Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / Aug. 27, 2025 - “David: A Man After God’s Heart - The Fighting Years”

Transcript

Aug. 27, 2025 - “David: A Man After God’s Heart - The Fighting Years” · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the study of God's Word recorded live at Calvary
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Church in Aurora, Co. To learn more about the many
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resources available through Abounding Grace Media or to tune
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into our live stream services, visit us online at Calvary Co
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dot Church or download our free Calvary Church app.
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Now let's open our Bibles and study God's Word.
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Part 2 of David's life and that is called the fighting years.
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And this goes from the anointing of Samuel on his life but with
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oil to the time that he ends up marrying the King's daughter.
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And as we look at David's life, here is a a young man that grew
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up in a large family and he was the youngest.
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Now I'm just curious, some of you grew up in a large family.
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You want to raise your hand if you grew up in a large family.
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OK, how about if you were the youngest?
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OK, so David was #8 and his oldest brothers were the ones
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that went into the army, the three oldest ones.
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And you can just get an idea of how difficult that may have been
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where you're the, you're considered the lightweight,
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you're considered, oh, you know, let's let him do The Dirty work
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and, and playing games on him. And I mean, when, you know, we
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had three boys, my wife and I, and Micah was our oldest.
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And then Jesse was 2 1/2 years later.
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And then Chris was six years later.
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And they played so many tricks on Chris that I understand what
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it's like to be the youngest and to be made the, yeah, you know,
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just unbelievable, great stories.
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But I'm glad it's over. OK.
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And here was David growing up with little respect and little
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honor in a large family. He wasn't even invited to the
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feast that Samuel set up there in Bethlehem.
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And Jesse's family was specifically invited to attend
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this this feast. And Jesse, the dad didn't even
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have his youngest son come that said, go out in the field, take
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care of the sheep. And, and when we look at David,
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we see a man that just didn't care how he was treated because
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his focus was on how God treated him.
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And it carried him through all of that.
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And by the way, he had no idea growing up what his future would
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hold. And we're just reading about it
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because we've got the pages. But he had no idea.
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Just like we don't have any idea of what's ahead, but God does.
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And there are reasons for waiting.
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There are reasons when it seems like nothing's working, like
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it's supposed to work. God is still working when we
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don't understand what's going on.
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And that was true in David's life, maybe 15 years, but he
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used that time to develop a close personal relationship with
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the Lord that impacted the whole nation later.
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He could have never known, but God was watching.
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And we talked about this last week.
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If those of you, if you were not here last week, that study is on
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the Calvary Church app and you can kind of catch up with it
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here. And that was called the
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formative years. And that was from David's birth
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to the the time that he was anointed by Samuel.
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But now we're looking at the fighting years because things
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are going to change in David's life, not because he's purposing
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it to change, but because God is shifting things around.
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The King Saul had proven himself disqualified to lead the nation
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by his continual disobedience to the Lord's commands.
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And although he was a man's man, a hero of the nation, a mighty
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warrior fighting off the Philistine armies, his outward
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life was not sufficient to fulfill the inward spiritual
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requirements that the Lord demanded of him.
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Therefore, the Lord sought for a man after his own heart who
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would do all his will. And sometimes we, you know, we,
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we take the world's picture of what a man's man is or what a
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real hero is, and, and it's so different than what God looks
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at. And to be a person after God's
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heart, how do you find out what he really wants?
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Because he doesn't go through the world's social acceptance
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levels. He has his own standard.
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And it has to do with the heart, has to do with what's going on
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inside the person. Because you can go through all
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kinds of religious activities and your heart be far away.
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I mean, I, I grew up in the Methodist Church and I, I know
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that I, I guess salvation was presented somewhere along the
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line, but it didn't connect. It was a kind of a church where,
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you know, you had Sunday school at 9:30 in the basement and then
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11:00 you had to attend church with the whole family.
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And I was so bored that I would take the offering envelope and a
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pencil and take my dad's watch and I would mark off every time
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the second hand went around once.
