1 Samuel 26-27

[0:00] Well, friends, tonight we're looking at 1 Samuel chapter 26. That's in the Pew Bible, so long as that Pew Bible has an Old Testament.

[0:12] If you find the page number, you can shout it out because I forgot to write it down. 1 Samuel 26. We've been... 2, 4, 9.

[0:23] Is that right, Beth? Thanks, Beth. 2, 49. Go ahead and turn there. We're going to be spending some time in this chapter tonight. We'll spend a little bit of time after the sermon just doing some Q&A and some conversation. So if something comes up that piques your interest or that the Lord lays on your heart and you want to ask about that after the sermon, go ahead and just make note of that in your mind, and we can come back to that at the end.

[0:47] Well, as we're coming to 1 Samuel 26, I was thinking this week about a book that a guy named Malcolm Gladwell, a popular writer published actually a number of years ago called Blink.

[1:01] The subtitle of that book was The Power of Thinking Without Thinking. So this book was about sort of human intuition and decision-making.

[1:13] He makes this sort of bold claim in this book that oftentimes our spontaneous decisions are actually better than the decisions that we actually carefully plan or consider.

[1:23] He puts forward this idea that he calls thin slicing, which is sort of a lingo-y term that he makes up, which is basically he says that our ability to gauge what's really important actually comes through just a very narrow period of experience, that we're able to do that in a sort of intuitive level as human beings really quickly.

[1:42] And if we're overloaded by too much information or too much deliberation, we often make worse decisions, he says, than if we just trust our instincts and act. John, is that a fair description of Blink?

[1:56] You've read that book before, right? Yeah, good, I got it. It's a pretty interesting idea, right? And it's a bit kind of counterintuitive if you think about it. And not everyone has actually agreed with Gladwell.

[2:08] In fact, a year after this book, Blink, was published, someone wrote a book in response called Think! Why Crucial Decisions Can't Be Made in the Blink of an Eye.

[2:20] This guy sort of said that intuitions and quick decisions is actually no substitute for rationality and deep thinking. So which one is it, actually, when it comes to our decision making?

[2:33] Should we just blink or should we actually think? Should we trust our gut or should we think long and hard? Well, you know, it's interesting.

[2:43] When we look at this sort of idea through the lens of the Bible, we actually see that there's this unbreakable connection between these two ideas. Because on the one hand, we know that in our lives, there's going to be times when we have to make quick decisions and we have to determine on the spot what to do, right?

[3:03] But according to the Bible, the way that you make sure that you're the sort of person who can do that well is through deep thinking and immersion in what's good and true apart from those times.

[3:18] In other words, in order to blink, it's got to be preceded by a lot of rich and true thinking. That is, you've got to saturate your mind and heart in what's good and true.

[3:30] And that's the only way to make sure your intuitions are sharpened and prepared when you need to act. And of course, that's really critical for the spiritual life, right? That we spend time meditating on what's true so that then we can act rightly in the moment.

[3:46] That's actually very critical for our life before God. And we see that actually played out in our passage tonight in 1 Samuel. At this point in the story of 1 Samuel, you'll remember David is on the run in the wilderness.

[4:00] And at this point in the story, he's already been sort of anointed as Israel's future king, but he's not yet on the throne. And Saul, the current king, well, what's he up to?

[4:10] Well, he is full of jealousy and rage and he's out to kill David, which is why David's on the run. So in 1 Samuel 26, this chapter we're looking at tonight, this is the last time that David and Saul are going to meet ever in their lives.

[4:25] And David is again in this final meeting, as we saw a couple weeks ago, he's faced with a decision. He's faced with a test, really. And what we're going to see tonight, David has the opportunity, it seems, to end his problems once and for all.

[4:44] And in that moment of decision, how is he going to respond? And for us tonight, how can we learn, what can we learn, and how can we learn to face hard decisions when temptations and trials come at us?

[5:01] So let's look at 1 Samuel 26. We're going to look at the first half first and the second half second. So let me read verses 1 through 12 for us of 1 Samuel chapter 26.

