kind of gives general principles and commands and What I'm trying to figure out is whether this applies to me in my situation or not So in this next example, we're gonna see something where David doesn't get a direct command from the Lord he just knows what is right from Scripture and He does it Okay, first Samuel, we're going to chapter 26, verse 7. Okay, as David's hiding in the wilderness, there are two times where Saul's chasing him, and David has a chance that he could easily kill Saul. This is the second of those two times. What happens is Saul is chasing David, his army is camped right there by where David is, and so David, in the middle of the night with his buddy, Abishai, they sneak into Saul's camp in the middle of the night. And they're standing there, everyone's sleeping in Saul's camp, They're sleeping Saul, their enemy, who's here to kill them, and Abishai and David. 1 Samuel 26, verse 7. So David and Abishai went to the army by night. And there lay Saul, sleeping within the encampment, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head. And Abner and the army lay around him. 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 and I will not strike him twice I'm a warrior David. Just just say the word One stroke of my spear that are gonna be no noise. Saul is dead. We leave your king Right. God has done it. Here. He is God's deliverance. He's trying to kill you Let me kill him Look at David's response, verse nine. But David said to Abishai, do not destroy him, for who can put out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless? And David says, as the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him or his day will come to die or he will go down to battle and perish. The Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord's anointed. Our problem is a lot of times we want to manipulate the situations to get the result that we want Right We want to make it out. This is what I want. And so I'm gonna do what needs to happen So that gets there and and Abishai is thinking what we want David is for you to be king. And so let's do it But that's not the Christian way of living the Christian way of living is we do what God asks us to do and Then we trust him Maybe we get to that desired result that I want and maybe we don't we leave that in God's hands I I just need to do what God says And so David says listen, I'm not we're not gonna kill him The Lord means to kill him the Lord can do it, but it's not gonna be me because that would be sin So David obeyed God he obeyed God even when it was not a specific command letter D He obeyed God even when it wasn't a specific command straight to him. He just knew it from Scripture David obeyed God even when it seemed if he would be better off disobeying because then he'd be king instead of in hiding David obeyed God even when others sinfully hurt him Right David doesn't say well He's trying to kill me. I keep letting him go. He's gonna kill me one. No, he doesn't do that I'm gonna do what's right doesn't matter what he does David obeyed God even when others told him that God would be okay with it. I His buddy's telling him, listen, God just delivered him to you. David said no. So David obeyed God. Go to one more example of this. Go to 1 Samuel 30. Another time we're going to find a command given to David and how he responds. We'll go back to our fuzzy map here, because we like it better fuzzy. So here's Ziklag down here. There's a time at the end of David's exile from Saul that he decides the only way to stay safe is to leave the borders of Israel and go into Philistine territory. So Ziklag is kind of hard to see here, but it's in the land of the Philistines. And so he's living there in Ziklag. And what David and his men go, they go and they attack the enemies of Israel. One day David is out with his men fighting God's battles doing what God has called him to do when he returns to his hometown and they find a Horrible situation and they come back home first Samuel 30 Look at verse 1 Now when David and his men came to Ziklag on the third day the Amalekites had made a raid against the Negev and against Ziklag their town They had overcome Ziklag and burned it with fire and taken captive the women and all who were in it, both small and great. They killed no one but carried them off and went their way. And when David and his men came to the city, they found it burned with fire and their wives and sons and daughters taken captive. Then David and the people who were with him raised their voices and wept until they had no more strength to weep. David's two wives also had been taken captive, Ahinoam of Jezreel and Abigail, the widow of Nabal of Carmel. So the men had been gone while they were gone. Their city had been burned and all their wives and children taken captive. How did they respond? Well, the first thing they do is they just weep until they can't weep anymore. Then verse 6, And David was greatly distressed, for the people spoke of stoning him. Because all the people were bitter in soul, each for his sons and daughters. They're like, David, you're the one, you keep telling us what God wants us to do, thus this, God wants us to go over there, God wants us to do this, we follow you and now look, now look what's happened. Because of you, our wives and our kids are all gone and they want to stone him to death. Look at David's response at the end of verse 6. But David strengthened himself and the Lord is gone. Somehow, David takes his trouble to the Lord. And David said to Abiathar, the priest, the son of Ahimelech, bring me the ephod. So Abiathar brought the ephod to David. And David inquired of the Lord, shall I pursue after this band? Shall I overtake them? He answered him, pursue, for you shall surely overtake and shall surely rescue. David obeyed he's got 400 exhausted men. They chased after this big army And I don't know how big the Amalekite army was But I do know that at the end of the battle when David wins it says only 400 Amalekites got away Which