"Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the false prophets. 27 "But I say to you who listen: Love your enemies, do what is good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. 29 If anyone hits you on the cheek, offer the other also. And if anyone takes away your coat, don’t hold back your shirt either. 30 Give to everyone who asks you, and from one who takes your things, don’t ask for them back. 31 Just as you want others to do for you, do the same for them. 32 If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners love those who love them. 33 If you do what is good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even sinners do that. 34 And if you lend to those from whom you expect to receive, what credit is that to you? Even sinners lend to sinners to be repaid in full. 35 But love your enemies, do what is good, and lend, expecting nothing in return. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is gracious to the ungrateful and evil. 36 Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful."
Luke 6:26-36
Today's Message: Getting What You Want
Beloved, I have read the Bible, cover to cover, numerous times and no where in the bible does it tell us, its O.K. to treat people the way we want to. Nor does it tell us, its quite alright to get even with those who don't like us. However, the bible does teach us not to stoop down to that level.
Heavenly Father,
Father, we thank You for Your kindness, Your grace, Your forgiveness, Your mercy, tenderness and compassion, though we confess, we are so unworthy. Thank You for the love that You have wrought in our lives. Thank You for the higher calling upon our lives, enabling us to love our enemies, as Christ loved His. May the world see the difference in that love and know that it comes alone from You, giving further evidence of the transformation that has occurred in our hearts through Christ. All of these things we ask in His name, and for Your glory,
Amen
Today we are going to talk about the story of David, while he was being pursued by his enemy Saul. On the Western side of the Dead Sea about 35 miles southeast of Jerusalem to an oasis. The spring water of Engedi is a source for aromatic plants used to make perfumes and medicinal salves. This was a major trade route along the road to Jerusalem near Engedi, there was a cave.
No matter who you are, what you look like, regardless of what we do, or how hard we try, there is going to be someone, somewhere, who doesn't like you. And, I'm reasonably sure, that some of you may have already encountered this situation. Am I right? Its inevitable. Its like the old saying goes, "You can't all of the people, all of the time."
But thankfully, we serve a God, who has so graciously provided with His Word, which instructs us on how to deal with these kinds of people! Amen? So, Scripture teaches us, in several places, how to deal with people who dislike you. There is a difference between getting what you want right now and getting what you want long term.This story demonstrates to us, how David trusted God to do just that. David is hiding in a cave from Saul. Because Saul is coming for his life. Saul chose 3,000 elite troops from all Israel and went on the hunt for David. At the place where the road passes some sheepfolds. Saul went into a cave to relieve himself. Now, some of you might ask, "what does that mean exactly?" But, there's no nicer way to say that, other than to just say he went to use the bathroom, so you get the picture. But as it happened, David and his men were hiding farther back in that very cave!
"Now’s your opportunity!" David’s men whispered to him. "Today the LORD is telling you, ‘I will certainly put your enemy into your power, to do with as you wish." So David crept forward and cut off a piece of the hem of Saul’s robe.
Saul represents the person who liked David when he first met David. When Saul would be troubled in his soul He would call for music. David would come and play the harp and sing and calm his spirit.
Have you had people when you first meet them they just eat you up. I mean you are the best person they have ever met. You are a God send. You are the greatest and in a few weeks or months something changes and they don’t like you. Has that ever happened to anyone in the room? Saul’s son Jonathan played together. Saul’s son Jonathan and David were like brothers. Saul treated David like a son. When the Philistine army came to fight against Saul, when everyone else feared the Philistines it was David who went out and fought Goliath and won.
It is pretty easy for us to identify the way and the time when this bromance turned south, or went sour. When David came in from the battle field after killing Goliath the women came out from the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing with joyful songs and tambourines. As they danced they sang: “Saul has slain thousands…, and David his tens of thousands.” Saul became jealous and became very angry. Saul was bitter and resentful. Saul was angry that the people credited David ten times more than him. The bible says “from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David.” I Samuel 18:9
Some of Saul’s servants said to him, "An evil spirit has been sent to torment you," which sometimes sent Saul into a terrible depression and frequently made him rage like a madman. And, on more than one occasion Saul got angry at David. So angry in fact, he took a spear and threw it right at David, just barely missing him.
So, this is where we pickup in our scripture text today in I Samuel, chapter 19. The story takes a turn from bad to worse, as Saul began to pursue David with his army to kill him. To make things worse the Prophet Samuel who had anointed Saul as King prophecies that David will become the future King of Israel. So to say that Saul who once loved David as a son no longer liked David is an understatement.
