Learning to Wait On God

[0:00] The scripture reading comes from 1 Samuel chapter 23 and 24. Please follow along on the screen in your bulletin or in your own Bible.

[0:13] In chapter 23 verse 14 we read. And David remained in the strongholds in the wilderness, in the hill country of the wilderness of Ziph.

[0:27] And Saul sought after him every day, but God did not give him into his hand. David saw that Saul had come to seek out his life.

[0:41] David was in the wilderness of Ziph at Horesh. And Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David at Horesh and strengthened his hand in the Lord.

[0:52] And he said to him, Do not fear, for the hand of Saul, my father, shall not find you. You shall be king over Israel, and I shall be next to you.

[1:08] Saul, my father, also knows this. And the two of them made a covenant before the Lord. David remained at Horesh, and Jonathan went home.

[1:19] Then the Siphites went to Saul at Acubert, saying, Is not David hiding among us in the stronghold of Horesh, in the hills of Hakkila, which is south of Jeshimon?

[1:36] Now come down, O king, according to all your heart's desire to come down, and our part shall be to surrender him into the king's hand. And Saul said, May you be blessed by the Lord, for you have had compassion on me.

[1:54] Go, make yet more sure. Know and see the place where his foot is, and who has seen him there. For it's told to me that he is very kind.

[2:07] See, therefore, take note of all the lurking places where he hides, and come back to me with sure information. Then I will go with you.

[2:18] And if he is in the land, I will search him out among all thousands of Judea. And they arose and went as if I had a Saul. Now David and his men were in the wilderness of Ma'on, in the Arabah, to the south of Jeshimon.

[2:37] And Saul and his men went to seek him. And David was told, so he went down to the rock, and lived in the wilderness of Ma'on.

[2:49] And when Saul heard that, he pursued after David in the wilderness of Ma'on. Saul went on one side of the mountain. And David and his men on the other side of the mountain.

[3:01] And David was hurrying to get away from Saul. As Saul and his men were closing in on David and his men to capture them, a messenger came to Saul, saying, Hurry, come, for the Philistines have made a raid against the land.

[3:17] So Saul returned from pursuing after David and went against the Philistines. Therefore, that place was called the Rock of Escape. And David went up from there and lived in the strongholds of En Gedi.

[3:32] When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, Behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi. Then Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the wild goat's rock.

[3:50] And he came to the sheepfold by the way, where there was a cave. And Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost part of the cave.

[4:05] And the men of David said to him, Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.

[4:21] Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul's robe. And afterward, David's heart struck him because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe.

[4:37] He said to his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Lord's anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord's anointed.

[4:52] So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul. And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on its way.

[5:05] Afterward, David arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, My Lord, the king. And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage.

[5:20] And David said to Saul, Why do you listen to the words of men who say, Behold, David seeks your harm? Behold, this day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hand in the cave.

[5:38] And some told me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, I will not put out my hand against my Lord.

[5:49] For he is the Lord's anointed. See, my father, see the corner of your robe in my hand.

[6:00] For by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see there is no wrong or treason in my hands.

[6:13] I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it. May the Lord judge between me and you.

[6:25] May the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. As the Proverbs of the ancients say, out of the wicked come wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you.

[6:44] After whom has the King of Israel come out? After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog? After a flea? May the Lord therefore be judge and give sentence between me and you and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand.

[7:06] As soon as David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, Is this your voice, my son David? And Saul lifted up his voice and wept.

[7:18] He said to David, You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil. And you have declared this day how you have dealt well with me, in that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands.

[7:39] For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe? So may the Lord reward you with good, for what you have done to me this day.

[7:52] And now behold, I know that you shall surely be King, and that the Kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hands.

[8:04] Swear to me, therefore, by the Lord, that you will not cut off my offspring after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father's house.

[8:15] And David saw this to Saul. Then Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold. This is the word of God.

[8:27] Great. Thank you so much, Bernard and Angeline, for reading.

[8:38] I know it's a long passage, but it's just really great to be able to hear God's word. And this is an amazing story this morning. So really welcome to all of you, wherever you are.

[8:49] Let's just start with praying and asking God to really open our hearts this morning. Father, you have been faithful to us.

[9:02] You are continually faithful to us. Father, I pray that this morning we would be reminded again of how faithful you are to us.

[9:13] Forgive us where we lose sight of that. Open our ears that we would not be like Saul who is deaf to you, but we would be like David whose heart is open for you to speak. Lord, I pray that our hearts would be touched by you this morning.