is the whole number of David's army, right? So they go and they win this victory and they save all of their wives and their children Letter H on your sheets we learn from here David obeyed God and Even when he was deeply hurting David obeyed God even when he was deeply hurting Sometimes guys sometimes when we're hurting and God gives us a command What comes to our mind is I can't do it It's it's too hard Lord, I've been wounded and you see the hurt in my life and now you're calling me to go and do and to take more risk and to put myself in harm's way again in the middle of all this pain. God, I can't do it. And so we don't obey. But a better example would be David's. So David's hurting. In the midst of his hurt, he goes and he finds strength in the Lord. And by his spirit, brothers and sisters, by his spirit, he's going to give us the strength to obey. So David in the midst of his pain Goes and he chases after the Amalekites and God gives him the victory and he can do the same for you even when you're hurting Don't say I can't Still you're responsible to worship God even when it feels like he's let you down Still you're responsible to to call out to him and just and to seek to obey him And if you obey him out of your pain, it's not that he doesn't care listen the Bible says that he captures all of your tears like in a bottle and But still in the midst of that pain, he calls you to obey. And David's a beautiful example of that. So what's one key difference between Saul and David? Saul talked about God all the time and generally considered himself a follower of Yahweh, but he failed in God's eyes. Because when Saul got an instruction from the Lord, he kept thinking. He got an instruction from the Lord, and he's like, OK, God wants me to do this. But if I do that, then this is going to happen. So is there any way that I could please God and kind of do it, but not that way? That's how Saul operated, and God said, you're disobeying me. You're following your own God, not me. And he rejected him. Where David, when God spoke to David and David knew what he was supposed to do, there was no more thinking about it. David just obeyed and he did what God called him to do. That's the lifestyle of a man or a woman after God's own heart. Maybe you're here this morning and you know about some change that God wants you to make in your lifestyle. Maybe there's something that God wants you to stop watching, or God wants you to go and share the gospel with a friend, or God wants you to take some kind of risk for Him. Maybe God wants you to forgive someone that doesn't deserve it. What are you going to do? Be like David obey God's command and then trust him with the results. Don't worry about it. Just obey and see what he does Now one more thing needs to be said here David's life when you find God giving him a specific command David always does it but don't get the idea that David always did what was right because he didn't and We skipped over 1st Samuel 21. There's a time where David to protect his life lied to a priest and that ended up in that priest and his whole City being slaughtered by Saul It's a sinful act for David to lie in that situation. He didn't know what was gonna come from it. He caused that We're gonna get to the next book 2nd Samuel next week and we find that David Took another man's wife and then he took the life of that man and it caused great harm and It's a horrible sin in God's eyes. And yet, when you look at David's life, like later on when people talk about David in the Bible, they always look back and they say, oh, that's a man after God's own heart. Well, how can it be if he sinned so grievously? What does a man or a woman after God's own heart do when we fail, when we don't obey like we should have done? Look at what King David did. This is from David's Psalm 51 verses 9 and 10. After he had sinned with Bathsheba, David went to the Lord and said, Lord, hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. You know, this is the basis of Christianity. It's not that we always do what's right. We're called to obey, and we should, because we love Him. The basis of Christianity isn't, I live up to His standards. The basis is, when I fail, I go to God and I say, Oh God, please forgive me and give me a new heart. And the message of Christianity is that Christ has died in your place. And so no matter what your sin is, if you will come to God and say, God, please blot out my iniquities, the Lord will say, okay, I'll take your iniquity off of you. And I put it on Christ. And then the Lord will give you a new heart so that you can obey. That's what he does. That's how I become a Christian. I go and I confess my sins. I call out for forgiveness and I say, God, give me a new heart. That's how I become a Christian. And then as a Christian, this is how I live day to day. Every time I fail, I go back to the Lord and I say, Lord, I'm sorry. And give me a new heart. And he receives me and he lifts me up and sends me on. Will you join me in prayer? God, thank you for the example in this book. Lord, some of us have to be here today and confess that There are some things where we're being like Saul, and we know what you want us to do, but we're doing something kind of like it instead. I pray that for anyone that's here in that place right now, that they would repent and they would say, Lord, I'm just going to obey. I'm going to obey and leave the consequences to you. No matter what happens, I just want to do what's right. And God, we come and we're just so thankful for Jesus Christ. He was born from David's line, eventually, and he died in our place and he rose again. He's coming back as our king, a king like David, but so much better. That's our king. We worship you today. We thank you for your forgiveness and your grace. Give us hearts like your heart that we might love what you love and hate what you hate and trust you by obeying your word day to day. We pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks, everyone. God bless you.