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That's a bored little kid. I didn't get much out of it, but
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the Lord was watching. I had no idea I'd be doing what
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I was doing, but God. And you know, in his wisdom, he
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didn't tell me because I probably would have said, Nah,
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Nah, that's not me. Well, yeah, it is actually.
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So God found that young man David as a teen, and the Lord
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sent the judge, prophet Samuel, to Bethlehem to discover him and
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to anoint him to be the next king.
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Secretly, Samuel, I do not believe, told David or his
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family why that anointing happened because Samuel was even
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terrified of going there because he said, if Saul finds out, he
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will kill me. And so I don't think Samuel
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really told, you know, the family.
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Oh, by the way, don't tell anybody.
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I just don't think that's what's going to happen.
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And so David's brothers saw this when when David had to be
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brought in because he was left out with the sheep.
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And and so David comes in, and the Lord says to Samuel, it's
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not that Samuel said, that must be him.
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No, the Lord said to Samuel, that's him.
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And I want you to anoint him with oil in the midst of his
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brothers. And then everybody went back
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home, and David was dripping with oil.
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No one knew except Samuel, but that anointing changed
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everything in David's life. Once that anointing came upon
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David, all the sudden things, there was a major paradigm shift
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in David's life. It's not that he could put his
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finger on it, but all the sudden things began to happen, and
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things were happening in the Kingdom because the Holy Spirit
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left King Saul and an evil spirit from the Lord, a
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distressing spirit, as it's called in scriptures, was put
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upon Saul, and Saul went through the worst time in his life.
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And so we don't know the exact reason, but when you look at the
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context of what all that went on, I believe God was trying to
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humble Saul to let go of the Kingdom because it was no longer
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his. But he wouldn't humble himself.
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And so he dealt with the distressing spirit from the
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Lord, and nothing but a person playing a harp would settle his
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spirit. He refused to humble himself
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till the end of his life and he died in battle.
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King Saul sing King Saul is a picture of what not to do King
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Saul is also a picture of what happens when you're fighting
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with the Lord and you're holding on to position for the sake of
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your own identity. And it just gets worse and worse
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and worse. In the meantime, he is leading
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the armies. God is still using him, but he's
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not honoring the Lord. I'm going to take tonight's
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study. I'm going to divide it into
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three parts. The first part is called finding
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himself in the King's court, and this is David finding himself in
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the King's court. And that's First Samuel 16,
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verses 14 to 23. Those of you taking notes #2 the
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second part is facing the giant Goliath, and that's chapter 17
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of First Samuel. And the third part of tonight is
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called fighting the King's battles, and that's First Samuel
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18. So in First Samuel 16, let let's
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start off here with this first section here finding himself in
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the King's court. Understand, David didn't put his
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heart playing on YouTube, OK? He was just by himself before
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the Lord out in the field at night.
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It was amazing. No lights, the sky was awesome.
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And he just let his heart be released before the Lord.
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He's by himself. I mean, you know, when you're by
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yourself. Well, let's just say you're in
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the car and the windows are up. You can sing as loud as you want
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as long as nobody's at the stoplight next to you, you know,
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gawking at you. But you're driving down the road
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and you can just sing as loud as you want, or you should.
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That's what David was doing out there, watching the sheep,
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caring for him, keeping an eye out for things, but just
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releasing his heart to the Lord. The Lord was listening.
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And, you know, sometimes we just cannot see how very detailed God
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is with us. And there's so many things we
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don't understand about us. And we have a big, the big why,
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why, why, why God? I want an answer.
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Why? Well, he's got an answer.
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But the odds are if he told you, you probably would say, well, I
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don't agree with that. I mean, it'd be a big argument.
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And so he just holds it to himself in his wisdom.
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There'll be a season when you will grow to understand God is
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involved in the details of our lives behind the scenes.
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It's true regarding what takes place in our lives, even in the
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job we end up getting or even the people we meet.
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As I've said in another study, I used to be super shy and I
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didn't talk much. And, you know, I liked high
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school drama because then you could be somebody you weren't
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and then you could just, you know, let it all out, which
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didn't always work. But then I met my chatty
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girlfriend in high school. And so she did all the talking
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for me. And as we as we grew in our
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relationship, she finally said, how come you don't say anything?