[5:15] The writer says this, Then the Ziphites, those are the people from Ziph, came to Saul at Gibeah saying, Is not David hiding himself on the hill of Hakalah, which is on the east side of Jeshamun?

[5:27] They're basically ratting out David here. So Saul rose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph with 3,000 chosen men of Israel to seek David in the wilderness of Ziph. And Saul encamped on the hill of Hakalah, which is beside the road on the east of Jeshamun.

[5:44] But David remained in the wilderness. When he saw that Saul came out after him into the wilderness, David sent out spies and learned that Saul had indeed come. Then David rose and came to the place where Saul encamped.

[5:57] And David saw the place where Saul lay with Abner, the son of Ner, the commander of his army. Saul was lying within the encampment while the army was encamped around him.

[6:11] Then David said to Ahimelech, the Hittite, and to Joab's brother, Abishai, the son of Zeruiah, who will go down with me into the camp to Saul? And Abishai said, I will go down with you.

[6:23] 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.

[6:34] 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 need to strike him twice.

[6:49] 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 said, as the Lord lives, the Lord will strike him, or his day will come to die, or he will go down into battle and perish.

[7:09] The Lord forbid that I should put out my hand against the Lord's anointed. But take now the spear that is at his head and the jar of water and let us go. So David took the spear and the jar of water from Saul's head, and they went away.

[7:24] No man saw it or knew it, nor did any awake, for they were all asleep, because a deep sleep from the Lord had fallen upon them.

[7:37] So here's the scene, right? Saul gets word of where David's hiding, and Saul comes out with a big army to kill David and his men. Saul brings 3,000 to face David's group of 600.

[7:52] You can tell at this point in the story that Saul is more than a bit paranoid and fueled by jealousy. He's bringing 3,000 men into the army to off David once and for all. And you'll remember, this sounds a lot like chapter 24 that we looked at a few weeks ago, doesn't it?

[8:08] You know, Saul's coming out to get David in the wilderness. But David catches word that he's being hunted again, and he goes and he spies out their camp, and then looking down, probably from a cliff above Saul's camp, sees them there all laid out, with Saul in the middle, and Abner, his right-hand man, sort of laying beside him, protecting him, and the rest of the men encamped around.

[8:29] And then David makes this split decision. Who wants to come with me into the camp? He says this to two guys, Ahimelech and Abishai, two of his young soldiers.

[8:42] And Abishai, apparently ready for a crazy adrenaline-fueled adventure, says, heck yeah, take me, I'll go. Now look, there's 3,000 men down there, ready to just kill these guys.

[8:57] And Abishai's like, yeah, sign me up for that job. You know, we need to remember when we read the Bible that these are some pretty tough, audacious guys. This wasn't like, you know, yeah, well, whatever.

[9:09] Of course, Abishai thinks they're going on this seek-and-destroy mission, right? He's thinking that we're going to go in, kill Saul, and get out. In, out, done. And once they get into the camp, Abishai sees his chance to make all their problems go away.

[9:22] In verse 8, he says, David, I got this. Here's our chance. I'll pull out the spear, pin Saul to the earth with one stroke, and we're done. And trust me, I'm not going to need to swing twice.

[9:34] It's interesting. It's possible that Abishai there, saying, I don't need to hit him twice, is sort of remembering how Saul used to throw his spear at David and would always miss. And Abishai's basically saying, trust me, David, I ain't going to miss.

[9:46] Wouldn't it be poetic justice for me, David, to stick Saul with the very spear he used to throw at you? And you've got to give it to a guy like Abishai.

[10:00] He's brave. He's loyal. He might be a little bit cocky. Okay. But in fact, he's wrong. David says, don't do it.

[10:12] Saul is still the Lord's anointed and will be the guilty ones if we touch him. Now, what I really want us to focus on tonight is what empowers that sort of obedience to God.

[10:30] How is it that David, given the opportunity to make all his troubles to go away, he's got to give one little word to his friend Abishai, and it's done.

