Sermon Tone Analysis

Saturday Night, Session 3

Unseen Giants

recap

So we have been looking at King David’s life for the last couple of sessions

Night 1:

Samuel chose Saul as king, he was very “seeable” or tall and handsome…Really you get the sense in the book of 1 Samuel that he is just chosen because he looks the part...

There are even some funny things…Like he is out searching for his father’s lost donkeys…so if you really read between the lines in this story…Saul is following his father’s donkeys…He is literally being led around israel by lost donkeys...

It sort of symbolizes his whole administration as a leader

Whereas David was seen by God.

He was a man after God’s own heart

And he was a keeper of the sheep…or a leader of them…and when you think about it…this sort of symbolizes David’s entire administration

This Morning:

The question I asked us this morning is who are we all becoming?

When the stuff hits the fan, what are our “knee-jerk” reactions....

Saul liked to throw spears

David resisted the temptation

So if you remember

Saul was Israel’s giant and yet when it really mattered, he didn't have his hope in the Lord…so he failed

David was Small but he had placed his hope correctly in the Lord

Then we looked at this question of are you a “David” or are you a “Saul” When Saul gets stressed out he throws spears and when David gets spears throw at them he never throws them back!

So we asked the question, who are you at your core?

Are you a David or a Saul?

Well one of the truths of following Jesus is that:

the ways of God are most unappealing and seemingly irrelevant when we are angry, isolated or afraid.

We know this to be true, The path that God leads us down seems so unappealing when you are angry, isolated or afraid

Now it is impotrant to note...

Men…We make the mistake of going one of two ways with our emotions...

We either ignore them

Or we give them too prominent of a place in our lives and thus…We get ruled by them

Both are dangerous

This is probably the source of your greatest regret too.

Right?

You probably always say the things that you shouldn't say when you’re angry.

You probably do the things you should do when you’re isolated or you are afraid…

When does pornography become a problem men?

When do angry words happen?

When do we push people away?

Its when we are angry, isolated or afraid

When we are a part of these conditions we feel compelled to do something…We almost have a senses of panic and we think…If I just do something it will be better…something, anything,

We rely on instinct, we rely on what we did before…Because just doing something, when we are angry, isolated or afraid helps to soothe us…

But often times, just doing something doesn’t make things better, it will often times make things worse…

Now lets get to David…

He has two colossal failures in his life.

One that he is famous for, David & Bathsheba when he is in his fifties

And one that happens in his early twenties when he is running from Saul that he is not famous for

So as we remember from last week, because of David’s growing power and influence, Saul became afraid of David.

Saul began trying to do things like control David…So he tries to get him into his family by giving David his Daughter’s hand in marriage…

David is like, I don't think I am worthy to be the kings son-in-law…I’m really nobody

This makes David even more humble and its like, oh my gosh, who would do this!?

Well later on David does fall in love with one of Saul’s daughters, and this pleased Saul so he gave his daughter Michal’s hand in marriage to David…

Later, the king’s son and David became best friends and David’s power and influence began to grow and grow.

Saul would try and send David off on these missions that just seemed impossible so that he would die and each time David came back and he gained more favor and influence than ever…

Finally the preverbal pimple comes to a head…And Saul just looses it one night at dinner…..Dinner was the big meal of the day and to sit at the kings table was an extraordinary honor.

David would regularly dine with the king, But David had been missing dinners lately.

It was kind of an open secret that the king was trying to Kill David.

So Saul just lost it at one of these dinners when David didn't show up

1 Samuel 20:30-31

30 Saul’s anger flared up at Jonathan and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman!

Don’t I know that you have sided with the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you? 31 As long as the son of Jesse lives on this earth, neither you nor your kingdom will be established.

Now send someone to bring him to me, for he must die!”

By the way if you’re at the dinner table and one of your kids screws up…I dare you to say…”You son of a perverse and rebellious woman!”

I mean don't you think that Saul’s wife was at this dinner too?

Now…What Flared up?

His Anger…Its hard to do things God’s way when you’re angry right?

But Saul lays out the real issue… Saul’s days were numbered, he always tried to do things his own way.

He didn't honor God in the process

So way back in 1 Samuel 13, Samuel told Saul, your kingdom is done!

So Saul is really concerned that his son Jonathan’s kingdom could get established…so Saul could have a legacy…

Saul is saying, look Son, David needs to die if we are going to win…He’s a threat….

So Jonathan goes to David and says, you have to leave town man…You have to get out of Israel all together because my dad wants you dead…

David is only 22 at this point

All of the sudden David has to go on the run.

He used to have all he needed… He was the king’s right hand man…and then all of the sudden

He was Abandoned…He was Angry & Afraid

And what happens when that happens?

Like anyone else, David Panicked….

He lost sight of the fact that God was with him…he lost sight of the fact that He killed Goliath and the faith he brought into that moment

We have the benefit of knowing how David’s story ends…But in the moment you are thinking “David!”

Why have you lost sight of this!

People may be looking at your life too and be thinking…Hey didn't you trust God?

Why have you lost sight of this?

You may even look back at parts of your life and think, why did I act that way?

Why did I spend that money?

Why did I do that thing?

And it’s real simple, when you feel abandoned, angry or afraid then you panic

So in David’s life in the very next chapter, here is what happens:

1 Samuel 21:1

David went to Nob, to Ahimelek the priest.

Ahimelek trembled when he met him, and asked, “Why are you alone?

Why is no one with you?”

at this time there wasn't a temple, so to go to the priest David had to go to wherever the tabernacle was, and at this point in his life it was in Nob.

And what does the priest say

Why are you alone?

Why is no one with you?

Ahimelek knows that something is up…because usually you would hear David coming, before you saw him

David would travel with over1,000 mighty men usually on horseback

In fact this was probably the first time that Ahimelek had ever seen David alone.

1 Samuel 21:2-3

2 David answered Ahimelek the priest, “The king sent me on a mission and said to me, ‘No one is to know anything about the mission I am sending you on.’

As for my men, I have told them to meet me at a certain place.