[9:28] Holy Spirit, would you come in power? Would you speak to us right where we are? Would you bring your word to bear on our hearts? And would you lift our eyes up to see how great and how glorious and how big you are?

[9:39] Lord, we pray even in the midst of this pandemic, Father, you are still on the throne. Help us to see you on the throne and to trust you, that you are good and you are faithful. In Jesus' name, amen.

[9:50] Amen. Great. So we're going to carry on looking in our series in 1 Samuel today. And let me just start with this.

[10:01] My son, Etienne, has a problem. He's only two, but he's entitled. You see, my one-year-old daughter, Elodie, can be playing with a toy and as soon as he sees her, instantly he just cannot stand her playing with it.

[10:20] If he's sitting down, he jumps up, he starts screaming, and he has to grab and snatch the toy away from her. And they usually have a little bit of a wrestling match for a while. And even if he's eating, we as parents will tell him, hey, Etienne, just wait a minute.

[10:35] You'll get a toy soon, but just wait. But he can't wait. Because, you know, when you're two, you have to have everything instantly in your timing right now.

[10:46] And he will be seriously miserable if he doesn't get things his way, his timing, and what he wants. And part of our parenting and part of learning how to grow up is teaching him and helping him to learn how to wait without grasping.

[11:03] And without that kind of sense of, I need this, I deserve it, entitlement right now. But to know that actually he can trust the Heavenly Father who is an even better parent than we are.

[11:16] And that's what actually this passage is all about. And so I've got three things that we're going to look at in this passage, which is waiting, trusting, and then seeing.

[11:27] Okay, so we're going to start with waiting. Because we're looking today at the story of David. And if you've been tracking with us over the series so far, you will know that the people of Israel have wanted a king to help fight their battles.

[11:42] That's what was good in their eyes. And they wanted someone who was like the nations, who looked good. And so God had given them Saul, but actually God had then rejected Saul and chosen David as king because Saul, his heart was all about his own honor.

[11:56] He was all about his own outward appearance. But David's heart was a heart after God's own heart and wanted to trust him and walk with him. And so the whole of the story is how God has been shaping and working in David's heart, even in the mundane day-to-day of shepherding where it looked like nothing was happening.

[12:16] He was working in his heart, preparing him for kingship by teaching him how to trust him, by teaching him how to see the bigness and goodness of God, which would stand him instead for the rest of his life.

[12:30] And up to this point, everything had been going well for David. Do you remember last week? He's just killed Goliath. He gets promoted to the king's court. He's winning tons of battles.

[12:41] Everybody loves him. And then Saul hears the women saying, Saul killed thousands, but David, his ten thousands.

[12:54] And it says Saul was so angry, his jealousy gets hold of him and he seeks his life. He seeks to kill him because his jealousy just blinds him to what God's purpose is and what God has said.

[13:06] And David becomes a rival to exterminate and get rid of. And so David has to go on the run. And he goes on the run as a fugitive.

[13:18] And though he is completely innocent, he is driven out and he wanders in the Judean desert. We might have a picture of the Judean desert here, going from place to place, just running in hiding.

[13:32] And scholars believe that it was for at least seven years that he's in the wilderness. And then a total of 10 to 13 years between the time when God had promised that he would be king and the fulfillment of that promise.

[13:44] 10 to 13 years. All because of one man's insecurity and hardness of heart and soul. And in the waiting, God's promises look further away than ever before.

[14:02] Because in chapter 23, there's a part we didn't read, which is just before this, 1 to 14. David goes to the town of Kelah and he actually saves this town from the Philistines.

[14:15] But then in repayment, the people of Kelah are getting ready to betray him to Saul. And so he has to run away. And then we see in verse 19 to 29, in this part of the passage, David is in the territory of the Ziphites, who are descendants of Caleb, who was one of the spies.

[14:36] He went into the land with Joshua into the promised land. And they betray David just out of personal ambition. They see him there and they say, hey, Saul, isn't David hiding among us?

[14:49] Now you come down and our part shall be to surrender him into the king's hand so they can get some favor from the king afterwards. I mean, this is great, isn't it?

[15:00] For someone who is meant to be king. And you know, what happens next is it's actually like a Bond movie, kind of car chase, without cars. But David is around one side of the hill.

