Sermon Tone Analysis

A woman said to a minister, "When I was 22, I was in a serious car accident, and my boyfriend was killed.

I have gone through a lot of surgery and am now doing well.

When that happened, I lost my faith."

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ILLUSTRATION

Lost Your Faith or Had None to Begin With?

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A businessman asked me if I would speak to his staff, and I readily accepted.

One of his staff asked me if we could talk privately.

She said, "Ian, when I was 22, I was in a serious car accident, and my boyfriend was killed.

I have gone through a lot of surgery and am now doing well.

When that happened, I lost my faith."

He said, "You know, when they built the Queen Mary, the Queen Elizabeth, and the QE2, they did not test them in dry dock.

They didn't leave them in dry dock and get big hoses on them to see if they would leak.

They got those ships out into the open ocean to put them through sea trials.

These trials were not intended to sink the ship.

These trials were to prove that the ship was seaworthy.

The only way you can know whether your faith is real or not is when the pressures of life come, when you go through trials.

Then you know if you are seaworthy or not.

Can I ask you honestly, did you lose your faith or did you find you had none?"

She said, “I guess you are right, I had none."

Trials and Testing.

Suffering and Temptation.

These are things that show us what our faith is really made of.

It is easy to be an angel as long as no one ruffles our feathers.

Don’t we wanna know if we really believe all this stuff?

We say we have faith but do we?

We have moments of temptation and trials to show us not if we will sink, but if we are seaworthy… not to find out what we don’t believe, but find out what we do believe.

Along with all of this… the tension rises in this instance because we should understand that Christianity has no short cuts.

Christianity is like playing the guitar or running a marathon… there are no short cuts at all.

There is no quick way, no fast track, no miracle pill, no extreme makeover, no weekend conference, and no amount of money to spiritual maturity.

She said, "Ian, I guess you are right, I had none."

Before you run 26 miles, you gotta run 1, 2, 5, 10, 11, 18, 20, 26.

You be able to position your fingers in the right place, gotta get strong enough to hold down the strings, gotta get strong enough to hold down the strings for a long time.

Gotta develop callouses so that it does not hurt your fingers anymore.

There are no short cuts.

With Christianity there is no short cuts.

We will be tested and we will have to pass the tests.

There are no makeup tests.

We will have to pass the tests.

Why? It’s not for weak faith, but having faith at all.

Like the story… do we even have faith at all?

We will find out what we really believe… all of us.

Just like David, we face it.

How did David face it?

What happened?

This is what we will look at today.

In the last chapter, we find a completion in David’s kingship.

He now has the prophet and the high priest.

We saw that even though he is wandering in the desert, he has the Word of God and so now, he has all that he needs.

The Word is all we need.

Remember, Saul went back home to fight the Israelites.

Now that he is done he immediately went back to hunting David down.

Saul took 3000 of his special forces to search for him.

There came a point when Saul had to relieve himself; he went into a cave to do it.

It just so happened that all of his elite men were outside of the cave and David and his men were just a bit deeper.

Look at this David, the Lord has delivered your enemy into you hands today.

This could not be more perfect.

David’s men spoke as if it were a prophecy.

Instead of killing Saul, David just cuts off a piece of his robe.

David declared to his men that Saul was not to be killed.

He is chosen by God, he is anointed of God.

Then when Saul walked out of the cave David shouted out to him and bowed before him.

Why do you listen to people who say I want to harm you?

I had an opportunity to kill you back in the cave.

Sire, I will never harm you because you are the king.

I have a piece of your robe in my hand, that is how close I was to you.

This proves that I am not trying to kill you.

Let the Lord be the judge.

He may decide to kill you because of what you are doing to me, but I will not harm you.

Saul began to cry.

You are a better man David.

You repay me with good for evil.

Who else would let their enemy go the way you did?

Saul blessed David, acknowledging that now he knows that David will one day be king.

He asked David to promise that when he becomes king, he will not kill his descendants.

David promised this to Saul with an oath.

The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever.

1.

The Test

2. The Task

3. The Triumph

The first thing we will look at is the test that David was faced with and how we face the same kind of things on a daily basis.

Second, we will look at the testing task of the true humility of David before Saul and how it shows us the humility of Christ who being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be held onto taking the form of a servant and becoming like man.

Finally, we will see how the testing task of humiliation of Christ brought to Him eternal triumph that we will share in for all eternity.

Thesis: Although sin and the deception of this world puts us in a position to be tested and tempted, God allows the testing, in order for us to mature in Christ, to become complete in Christ, to not lack anything in Christ and by the testing task of the cross we will triumph in Christ for all eternity.

I.

The Test

- The testing of our faith develops perseverance… develops maturity.

A. In the words of Rafiki from the Lion King… “it is time.

The king has returned.”

But is it time?

Saul is going potty, he is unprotected, and he is unaware.

The men could not believe the opportunity… Kill Saul and it will be over.

It is as if David could hear his men practically singing to him… and we can build this dream together standing strong forever nothings gonna stop us now.

B. Do it David… Kill Saul and we do not have to wander anymore.

We can go home and David we can live like kings.

But David did not kill Saul.

There was a huge test before him.

Would he sin in order to put an end to it all?

What of his men?