[10:41] No more people hunting them. No more 3,000 men they need to hide from. Nothing else blocking him from the throne, from the crown, from the glory. How is it that with that chance right before David, he refrains?

[10:55] How is he able to maintain his obedience to God in that kind of test? I mean, don't you want to know, to be honest?

[11:08] Don't you wish you knew what could actually help you and me to actually do what God says, to obey and follow the Lord, even in the teeth of trial and temptation like that? I mean, just think, how many times have we failed to do that this month?

[11:27] How many times this week? In what way this week have you and I seen the proverbial spear right in front of us and reached out like Adam and Eve in the garden, grabbed it, and have tried to do things our own way?

[11:42] Tried to solve our problems our own way, tried to get happiness our own way, and to do it all apart from God? Isn't it true that we need help?

[11:58] And the question that we often have is, what help is there for us? What help is there for us? We know, of course, that in Jesus Christ, as we've been singing about and reading about tonight, we know that in Christ, all of our sins, past, present, and future, are forgiven.

[12:13] But what help does Jesus give us to battle sin in the everyday? How do we grow in holiness? How do we become more like him? And I want to focus on just two big ideas that we see in the chapter tonight that help us along those lines.

[12:30] And we read the first one already in chapters, in verses 11, 10, and 11, here in our chapter. Verses 10 and 11, here are the sort of main speech of this first half of the chapter. And what we see here, like two sides of a coin, something that helps us in the face of trial and temptation is this.

[12:48] It's confidence in God's sovereignty to deliver us from our troubles. And the flip side of the coin is clarity about our responsibility in the meantime.

[13:03] Let's look a little closer at that. David knows that as long as Saul lives, his own life will be in danger, right? And as many times as Saul says, I'm sorry, David knows he can't be trusted. But in verse 10, what does David do?

[13:15] David expresses this incredible confidence that God's will, in God's own timing, deliver him from Saul. And David actually imagines any number of ways that Saul could come to an end, that God could deliver him.

[13:29] Maybe the Lord will strike Saul directly. Maybe Saul will die naturally. Maybe God will strike him down in battle. If you were here a couple weeks ago, you'll remember in the last chapter of 1 Samuel, that the Lord did just that to Nabal, struck him down.

[13:47] It seems that David had learned an important lesson from that event about the Lord's sovereignty, and he's applying it here. Now, what's the point for us?

[13:59] David knew that there were all sorts of ways that God could deliver him from Saul. He even seems to have articulated them in his mind. Now, okay, that concrete example seems a little bit morbid to us, right? Like David's running over in his mind all the ways that Saul's going to meet his end.

[14:12] But think about the principle underneath that. What is David doing there? You know, he's actually working out in his mind ways in which his sovereign and good God could work in his freedom and in his power in all sorts of ways for his good.

[14:37] Because God's powerful and good and keeps his promise, David knows that there are all sorts of ways that God could deliver him. And friends, when we're in the face of trial and in temptation, do we have that kind of reflective confidence when we consider God's ways?

[15:00] Do we exalt God in the midst of our trials and increase our trust in him by saying, God, look, I know and trust that you can do this. You can heal my marriage.

[15:12] You can give saving faith to my kids. You can deliver me from lust and addiction. Because God, you're God and you can do it in all sorts of ways.

[15:25] And of course, we need to let God be God, right? God is not confined to the ways we might think he could or should act. God's not in any way constrained by our desires. But, you know, when we pray and when we concretely consider the ways God could work, it's actually an act of worship of him when done rightly.

[15:43] You're turning over in your mind and heart the greatness of God, the trustworthiness of God. And in doing that, your faith in God begins to increase. But let's notice the other side of the coin here, too.

[15:58] David's confident in God's sovereignty in verse 10, but he's also crystal clear about his own responsibility in verse 11. He is not to put out his hand against the Lord's anointed. One writer put it this way. Although David did not know how providence would work, he knew what obedience required.

[16:13] Third, God's ways will frequently baffle us, but God's will is sufficiently clear to lead us in the meantime. What would that look like today?