As a side note for those of you who want much more out of this story and to take a deeper look at your own life, most opinions about Saul make him out to be the villain in this story. He is presented as a very one-dimensional character, a flawed ruler, a crazy madman. Yes, we know that Saul had rejected God and therefore God’s favor turns to David to become the future King and thus the lineage by which Jesus the Son of God would come into the world. But in a strange twist of fate while Saul sinned against God so later did David. What irony!Here's the real paradox. Why did God invest in Saul and choose Saul to be the King in the first place? I mean, since God is all knowing, and knew what kind of person Saul was, what he was capable of, yet He ordained him to be, king. Might not God have ordained him to be just as great as his successor David would be? Could God have not just as easily brought about the messianic line through Saul instead of David? I, mean, it was possible that Saul could have been part of the messianic line because the punishment for Saul’s transgression were forgivable by the mercy and grace of God. Instead of Jesus being called the son of David, he could have been called the son of Saul. But He didn't.
I realize, this may seem unlikely however, the biblical scholars I have studied in seminary like Brueggemann, Youngblood, Hertzburg would beg us to compare and contrast Saul and David and to re-read the whole story. Now, I know you did not have time to read their works on the subject this week, so I did it for you. So unless you want to study it for yourself, you'll need to take my word on it.
It is more difficult to imagine God establishing Saul as king with the possibility to rule forever and then at the same time God was secretly waiting to dispose of Saul so as to establish David.
The whole point I am making here is this: God is a God of forgiveness! Whether the sinner is Saul, David, or you and I, God forgives. Saul on the other hand, has never been thought of as Saul the repenter or Saul the forgiver. That is not a title ever associated with him in any interpretation or commentary, that I've ever read.
That is the difference between the two types of people you and I will deal with in the world we live in today. Yes, David was guilty of basking in the glory of the victory from the battle. Perhaps a referee would have been justified in giving David a technical foul for too much celebration in the end zone but the difference is later David had a contrite and repentant heart, however, Saul on the other hand, was relentless, he never let up. Saul never could realize his own mistakes. Never once did Saul come to David and say, you know when I took that spear and jabbed it into the wall next to your head, I was wrong. David witnessed a king who had stood in favor with God and Saul had sadly lost the beautiful communion with God. When David later took Bathsheba and had her husband Uriah murdered. David remembered Saul’s situation and he wrote these words Psalm 51:11 "Do not banish me from Your presence or take Your Holy Spirit from me."
There is something for you to take home and compare and contrast the life of Saul with the life of David. And you will realize they had a lot more in common than they were different.
That is the first lesson you have to learn when you want to deal with those people who dislike you. If your first reaction is, "Hey, I am nothing like them," then perhaps it is time you spend more time looking in the mirror.
Let me ask you something, when you apologize to someone, assuming you do, do you justify your actions? "Well, John, if you hadn't done what you did, then I wouldn't have ..... So I'm sorry!"
Or do you take ownership for what your offense is? "Hey, John, I'm really sorry for what I did. I allowed things to get out of hand and I'm sorry. Can you forgive me?" Because there is a difference!
The first example is not an apology!
In Scripture, Revelations 2:5 says, "Remember then how far you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. Otherwise, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place—unless you repent."
Jesus gave a very strong warning. Your light could go out, if in fact you do not repent and turn from your ways, Jesus himself would come and extinguish your light if you are not fulfilling His purpose. Guess what beloved, that’s what happened in the life of Saul! Saul refused to see the error of his ways. He refused to return to the plan that God had for his life as King of Israel. And God removed the crown from Saul’s head and gave it to David.
"so they said to him, “Look, this is the day the Lord told you about: ‘I will hand your enemy over to you so you can do to him whatever you desire.’” Then David got up and secretly cut off the corner of Saul’s robe."
I Samuel 24:4
Beloved, there is nowhere in Scripture, nowhere in all the studies I've done, where God tells David, "Go deal with Saul as you wish!" Here comes an opportunity for David to get what God has promised him. Here is the opportunity for David to get Saul. Saul had gone into the cave to relieve himself. Saul was a sitting duck, so to speak, you get the picture.
However, David does something strange. David doesn’t kill Saul. When David was faced with this unexpected opportunity, because you don’t really know what is in your heart until you have an opportunity. I know, some of you would say, I'd do the same thing, right? But listen up, until you are face to face with the opportunity, you can theorize a lot about what you would do "if." Now is the moment when David has to prove do I really believe the promise of God and trust God. Or am I going to take this into my own hands and do it my way.
He sneaks up. He has a sword with him, now perhaps it was the very same sword he had cut off Goliath's head with, we really don’t know for sure. He took it from the temple of Nod, he took it from the priest and he killed some philistines with it.
He cuts off a piece of Saul’s robe. He doesn’t kill him but he cuts a corner of Saul’s robe. After David took matters into his own hands, the bible says David was conscience striken.
"Afterward, David’s conscience bothered him because he had cut off the corner of Saul’s robe."
