Sermon Tone Analysis

Cutting Corners

One of my friends was saying to me, "I don't want this series to end"!

I was like, "Man, it's fine.

We don't even have David to the throne yet.

We're just getting started.

He's not even a king yet".

We're looking at his life, and we're taking our time so we can understand where he came from, what he was called to, and how God brought him from where he was to where God ultimately wanted him to be.

It's a model for our lives.

We're looking at it from two perspectives.

Hopefully the contrast over time will begin to show you some things about how God works in your own life because I don't read the Bible really like a history lesson.

For me the Bible is at its best in my life when it's living and active.

So it's more like heart surgery, not just to learn about a character that existed long ago, but so God can shape his character in my heart.

I have a long way to go.

Touch somebody and say, "You have a long way to go.

I can tell you really need this series".

I want to look at something today concerning David.

The way I want to set it up is I just want to look at one verse, Psalm 57:2…something David wrote, a declaration he made…then, as we've been doing each week, give you a little bit of the background behind what was going on in his life when he wrote it.

We'll see what God will speak to us today.

How many expect God to speak to you today?

That's so important.

That is so important that you don't come to hear me preach.

What am I going to tell you?

What good can I do you?

But if you come expecting God's Spirit to speak to you, you will not leave disappointed.

I'm serious.

Even if my sermon is boring, God can say something to you through a boring sermon that can change your life.

So don't depend on me.

I might not get much sleep one Saturday night, I show up, and I'm off, but God is never sleep-deprived.

He knows just what you need for your situation.

I'm excited about this today because David said in Psalm 57, verse 2, something that really ministers to me.

It might one of my favorite things he ever said.

He said, "I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me".

If you really listened to what I just said and thought about the content of it, it will make your blood pressure go down.

Let me read it again.

"I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me".

If you listen to that and really get it… Let me try one more time.

"I cry out to God Most High…" That means he has all authority in my life, and no matter what people do to me or no matter what life has handed me, God is above it working through it to accomplish…watch this…his purpose for me.

That's one thing David shows us.

He shows us again and again the importance of serving the purpose of God.

He shows us how to serve the purpose.

Go over to 1 Samuel 24, verse 1, because this gives us the context in which David wrote those words: "I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills his purpose for me".

David wrote these words, not from a beach or from a hammock, because it's easy to write or to talk or to believe about God fulfilling his purpose for you when you are moving toward what you consider to be your purpose.

It is one thing to pen those words when you are headed toward what you believe to be your destiny; it's another thing to say that when everything is headed in the wrong direction.

When we catch up with David in 1 Samuel 24, verses 1-8, as you're about to see, everything is moving away from what David is ultimately headed toward.

But he's able to see something in this, and I want to share it with you today.

First Samuel 24, verse 1: "After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, 'David is in the Desert of En Gedi.'

So Saul took three thousand able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats".

By the way, when God has purposed for you to do something significant, expect the Enemy to send out his special forces.

That might be why your life has been so hard.

Not because God is not with you but maybe God is so distinctively with you, maybe his plan for your life is so intimidating and threatening to the Devil, that there is no way he is going to let you ascend to your purpose without an attack.

That might be why you're fighting right now.

So David is on the road to royalty, but it will not be an easy road.

David is on the road to influence, David is on the road to purpose.

But it will not be easy for David, or for you.

He's running as a refugee although he is anointed as a king.

The circumstance he finds himself in completely contradicts the calling he believes he is walking in.

Have you ever been there?

Look at verse 3. "He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself…"

Now when the Bible says relieve himself, it means relieve himself.

Can we leave it at that, people of God?

You can do the Hebrew, the Greek, the Latin, and the Spanish.

I'm going to resist.

There are some things I want to say right now.

I'm going to save those things.

This is the spiritual service.

This is all the people who really love God, so if I say what I want to say about that verse… Anyway, don't do it.

If you knew what I was fighting back… Watch.

"David and his men were far back in the cave.

The men said [holy crap!]…"

I told you.

"The men said, 'This is the day the Lord spoke of when he said to you, "I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish".' Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe".

I want to talk to you today about cutting corners, because the Scripture promises that God will fulfill his purpose for you.

David said that, and then he demonstrated that.

I wonder if you really believe God will fulfill his purpose for you?

Or are you stressed out because you are trying to fulfill God's purpose for someone else?

You know, we live in a day and time where we're only one click away from seeing how someone else raises their kids.

Before long you can start to compare your purpose to their purpose.

Touch somebody and say, "God didn't call me to fulfill your purpose, so please do not judge me according to the standards of what God gave you, because my stewardship is not of your purpose.

I don't have to feel bad about the gifts God did not give me if I am fully maximizing the ones he did".

All I have to do… This will set you so free.

All I have to do is completely commit my heart to God's purpose for me.

Now it's a funny thing because what my podium understands and my microphone understands I, as a preacher, have a hard time understanding.

I've been preaching at this church for about 12 years, and never once have I seen my podium try to do my microphone's job and amplify my voice, nor have I seen my microphone try to hold my Bible.

But we walk around all the time frustrated and fearful trying to do something… "Hello.

Testing.

Testing.

Why isn't this working"?

Because you have a purpose.

When you put the pressure on yourself to fulfill a purpose God did not intend for your life, of course you're stressed out.

Of course you can't sleep.

Of course you feel like a failure.

But God said, "What I put in you is for you, and you are not responsible for anybody else's results".

I feel chains falling off of somebody.

Serve the purpose God has given you.

That's what David did.

Notice he never sought the position of king.

Never once.

We live in a world that talks a lot about finding your purpose, but I wonder if what we're really doing is seeking a position, and confusing position with purpose.

Can I preach a little bit?

When Paul talked about the body of Christ, he said, "Sometimes the ushers in the church are more important than the preacher".