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And I said, well, there's, there's nothing to say.
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I mean, I'm fine. Yeah, but you don't say
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anything. Well, I'm listening.
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Why don't you just say something?
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OK. What would you like me to say?
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It's not, you know? And I'm.
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I'm just like, loser, you know? Why?
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Why? Why is she going with me?
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But it worked out 55 years. Come on.
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And people ask me, how do you stay married that long?
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I'm not getting myself in trouble here.
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OK? How do you stay married that
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long? It's called communication and
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forgiveness again and again and again and again and seeking the
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Lord together. Well, getting back to David,
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here we are in First Samuel 16 in verse 14.
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But the spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and a
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distressing spirit from the Lord troubled him.
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And Saul's servant said to him, surely A distressing spirit from
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God is troubling you. Let our master now command your
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servants who are before you to seek out a man who was a
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skillful player on the harp, and it shall be that he will play it
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with his hand when the distressing spirit from God is
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upon you, and you shall be well. So Saul said to his servants,
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Provide me now a man who can play well, and bring him to me.
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Then one of the servants. I want you to underline this.
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One of the servants, somebody who wasn't real popular,
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somebody who wasn't out of talent scout, it was just one of
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the main servants in Saul's house.
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Then one of the servants answered and said, Look, I have
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seen a son of Jesse the Bethlehemite, who is skillful in
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playing, a mighty man of valor, a man of war, prudent in speech,
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and a handsome person, and the Lord is with him.
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Therefore Saul sent messengers to Jesse and said, Send me your
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son David, who was with the sheep.
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And Jesse took a donkey loaded with bread, a skin of wine, and
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a young goat, and sent them by his son David to Saul.
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So Saul came to David and stood before him, and he loved him
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greatly, and he became his armor bearer.
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Then Saul sent to Jesse saying, Please let David stand before
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me, for he has found favor in my sight.
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So it was whenever the Spirit from God was upon Saul that
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David would take a harp and play it with his hand.
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Then Saul would become refreshed and well and the distressing
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spirit would depart from him. Now here's a picture of of those
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kind of harps. Back in those days, according to
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archaeological finds and and different descriptions, it
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looked like this. Now this only has five strings.
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A lot of them had 12. It's a 12 string harp, but you
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could pluck it and you could tune it.
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Where did David get the skill when he was by himself with the
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Lord? Just time picking out his own
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melodies, picking out his own tunes, expressing his heart to
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the Lord, and skill was developing and he had no idea
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that he would be brought into the King's court, but God knew.
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Sometimes again, we just don't know how God is in the details
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in our life. We don't see the connection.
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We're just living life. We're just taking care of this
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and something set before us. So we're trying to, you know,
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take care of things and all the sudden there's a connection for
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the future. And I just want to tell you, God
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has not done with you in your life.
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No matter how old you are, no matter how young you are, no
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matter what's happened, no matter how you've failed, no
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matter how you've just blown your testimony.
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And where do I go from here? God is in the details.
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He knew all that when he called you.
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You're not a surprise to him. You are a piece of work, but
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you're not a surprise to God. And so he knows what to do with
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the likes of you, with the likes of me.
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But we don't have to figure it out.
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We just have to walk through life and then all of a sudden
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things start coming together. He had no idea.
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He had no desire to be in the King's court, you know, playing
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his harp. But the Lord put him there on
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purpose because it was God's plan that David start being
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brought into places that God was going to have him be in much
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later. And I want you to think about
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this because David had the first hand view of what it looked like
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to be in a position of authority and be disobedient to the Lord
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and have the evil spirit and have the evil spirit be upon
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you. He caught that first hand.
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And don't you know the Lord was preparing him for later on?
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Because later on in his life, probably in his 50s, early 50s,
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he pulled off that thing with Bathsheba.
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And you hear him in his grief after he finally repented over
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in Psalm 51, verses 10 through 12.
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Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast
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spirit within me. Do not cast me away from Your
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presence and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.
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Because he had when he was young, he got a first hand freak
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out of what that looked like. Restore to me the joy of your
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salvation and uphold me by your generous spirit.