I Samuel 24:5
So, why would David feel bad about killing someone who was trying to kill him? Why would you ever feel bad about getting even with someone who had done you wrong? What was happening inside the cave can only be understood by remembering what was outside the cave. Verse three describes the exact physical location of the cave. "When Saul came to the sheep pens along the road, a cave was there, and he went in to relieve himself. David and his men were staying in the back of the cave."
The cave was situated right along the way to the sheep pens. That is where David came from. Inside the cave is Saul with a robe that represents what David is called to be the future King of Israel. David is in between where he came from and where God has called him to be.
How many of you realize that today, at this very moment, we are just like David? It's true! You and I are in between where we have come from, and where God is calling us to be!!! Let me just say this, where you are called to be is far more important than where you came from. Do you believe God can raise you up, call your name? Call you out? Clean you up and turn you around, and use you for His Glory.
Beloved, the point is this, what you are called to matters a heck of a lot more than what you came from. Saul is on the inside representing that David will be King, the sheep pin is on the outside representing where David came from And David realized something. That is not the kind of King I am going to become.
The title of today’s message is "Getting What You Want" for a reason!
If you learn nothing else here today, learn this: Just because you have an opportunity, you never stoop to their level, in order to do it!
Look, I know the temptation, you sometimes feel like "If I can hurt them and take something away from them then I will feel so much better." But you won't, not in the end! The reality is when you get even with someone, by the same means as they've hurt you. You don’t feel better but you will still be bitter!
Why do you think there are so many miserable people walking around in the world today? They thought that if they could take something from someone who hurt them. If they could deprive someone of something, who took something from them they would get even. Oh, you got even all right you just squatted down and lowered yourself to their same level. So guess what? You are no better than they are! You've successfully become just as much of a low life as you thought them to be! What an accomplishment, right? Of course not, because there is no lasting satisfaction in that kind of getting even with someone. Do you really want to get even with them? Do the right thing!
So David had a moment that says he was conscience stricken. He remember who he was. He remembered whose he was. This is not the right way to do it.
David’s friend hiding in the cave are saying do it, do it. Go ahead David, do it and get even. Now is is your golden opportunity! Here's your chance! God put this moment right in your lap! Right? Yes and No! God may have allowed the opportunity, but it wasn't so you could get even, it was to see IF you would get even! Or would you do what right.
"He said to his men, “I swear before the Lord: I would never do such a thing to my lord, the Lord’s anointed. I will never lift my hand against him, since he is the Lord’s anointed.” With these words David persuaded his men, and he did not let them rise up against Saul.
Then Saul left the cave and went on his way. After that, David got up, went out of the cave, and called to Saul, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed to the ground in homage. David said to Saul, “Why do you listen to the words of people who say, ‘Look, David intends to harm you’? You can see with your own eyes that the Lord handed you over to me today in the cave. Someone advised me to kill you, but I took pity on you and said: I won’t lift my hand against my lord, since he is the Lord’s anointed. See, my father! Look at the corner of your robe in my hand, for I cut it off, but I didn’t kill you. Look and recognize that there is no evil or rebellion in me. I haven’t sinned against you even though you are hunting me down to take my life.
“May the Lord judge between you and me, and may the Lord take vengeance on you for me, but my hand will never be against you. As the old proverb says, ‘Wickedness comes from wicked people.’ My hand will never be against you."
How do you get what you want? You don’t do it by taking things into your own hands. Instead, you say, "I will not compromise my principles and my morals to get even with someone. I will not stoop to their level. I will not step on them to make them look bad. I will not walk on their backs to try to make myself look better. I will not become the kind of person they are in order to get even." And then, you let God take care of it. His will be done, not yours.
David said, I am better than this. David said I am a child of God. David said I am a child of God. You might be right, in wanting to get even. But it is not about whether you are right or wrong it is about how you go about making the point you are right that makes the difference. It's about your character. Sometimes getting what you want is not the problem it is the way you go about getting it is the problem.
Listen to me, Moms and dad's, have you ever tried to correct your kids? But stop and think about this for just a minute: The way you are correcting them through the exact behavior you are trying to correct. Stop yelling at your brother or sister. If you don’t stop hitting your sister I am going to beat the living day lights out of you. If you don’t stop fussing at me I am going to break every dish in this house. I am screaming at my kids telling them to get their emotions under control.
Does anyone see a problem with that? The very behavior I am trying to correct is now the behavior I am teaching!
Getting what you want. Getting your way is never as important as how you get it. Well, I guess I showed them. NOT, what you showed is you just showed yourself. Your real character just came through. You can’t respond to people you don’t like with I don’t like you either and expect to change them. You don’t treat those who don’t like you the way they have treated you. Where is the honor in that?