[16:31] Let's say, for instance, that I'm battling loneliness. That that's a trial. That's a sort of issue going on in my life. If I'm battling loneliness. Well, if we're going to apply this, it would look like this.

[16:43] It would look like praying and worshiping God for all the ways that God could meet my need for friendship and fellowship. Praying and praising God that he's a good God, that he can bring people into my life from all sorts of avenues and venues.

[17:00] It will look like praying for him to change my own heart and to be satisfied in him more. It would look like praying that God would make me into a better friend to others. All of these things would be a prayer about God's sovereignty and goodness.

[17:15] But also, at the same time, I'll be crystal clear about what God says in his word. That even as I pray for God to meet my relational need for friendship and fellowship, at the same time, I draw a line in the sand based on God's word that says, You know what?

[17:34] I'm not going to seek comfort in ungodly relationships. Even though I'm incredibly lonely, I'm not going to go for the false comfort of pornography. Or I'm not going to go out and I'm not going to date non-Christians, even though that might fill a need.

[17:49] No, I'm actually going to be faithful to the Lord in this. And I'm going to be faithful in investing in my spiritual family in the church and finding a smaller group that I can work with and fellowship with.

[18:02] These are all the sorts of things that I want to have clear before me. And you know, that clarity, whatever it is for you, whatever the sort of issue is for you, where God's word speaks, you know, that clarity is critical, isn't it?

[18:16] And that clarity needs to be thought through and trusted deeply beforehand. Because as you and I know, in the moment of trial and in the moment of temptation, that's not the time to start deliberating.

[18:33] You know, think about it. David sees Saul come out with his 3,000 men. He's staring at them over the cliff. You know, David at that point had already discerned with incredible clarity what God's revealed will was for him to not kill Saul.

[18:47] You know, he didn't wait until Saul was at his doorstep to say, okay, guys, quick, let's do a Bible study. Let's figure out what we should do right now. Because I'm not so sure. Saul's here. Maybe we can kill him.

[18:57] Maybe not. Let's quick. Let's do a Bible study. I mean, don't you and I know that it's way too easy to justify our sinful desires in moments like that? God's word's very clear, friends.

[19:11] But our minds can often become unclear in the moment of temptation. So we need to get this clarity beforehand. And we need to meditate on it. So that when the trials come, we're ready.

[19:23] And as we meditate on what God's word says, we also need to meditate on how God's will and how God's revealed law are actually good for us. Just think of how often the Psalms are filled with verses about the sweetness and goodness of God's revealed will, his commands for our lives.

[19:45] Here's one example from David himself from Psalm 19, 7 through 11. He says, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure.

[19:56] It makes wise and simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.

[20:08] The rules of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. They're more to be desired than gold, even much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb.

[20:23] There's Saul looking at God's commands and saying, they are good. And you know, that's not legalism. That's not David saying, oh man, I really have to earn God's favor by keeping his law.

[20:35] No, that's David saying, God made us and God loves us and God knows how life works best. And to follow his word is to live in tune with how he made us. And to do so is to find great joy in him, even when it's hard.

[20:49] So friends, I wonder, do you reflect on the goodness of God's commands in scripture for you? God isn't out to try to destroy your joy.

[21:02] In fact, just the opposite. His word is there so that we know how to walk in the paths of life. Okay, so there's the first big thing that we learn about how to obey and follow the Lord in the face of temptation and trial.

[21:18] That we need to cultivate that two-sided truth of confidence in God's sovereignty and clarity about our God-given responsibility. But as you and I all know, that's really only the first step, right?

[21:30] It's necessary. It's helpful. But don't you and I know that there needs to be something more? Because I'm sure that you, like me, have been in the place when you're doing both of those things.

[21:42] You've got a really clear grip on God's power. You've got a tight grasp on God's will for you. But you still give in. Is there anything else we can do?

[21:55] Well, let's look at the rest of the chapter. Let's pick up in verse 13. Then David went over to the other side and stood far off on the top of the hill with a great space between them.