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Man, I've had too many colleagues in ministry over the
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years sabotage their testimony and their legacy by a moment of
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folly. Even with just a secret one
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night stand, it's been a a a poignant reminder to me, a
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warning to me in ministry to finish well, because a little
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folly will destroy it. Let's go on now, chapter 17.
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David is going to walk into something he didn't know he was
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going to walk into. He was just doing life, but God
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was in charge. You see, when the Holy Spirit
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comes on your life, God has a purpose.
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He, he brings a power. When the men do their study,
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they're going to talk about the effect of the, of the baptism
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with the Holy Spirit and the power of God being upon you to
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carry out what he has for you to do.
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And and there's a certain confidence, there's a certain
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boldness, there's a certain energy dynamic that comes with
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that in service to the Lord and service to the body of Christ,
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just like what was happening with David here, as we'll see
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here. Turn to first Samuel 17, verse
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12. We're not going to cover every
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single verse about the David and Goliath story.
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You can look at that on your own.
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But I do want to take a look at a few verses.
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So follow along with me starting in verse 12 in the middle of
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this description of the battle. It says now David was the son of
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that Ephrathite of Bethlehem, Judah, whose name was Jesse, who
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had eight sons, and the man was old, advanced in years in the
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days of Saul. The three oldest sons of Jesse
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had gone to follow Saul to the battle.
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The names of the three sons who went to the battle were Eliab,
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the first born next to him, Abinadab, and the third Shama.
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David was the youngest, and the three oldest followed Saul.
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But David occasionally went and returned from Saul, playing his
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harp to feed his father's sheep at Bethlehem.
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So he was just doing life. He was doing what was set in
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front of him. It's kind of cool being in the
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King's court, you know, that's all this magnificence.
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And my guess is because Saul doesn't recognize David is that
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he could have been behind his sheet out of honor, not seeing
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first hand the king in his worst situation.
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So here's David verse 16. And the Philistine Goliath drew
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near and presented himself 40 days morning and evening.
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Now think about this. Here's the two armies, the
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Philistine army on one hill and the armies of Israel on another
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hill. And they come down and the
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battle took place in the valleys, not on top of the
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mountains. They were waiting there 40 days
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over a month, and nobody was. Nobody was risking their life
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from Israel, not even David's oldest brothers, not even
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Jonathan, Saul's son. So this was a stalemate for 40
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days. And so continuing on her verse
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17, then Jesse said to his son David, take now for your
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brothers and ephah of this grained dried grain and these 10
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loaves, and run to your brothers at the camp and carry these 10
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cheeses to the captain of their thousand, and see how your
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brothers fare and bring back news of them.
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Now Saul and they and all the men of Israel were in the valley
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of Elah fighting with the Philistines.
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So David rose early in the morning, left the sheep with a
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keeper, and took the things and went as Jesse had commanded him.
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See, he was just doing life, just being obedient.
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He didn't have any expectation. Oh, it's going to be cool seeing
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them and watching what's going on.
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Sure, but he had no idea what he was walking into and it says
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they're in verse 20 and he came to the camp as the army was
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going out to fight and shouting for the battle for Israel in the
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Philistines had drawn up in battle array.
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They had come down up to a point and stopped army against army,
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and David left his supplies in the hand of the supply keeper
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and ran to the army and came and greeted his brothers.
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Then as he talked with him, there was the champion, the
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Philistine of Gath, Goliath by name, coming up from the armies
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of the Philistines, and he spoke according to the same words.
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So David heard them, and all the men of Israel, when they saw the
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man, fled from him and were dreadfully afraid.
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So the men of Israel said, have you seen this man who has come
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up? Surely he has come up to defied
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Israel, and it shall be that the man who kills him the king will
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enrich with great riches, will give him his daughter, and give
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his father's house exemption from taxes in Israel.
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Then David spoke to the men who stood by him, saying, What shall
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be done for the man who kills this Philistine and takes away
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the reproach from Israel? For who is this uncircumcised
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Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?
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And the people answered him in this manner, saying, Well, so
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shall it be done for the man who kills him.