There is a lot of hate in the world but we can’t fight hate with more hate. There is a lot of ignorance in the world but we can’t fight ignorance with more ignorance. There is a lot of violence in the world but we can’t fight violence with more violence. Choose the high road, there's always a lot less traffic on it! The high road is called love.
So Jesus said in the Gospel of Luke. "Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for this is the way their ancestors used to treat the false prophets. “But I say to you who listen: Love your enemies, do what is good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you."
Luke 6:26-28
Have you ever been talking to someone about someone else. And found that you have been guilty of saying, "I don't know what it is about so and so, but I just don’t like that person."Let me explain something that I learned about myself. What I have discovered about myself, is most of the people I don’t like are more often than not the people I don’t really know. They are the people that I have really never tried to have a relationship with them. I have never invited them into my house for dinner. I have never spent the day talking with them. I have never sat down and listen to them and learned about where they come from and what has made them the way they are. I am guilty.
David Alan Grier is the host of NBC’s new game show call Snap Decision. The show puts three strangers and based on their looks the Studio contestants go head-to-head for a $10,000 grand prize as they are asked to make snap judgments about three strangers, recently interviewed on the street. However, looks can be deceiving, as people are often not who they may seem to be. It is hilarious it is outrageous because we make the same judgments every day. You are saying to yourself. I am a pretty good judge of character. When in reality you judge people on the surface not on the real person of who they are.
What was Jesus really trying to teach us in Matthew chapter 5:41? You know, when Jesus says, "And if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two."
Is he really talking about carrying someone’s school books? Someone's groceries? Or is he saying something else? Something like it takes more than one mile to get to know who someone really is. When you walk two miles in someone else’s shoes, then maybe you will start to understand more about who they really are, and what made them that way.
And let's tell the truth here, most of us don’t witness and share our faith when only talking to someone for about ten or fifteen minutes. So, how long does it take you to start talking to someone about your faith. How long does it take before you really start to disciple someone you are talking to?
Fifteen minutes = 1 mile, thirty minutes = 2 miles, an hour = three miles. It takes about an hour or more, it takes at least a good hour to really begin to get to know a person. So how long does it take for you to make up your mind. Hey I like this person or hey I don’t like this person? Maybe we make too many snap decisions? I know I have. I know Satan is pushing my "react" button almost daily! But because he's pushing it, doesn't mean I have to go along with it. And yes, I have been guilty of reacting, making that in the moment snap decision. Sure, I'm as guilty as the next person. I've yelled at my kids for yelling. Smacked my kids for hitting someone. I've grabbed something out of their hands for grabbing something out of someone else's hand, I'd be lying if I said I didn't. And I won't do that!
Maybe there's not enough "conscience striken" I Samuel 24:5 decisions being made today. Look, as believers, you are going to have opportunities in this life, when you have to choose between what you want to do and what is right. Allow me to suggest showing love, kindness and mercy. Showing love, kindness and mercy is not dependent on what you have received from people. Showing love, kindness depends on your character. Beloved, what you choose to do or say to others does not define them…it defines you! Is the person you really want to be, a carbon copy of the person you say you dislike?
Davis says to Saul: There is an old proverb. As that old proverb says, "Wickedness comes from wicked people." Is that who we are, wicked people? Or do you really believe and trust in God that he will take care of your enemies, those who talk about you and hate you and curse you and mistreat you. Or do you try to take care of your enemies yourself?
In Closing...
Its really easy to compare your life and your sins to someone else’s life and sins. But God did not call us to compare our life to someone else’s. God calls us to compare our life to the life of Jesus Christ. And that is where the bible will have the most impact on our lives today.
People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw rocks. To live in a glass house is used as a figure of speech by the way, I mean, I don't know anybody who lives in a glass house, and I'm pretty sure you don't either, right? It means that you shouldn’t be criticizing others when you have similar, or in some cases, worse faults and weaknesses of your own.
Are you Saul or David? Are you bitter and angry? Or is your heart contrite and repenting? Do you blame others for what's wrong in your life? Or do you realize your own weaknesses, faults and failures? Are you bitter or are you forgiving of others?
Here is something that I have learned, if I love my enemies God will love me. If I treat those who speak evil of me with love, kindness and mercy, God will speak favorably on me. If I bless those who curse me, God will speak blessings on me. If I pray for those who mistreat me God will answer my prayers.
David’s friends were saying do it, do it. Go ahead David, do it and get even. Maybe your friends are telling you the same thing? Today is your golden opportunity! Here's your chance! God put this moment right in your lap! Right? Yes and No! God may have allowed the opportunity, but it wasn't so you could get even, it was to see IF you would get even! Or would you do what's right.
Today are you a Saul? Or are you a David? Only you can decide!
And now may the Lord bless you and keep you;
the Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
And give you peace.
Now and forever, in Jesus' name
Amen
Copyright © 2019-2020 All Rights Reserved