[22:07] And David called to the army and to Abner, the son of Ner, saying, Will you not answer, Abner? Then Abner answered, Who are you who calls to the king? And David said to Abner, Are you not a man?

[22:18] Who's like you in Israel? Why then have you not kept watch over your lord, the king? For one of the people came in to destroy the king, your lord. This thing that you have done is not good. As the lord lives, you deserve to die because you have not kept watch over your lord, the lord's anointed.

[22:35] And now see where the king's spear is and the jar of water that was at his head. Saul recognized David's voice and said, Is this your voice, my son, David?

[22:45] And David said, And David said, Why does my lord pursue after his servant? For what have I done? What evil is on my hands?

[22:57] Now, therefore, let my lord the king hear the words of his servant. If it is the lord who has stirred you up against me, may he accept an offering. But if it is men, may they be cursed before the lord.

[23:10] For they have driven me out this day, that I should have no share in the inheritance of the lord, saying, Go serve other gods. Now, therefore, let not my blood fall to the earth away from the presence of the lord.

[23:22] For the king of Israel has come out to seek a single flea, like one who hunts a partridge in the mountains. And Saul said, I have sinned.

[23:33] Return, my son, David, for I will no more do you harm, because my life was precious in your eyes this day. Behold, I have acted foolishly and have made a great mistake. And David answered and said, Here's the spear, O king.

[23:48] Let one of the young men come over and take it. The lord rewards every man for his righteousness and his faithfulness, for the lord gave you into my hand today, and I would not put out my hand against the lord's anointed.

[24:00] Behold, as your life was precious this day in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight of the lord, and may he deliver me out of all tribulation.

[24:12] And Saul said to David, Blessed be you, my son, David. You will do many things and will succeed in them. So David went his way, and Saul returned to his place. So after David and Abishai get clear from the camp, we see here that David wakes them up.

[24:30] First, he starts taunting Abner. And the taunt is really David making a point, right? Abner fell asleep on the job, put his king at risk, but David stayed utterly faithful.

[24:41] He's demonstrating, David's demonstrating his innocence here. Then Saul wakes up and says, David, is that you? And David says in verses 19 through 20, Look, Saul, if the lord is driving you to hunt me down, then we should offer the lord a sacrifice and get things right with him.

[24:57] But if it's men who are driving you to do it, well then, Saul, they're cursed because you're forcing me to leave the land, and you're driving me away from the worshiping assembly. And you know, all that, that sort of speech of David right there is sort of a not-so-subtle way for David to indict Saul.

[25:14] Because after all, it's Saul himself who's driving David out. He's the man coming after him like a madman. And David's speech actually does what he intends it to do. It gets Saul to publicly confess.

[25:26] Right? In verse 21, Saul admits that he's in the wrong and David's in the right. And that's probably why David stole the spear in the first place. That's probably why, that's probably what David was trying to accomplish in all of this.

[25:41] You see, that spear was symbolic of Saul's kingly power. And David grabs it as if to say, look, Saul and everyone else, I've taken Saul's life and his kingly power.

[25:54] I could have taken it right out of his hand and I could have had it in a second. But I didn't. In other words, this whole adventure with the spear is David's way to demonstrate his innocence and to get Saul to publicly admit before the whole army that Saul has gathered and everyone who's listening, he's getting Saul to admit that Saul's guilty and he himself is righteous.

[26:24] Because once Saul makes that confession, David says, okay, come get the spear. Here it is. I've made my point. But you know, it's what David says after that that I think is really the highlight of the passage.

[26:39] In this last speech, that's where we see what's going on down in David's heart. Here's what's keeping him from actually harming Saul. Here's what David had been meditating on to keep him from sinning against the Lord, even in the face of trial.

[26:54] Look again at verse 24. David says to Saul, behold, as your life was precious this day in my sight, so may my life be precious in the sight of the Lord.

[27:05] And may he deliver me out of all tribulation. Do you notice what David doesn't say there? He doesn't say, as your life was precious in my sight, now Saul, may my life be precious in your sight. It's not what he says.

[27:17] He says, may my life be precious in the sight of the Lord. That's what David really cares about. What Saul thinks of him is a secondary matter.