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Now Eliab, his oldest brother, heard when he spoke to the man,
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and Eliab's anger was aroused against David.
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And he said, Why did you come down here, and with whom have
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you left those few sheep in the wilderness?
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I know your pride and the insolence of your heart, for you
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have come down to see the battle.
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And David said, What have I done now?
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Is there not a cause? And he turned from him toward
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another soldier and said the same thing.
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And these people answered him as the first ones did.
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Now I want you to know, David walked into a divine appointment
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and he had no idea what he was walking into the middle of.
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He was just going to deliver the gifts to check on his Bros
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because his dad wanted them to, and all the sudden he's in the
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middle of a divine appointment. A divine appointment is when we
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discover that the situation before us was not random or
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coincidental at all, but it was set up by the Lord for His
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purposes. A divine appointment.
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That's when God shows his fingerprint, his little
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signature. Boy, we had that.
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I remember in 2012 when I, when I lost my passport, northern
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Italy and we had to kind of find our way to get to, I mean, I
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lost everything. And so how was this going to
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work? And we came to Munich, turn the
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turn the rental car in and we had to cancel the, the, the
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tickets because I didn't have a passport.
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I got stolen and the the lady said, where did you come from?
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I said, well, I came from Italy. You, you pass through three
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countries without a passport. You know, you're illegal.
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And I went, yeah, well, that's a problem, isn't it?
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Yeah. They said you need to see the
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German police. You know, their their station is
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right over here in the airport. So I'm going.
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Well, OK, here we go. And so I went to checked in with
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the German police and they just were super angry.
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Good thing I didn't really do good in German and 8th grade
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because I didn't hear, I didn't understand what they were saying
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so much. But then they said you need to
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leave right now, you need to go home.
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I says, well, I don't have a passport to even buy a ticket.
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I said, well, you need to get a passport.
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That's going to take at least two weeks, at least two weeks.
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And where was I going to go ahead and know anybody in
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Munich? And I'm, I'm, I'm standing there
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and my wife couldn't even come into the room.
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They kept her away. And all of a sudden I remembered
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a random incident two weeks before when this lady came up to
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me at a conference and said, hey, have you ever come to
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Munich, Germany? Here's my husband's cell number.
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Could you just, you can just call him.
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And I thought, I'm not, you know, that's fine.
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Thank you. I put it in the file and I never
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thought about it until I'm facing these police officers and
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all of a sudden I got to call them.
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I just call that a divine appointment actually, because
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God was in the details without me knowing the detail.
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Does that make sense? And he wants to work in our
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lives that way. The job that you have that you
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don't like, God is in the details.
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There's a reason you're there. I don't know why you're there,
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but there's a reason you're there.
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And God knows what that reason is.
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All those purposes of God are at work in our life behind the
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scenes. And we can trust that God is
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working when we don't understand what's going on.
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And that's a step of faith on your part and my part.
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When we had to move back from England back in 2019, we didn't
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want to come back. We didn't feel we were done.
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But the Lord knew that my timing is better than yours, so you
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need to move back now. And so grumbling we did.
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And then COVID hit six months later and all of a sudden some
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of the reasons why he wanted us to move back from England and
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started making ton of sense. And then you say, you know, God,
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you're pretty smart. You know, you're pretty smart.
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By the way, when you're looking at David here, you know what
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he's doing. He's using the gift of
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exhortation, the gift of exhortation, even though he's a
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he's a maybe an older teen at this time, but he's he's trying
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to stir faith and courage in these soldiers.
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He goes, don't you see what the king is going to do if you fight
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this guy? And when do you realize that how
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that's a bonus? You just won the lottery, man,
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this is great. Why don't you get it?
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And they didn't get it. He was as a gift of exhortation.
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The Holy Spirit was working on him.
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We're and we're called to exhort one another daily.
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What it's called today. When you see someone just
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hedging and not wanting to take a step of faith and, and just
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walk in the commands of the Lord and do what's right, you can
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come and just encourage them and say, listen, you know God will
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show up. God will be with you.