[27:31] Saul, after all, can't be trusted. No matter how many times Saul is going to admit that he's going to have a great change of heart at this point in the story, David knows that he can't trust him. But what really matters is the sight of the Lord.

[27:44] You see, David is living in a dynamic relationship with God that is about more than just God's power and God's commands, but it's about an intimate, vital walk with the Lord God, the creator of heaven and earth.

[28:04] And in that relationship that David has, David cares more about God's pleasure over his life than any amount of earthly comfort. David is saying that no other delight possibly compares to the delight of my God over me.

[28:23] You know, I actually see this all the time in my kids as an illustration. My son Jack just had his fourth birthday. He had a Spider-Man birthday. So, there you go.

[28:35] We had never even watched a Spider-Man cartoon and somehow, some way, he wanted a Spider-Man birthday. And the thing that he was enamored with the most this year about his birthday was the gifts, the presents.

[28:49] I'd ask him, oh, Jack, what are you looking forward to about your birthday? Or, what'd you like best about your birthday? And it wasn't, oh, Dad, that you're so great. Or, you know, oh, that cake that Mommy made me was awesome. The thing he would say is, the presents, that's what I like best about my birthday.

[29:04] But, you know, here's the truth. After a couple days of my son being surrounded with those presents and enamored with them and focused on them, you know, after a couple days of that, what he really wanted, what he really wanted was for me or for my wife, Beth, to sit down and to actually play with him.

[29:30] That what he actually wanted as our son was for us to delight in him and delight with him in relationship. That's what his little heart is hungry for, that delightful gaze of his mom and dad, that fellowship with us.

[29:50] And, friends, isn't that true of you and I too? I mean, at the end of the day, wouldn't we rather have the Lord say to us, the sovereign Lord, wouldn't we rather have him look over our life and say, you're precious in my sight than to have all the comforts and pleasures of this life?

[30:09] Wouldn't we rather have Jesus say to us at the end of our lives, well done, good and faithful servant? Isn't that infinitely more important and satisfying and lasting than anything else?

[30:24] May my life be precious in the sight of the Lord. And again, this isn't legalism, this isn't works righteousness, this isn't David saying, oh, I hope I can earn God's favor.

[30:40] No, it's not that. How do we know that actually? How do we know it's not that? Well, I think one little hint there is that David calls God here, the Lord.

[30:53] And the Lord is actually God's covenant name. It's actually Yahweh. That was the name of God that reminded Israel of his intimate relationship with them.

[31:06] That was the name that reminded his people of when he had come and rescued them from Egypt. That was the name that reminded them of the time when God fulfilled his promises to them out of his own good pleasure.

[31:19] That was the name that reminded his people of his steadfast love. So David isn't saying, oh, I want to obey God so God might maybe one day love me. No, he's saying that the Lord, this covenant God, loves me.

[31:33] And I want his gaze to fall over me. And I want to be found precious in his sight. That's what matters most. And friends, if that was true of David then, given what he knew about God, how much more should that be true of us today, given what we know about the same God?

[31:56] Given what we know about God's gracious and holy character and his steadfast, satisfying love, don't we see it more clearly than David ever did?

[32:09] Because we see God's love displayed on a cross. We see God fulfilling all of his fatherly promises to us through the death and resurrection of his own son.

[32:22] And you know, now we know God not just as the Lord, but as the Lord Jesus, the one who came and bled for us and rose again for us so that all who repent and believe would know new life and know the fatherly favor forever.

[32:39] And friends, knowing God's love in Christ, how much more should we delight in the gaze of God over us, bought at such a cost, freely given through the Spirit, and received simply through faith?

[32:54] If the burning passion of God is so rich and so deep that he would pour it out on a cross for sinners like you and me, how could we not want to get as close as we possibly could to delighting in that?

[33:12] If that's how profound God's mercy is, how could it not be more worthwhile and more satisfying to us than anything else? To be found precious in the Lord's sight, that would thrill our hearts for eternity.