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Just trust him. That's the gift of exhortation
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to to exhort means to pull out. So he didn't allow the opinion
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of others to affect his relationship with God, even when
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his older brother chided him like probably he did for his
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whole life. And so then he says, I, I, I
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love this next section here starting in verse 31.
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Let me just read through this and I'll stop in a second.
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Just follow along with me. Now when they heard the words
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which David spoke, they reported them to Saul and he sent for
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him. Then David said to Saul, let no
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man's heart fail. Because of him, your servant
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will go and fight with his Philistine.
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And Saul said to David, you're not able to go against this
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Philistine to fight with him for your youth.
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And he a man of war from his youth.
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But David said to Saul, Your servant used to keep his
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father's sheep. And when a lion or a bear came
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and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after it and
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struck it, and delivered the lamb from its mouth.
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And when it arose against me, I caught it by its beard and
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struck and killed it. Your servant has killed both
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lion and bear. And this uncircumcised
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Philistine will be like one of them, seeing he's defied the
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armies of the living God. Moreover, David said the Lord
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who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the
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bear, he will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine man.
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I mean was this a cooked up story or did this really happen?
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Well here's a thought. You remember what happened in
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the story? Was Samson back in Judges with
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the Holy Spirit came upon him? Remember the time when a lion
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came out against him and the scripture says he took that lion
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and ripped it apart like it was a young goat because of the
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Spirit of God upon him? I wonder if this lion and bear
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incident happened after he was anointed by Samuel and the
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Spirit of God came on him and it became like a testimony for
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what's later to happen right here.
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Do you know that God's testimonies in your life are to
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prepare you for what's ahead later?
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Don't forget the testimonies of God in your life, how He worked
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in your life, how He stirred courage and faith to take steps
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of faith in your life. And by the way, I do think David
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had scars. Personally, I think he had scars
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from this battle. But those scars were victory
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scars because they were reminders of how God delivered
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him. And I just want to say sometimes
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the scars we receive in the House of our friends where you
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get stabbed in the back, where someone slanders your character,
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someone takes the credit for what you did at your job, or
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your boss is trying to drive you out and get you to quit.
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Those are scars or things that happened at home or things that
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were said to you by from your parents toward you, belittling
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you, running you down. Yeah, those are scars, but when
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God comes and delivers you from that, those scars are to be
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victory scars. They are.
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They are reminders of how God delivered you.
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There are two ways we can view those scars #1 we can try to see
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them as a continual proof of how badly we were treated, or #2 we
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can see them as victory scars, A continual proof on the power of
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God to deliver us even in our deepest trials.
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And I want to leave you with this picture on this point.
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Jesus still has the scars from his crucifixion.
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After he rose from the dead, he told Thomas, look at my hands,
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look at my side. Do you know Jesus will have
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those scars for eternity because they are the proof of the
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victory won. And who put those scars there?
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We did by our sin. Don't you think he has a case
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against us? No, He's forgiven us and he's
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our high priest and these scars are victory scars with our Lord.
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And when we see him face to face, we will see him as a lamb,
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lamb that had been slain like John saw in the Book of
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Revelation. So now we see David getting
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ready to slay the giant and we'll go through it here real
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quickly in verse 2737. And Saul said, Did David go when
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the Lord be with you? So Saul clothed David with his
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armor, and he put a bronze helmet on his head, and he also
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clothed them with a coat of mail.
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David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk, for he
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had not tested them. And David said to Saul, I cannot
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walk with these, for I've not tested them.
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So David took them off. Then he took his staff in his
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hand, and he chose for himself 5 smooth stones from the brook,
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and put them in the shepherd's bag in a pouch which he had, and
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his sling was in his hand, and he drew near the Philistine.
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So the Philistine came and began drawing near to David, and the
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man who bore the shield went before him.
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And when the Philistine looked about and saw David, he
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disdained him, for he was only a youth, Ruddy and good looking.
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So the Philistine said to David, Am IA dog, that you come out to
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me with sticks. And the Philistine cursed David
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by his gods. And the Philistine said to
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David, Come to me, and I will give your flesh to the birds of
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the air and the beasts of the field.
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Then David said to the Philistine, You come to me with
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a sword, and with a spear and with a javelin, but I come to
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you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of
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Israel, whom you have defiled. This day the Lord will deliver
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you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head
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from you. And this day I will give the
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carcasses of the camp of the Philistines to the bird of the
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heirs and the beasts of the field, that all the earth may
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know that there is a God in Israel.
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Then all the assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with
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spirits and sword, for the battle is the Lord's, and He
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will give you into our hands. Continuing on verse 48.
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So it was when the Philistine arose and came and drew near to
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meet David that David hurried and ran toward the army to meet
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the Philistine. Then David put out his hand in
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his bag and took out a stone, and he slung it and struck the
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Philistine in his forehead, so that the stone sank into his
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forehead, and he fell on his face to the earth.
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So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling, and a
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stone struck the Philistine and killed him.
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There was no sword in the hand of David.
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Therefore David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his
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sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut
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off his head with it. Yeah, this is a kind of a bloody
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mess, eh? OK, When the Philistine saw that
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their champion was dead, they fled.
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Now the men of Israel and Judah rose, shouted, pursued the
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Philistines. OK, everything went fine.
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David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to
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Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent.
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And then verse 55, when Saul saw David going out against the
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Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army.
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Abner, Whose son is this? Abner said, As your soul lives,
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O king, I do not know. And so the king said, Inquire
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whose son this young man is. Then, as David returned from the
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slaughter of the Philistine, Abner took him and brought him
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before Saul with the hand of head of the Philistine in his
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hand. And Saul said to him, Whose son
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are you, young man? And David answered, I am the son
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of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.
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And let's just do three more verses.
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Chapter 18. Now when he had finished
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speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of
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David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.
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Saul took him that day, would not let him go home to his
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father's house anymore. Then Jonathan and David made a
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covenant because he loved him as his own soul.
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And Jonathan took off the robe that was on him and gave it to
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David with his armor, even to his sword and his bow and his
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belt. It's interesting that David
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refused Saul's armor, but he did accept Jonathan's armor.
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Jonathan was a man of faith, but his faith was weak.
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But Saul was a man of the flesh, and his armor represented the
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strength of the flesh. And here we see David choosing
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to accept Jonathan's armor. And sometimes, sometimes we want
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to be like somebody else. We want to trust in what they
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look like, but I want to tell you that God wants you like you.
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He wants you anointed with the Holy Spirit because He wants to
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use you as you are, not to leave you there, but to change you and
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to work in you and to work through you.
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But it has to be done with trusting in the Lord and not in
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your superior externals that you're trusting in.
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And sometimes it's hard because the world exalts those
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externals. You got to look a certain way.
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You got to you got to have the right heritage.
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You got to, you know, be raised and you know, with the right
42:26
resources and, and on and on. But how does the Lord want to
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use you when the Holy Spirit comes on your life?
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It's not to destroy your personality.
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It's to give life to it. God doesn't want to change you
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into a zombie. God wants to take you with your
42:44
personality and who you are and he wants to breathe on you and
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give life to you so that you become a blessing in these last
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days in this generation. Those of you that are older, God
43:00
wants to use you're still in this generation.
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Those that of you that are younger, you've got to listen to
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some of the older folks because they know a thing or two.
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They've been around the horn. They're not just old fogies.
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Listen to them, ask them, humble yourself going, what would you
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do in this situation? God has brought the body of
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Christ together as an intergenerational community and
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it's important that we respect one another because God wants to
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work with us as a unit, as a whole, as a family.
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Now in chapter 18, you can go ahead and read through the rest
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of it. Here we find that.
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And just in summary, the king started getting jealous of David
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when he heard the top, the top song.
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Saul is slain as thousands and David his 10 thousands.
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And of course, the young ladies were singing it.
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And that irritated Saul because he was a man of pride and he
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eyed David from that moment on. And all the sudden Saul the king
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started developing means for David to get killed by the by
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the enemy to take him out. So he put him as head over 1000
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soldiers to go out and fight the Philistines.