[33:30] Listen to another psalm by David, Psalm 16. He says, Therefore my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices.

[33:42] My flesh also dwells secure for you will not abandon my soul to Sheol or let your Holy One see corruption. You make known to me the paths of life. In your presence there's fullness of joy and at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

[33:58] Friends, this is what will give us the power to obey in trial and temptation, to meditate on that deep everlasting truth.

[34:13] In those moments when we need to blink, as it were, when we need to make those quick decisions, when we're confronted with challenges to obey, these are the things we need to have been thinking deeply upon.

[34:27] Not just confidence in God's sovereignty to deliver, not just the clarity of His word, but lastly, the delight of His gaze upon us to find that view more precious than anything else.

[34:43] So as we wrap up then, what trials or temptations are you going to face this week? What trials or temptations are you going to face tonight? Let's go to God in prayer right now and ask Him to sink these truths deep into our hearts by His Spirit so that we could follow Him and know the joy that comes from obeying our Lord.

[35:04] Let's pray. God, that's what we ask right now tonight. Lord, so many of us are facing seemingly difficult temptations and Lord, we're facing tests where it seems like we can snatch pleasure right at our fingertips just like David could have ended all of his problems seemingly in this chapter.

[35:35] Oh Lord, I pray for us tonight that we would count Your gracious presence and fellowship and walking with You, God, that we would count that more worth than anything else, Jesus.

[35:52] Lord, grant that to be the case by Your Spirit. Amen. The music team is going to come up and we're going to continue worshiping together. So, let's do that.

[36:05] We've got a couple minutes left. If anyone has any questions about our passage tonight, we can talk about those. if I don't know the answer, I will happily bunt and confess my ignorance and but yeah, good to see you again.

[36:35] Yeah. Yeah, good question. So, the question is, here Saul says he's sorry, I'm not going to hurt you and then in chapter 27, David goes the opposite direction.

[36:52] What's going on? Does he not believe Saul? I think that's exactly right. I think he doesn't trust Saul as far as he can kick him at this point in the story because this actually isn't the first time in 1 Samuel that Saul has said, I'm sorry, I'm wrong, come back, David, and then we find a chapter later that Saul's out to kill him again.

[37:10] So, this has happened numerous times at this point. So, I think at this point, David is saying, that's great, Saul, that you're saying you're sorry and wrong, but I'm not going to trust you right now. So, yeah, I think he's just being wise and realizing that Saul can't be trusted.

[37:28] Yeah, which plays itself out in the next couple of chapters. So, yeah, good question. Any others? No?

[37:55] No? Stephen, is that Jude? Is that your son? He's giving a good hallelujah back there to my sermon. I appreciate that.

[38:08] All right, well, friends, let's close then. Hey, did you get a bulletin on the way in? Did you see him back there? Good. Let me point out just one thing in the bulletin. If you are a member here at Trinity, in a couple of weeks, we're going to have a congregational meeting.

[38:24] And this is probably our most important congregational meeting of the year because we're going to look at our ministry priorities for the coming year through the lens of our budget. So, this is when we're going to finalize our annual budget. And also, on top of that, we're also going to be voting on officers, on deacons, and also there's an elder candidate.

[38:41] So, take a look at that. If you don't know those officer candidates and you're a member, try to get to know them in the next couple of weeks. At least talk to them and introduce yourself to them. But come out to the congregational meeting and we'll have a good fellowship dinner together and we'll vote on our budget and on our officers for the coming year.

[38:59] On the back of the bulletin, there's space for small groups. A bunch of small groups are there listed. So, if you're looking for ways to get more connected here at Trinity, these are times that meet throughout the week for Bible study and prayer and fellowship and all that good stuff.

[39:12] So, if you have questions about a group that might be a good fit or you want to just inquire, you can ask me, you can ask Neil, he's a small group leader, Nord leads one of the studies, so you can ask a bunch of us and we'd be happy to point you in the right direction.

[39:24] Alright, let's close with a benediction from 2nd Corinthians. Paul says it's the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.

[39:37] Friends, go in peace.