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But everywhere David went, the Holy Spirit brought victory
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everywhere. And that irritated the Saul
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great, the king, greatly. And then there's this issue of
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marrying his daughter. And you can read it there in
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chapter 18. And the whole purpose that Saul
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had of of now of David marrying his daughter is to make him
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distracted so that he'll have his mind on other things and
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he'll get killed in battle. Because by the way, battles in
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this time wasn't just you're in a safe tank, you know, shooting
45:08
things out. This is hand to hand gruesome
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sword hands, arms, heads, ears being chopped off as you're
45:18
swinging around and, and, and the battle is going hand to
45:21
hand. Here is David in a season of his
45:29
life where God is being so victorious in all the enemies
45:36
that he's meeting, but the one thing he can't understand is why
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is the king so mad at me? Sometimes when you are walking
45:53
in faith, persecution can rise up from people who don't like
46:00
what they see. And there are seasons that that
46:04
happens in our life. Persecution when you're walking
46:08
in faith is a real thing. And God wants to give you the
46:13
strength to be a person of integrity and not throw a spear
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back when a spear is thrown at you.
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There's so much we have to learn studying the life of David and
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when we're out of time here this this evening, but I just want to
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have us remember these three points again.
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David is just living life, and he finds himself in the King's
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court after he's anointed. And so things are changing in
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his life #2 he walks into this battle with Goliath that he
46:52
never knew was going to happen. And we see his faith being
46:56
played out in a major way and a major change that God was
47:01
working in his life. And finally now he's set to
47:05
fight the King's battles as captain of of 1000.
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And now the King's heart is becoming more jealous and
47:12
envious and he wants to do everything to tear him down.
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But God is David's protector. And right now, I don't know what
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situation you are in in your life, if there are people
47:25
against you, but understand God is your protector.
47:30
And even though you can't figure out how it's going to work, you
47:33
got to trust the Lord that he's in the middle of the details
47:36
behind the scenes. And so this evening as we close,
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if you are in the middle of a battle in your life and you
47:49
don't know what direction to go, we're going to do something
47:54
different here. If you're in the middle of a
47:57
battle and you don't know what to do, you don't know what
48:01
direction to go, would you let us pray for you as a
48:05
congregation? But we need to know who you are
48:10
so that we can pray for you. So this evening, if you're here
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and you're in that situation, would you just stand so that we
48:18
can pray for you? We don't need to know the
48:21
details, but we would like to pray for you.
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Anybody else? OK.
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All right. And by standing you're
48:32
acknowledging to the Lord. I'm in the middle of a situation
48:38
that is so hard I don't know what to do and I need the next
48:42
most important thing. Anyone else?
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All right #2 those of you that are around, those that are
48:56
standing, could you go over and put your hand on their shoulder
49:00
and let's pray for them right now, OK?
49:02
Don't leave anybody standing by themselves.
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This is a time where we as a congregation can really minister
49:18
to others that are a part of our family here, OK?
49:22
Anybody else make sure that nobody's standing by themselves?
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Join in prayer with me. Father in heaven, we want to
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thank you for your word to us tonight.
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And Lord, we want to present to you these that have stood who
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are saying to you, please God, I need your strategy and your
49:45
wisdom for what to do in the midst of this drama that I'm in.
49:54
Father God, you are all wise and you know what you're doing.
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And so we're asking first of all, God, that you'd calm the
50:03
storm in the hearts of these that have stood.
50:05
Calm the storm storm in their heart.
50:08
Let your peace reign. Stir in them the gift of faith
50:13
and courage. And God, right now we're asking
50:19
that also you would provide to them, Lord, in the next days,
50:24
the next step in how they should trust you, how they should go
50:28
forward, Lord, work on their life, draw them close to you.
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And Father in heaven, we entrust them to you, to your throne, and
50:44
we leave them before you. Thank you for your word tonight
50:49
in Jesus name, Amen. We pray that you've been
50:53
encouraged by this Bible study delivered live from the
50:56
sanctuary of Calvary Church for prayer.
50:59
Call us at 87730 grace that's 877-304-7223.
51:08
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51:11
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51:16
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51:19
Be blessed as you worship Jesus this week.