[15:12] Saul is running the other side of the hill. And you can see the drone shot of the camera coming down and Saul is closing in on David. He's about to surround him. He's cornered. It's kind of nail-biting, heart-pumping stuff.

[15:25] And just as he's about to get him, Saul's phone rings and he gets a message. He needs to fight a major fire in another part of his kingdom. The Philistines are attacking and he has to back off.

[15:36] And David, with all that stress, breathes a sigh of relief and he actually calls this place the rock of escape because God has delivered him.

[15:47] But it was super tight. And you could, you couldn't blame David if at this moment, with all that's going on, he might have had some doubts.

[16:00] He might have been going, God, I thought you said I'd be king, but this wasn't what I bargained for. I didn't expect this to happen. This is way too stressful.

[16:11] What's happening? Where are you, God, in this? But you know, one thing this passage is teaching us is never despise waiting because you know, in the waiting, God is often doing his deepest work in our lives.

[16:28] You know, waiting is a workshop, not a waste. It's a faith factory, not failure. You know, in my life, half of my life has been spent waiting for things, for health, for jobs, for education, for relationship, for kids, you name it.

[16:43] And waiting, I can tell you, is super hard. We know that. It's super hard because you're not in control and things are uncertain. And sometimes, you know, you can wait and it can feel easier when you really sense God's presence is with you, sustaining you.

[17:01] But we even know from the Psalms that at times, David didn't even feel God's presence. He says in Psalm 22, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? God even seems absent when he's trusting him.

[17:14] Where does he go to in the midst of this? Where is God? But the amazing thing is that in the wait, God is sculpting David's heart to be a man of prayer, a man whose faith isn't in his feelings, as we talked about with the Lent thing, but it's in the character of his God.

[17:35] Here's Psalm 54, which is actually written precisely at this time when he's betrayed by the Ziphites. He says this, he says, oh God, save me by your name and vindicate me by your might.

[17:48] Do you see where he's looking for his salvation? He says, strangers have risen against me. Ruthless men seek my life. And here's what he says, behold, God is my helper.

[18:01] The Lord is the upholder or the sustainer of my life. Do you see what's happening? Right in the midst of the wait, he's learning to love God and trust God for God, to have confidence in him, regardless of the feelings, regardless of the circumstances.

[18:18] He's getting character formed in him. Rock solid faith. And for us, many of us right now, you know, we're in times of waiting. I mean, there's the pandemic that's going on.

[18:31] There's a lot of uncertainty. I'm not sure what you're waiting for, whether it's travel, whether it's seeing family, maybe it's other things. Maybe it's the clarity for a decision you've got to make. Maybe there are desires that God has birthed in your heart and you just, like dreams to be used for his kingdom, but it just seems like it's not happening and you don't know when things are going to happen.

[18:52] Don't despise the wait because waiting teaches you to let God be God. And it teaches you how to run to him as your helper and find him as the sustainer and upholder of your life.

[19:04] And do you know what we need in the wait? We need a Jonathan in the wait because sandwiched in the middle of these two situations with Keller and the Ziphites is verse 15 to 19 where it says, And Jonathan, Saul's son, rose and went to David and strengthened his hand in God saying, Don't fear, you shall be king.

[19:34] This is amazing. You see, Jonathan, I wish we had time to do a study on this guy. He is, he's an amazing guy. He's actually, he's the Prince Charles of Israel.

[19:45] He's next in line to the throne. He's the heir. But instead of grasping onto the power that he thinks he's entitled to, thinking he deserves the throne, do you know what he does?

[19:56] He lays down being number one and he says, Hey, I'm okay with being number two because God, I know what God is doing here and I can trust him and he risks his entire life to come and encourage and support David right at the time when he needs it.

[20:13] You know, right in our waiting, we need promises. We need reminders of God's promises to us. We need Jonathan. We need a Jonathan in our lives and we need to be Jonathan's to other people.

[20:26] So look around and see your calling actually this week is who can I be a Jonathan to this week? Who can I be a Jonathan?

[20:37] Who can I remind of the gospel promises that we can learn to wait because we have a big and a good God that we can trust in who's at work right now? Who are you a Jonathan to?

[20:51] Because, right, and here's the end of the waiting. Right, sorry, here's the end of the first part of waiting. You see, this is the last time Jonathan actually ever sees David and spoiler alert, Jonathan dies.

[21:03] But he completes his mission before God. He's more successful in God's eyes than Saul, his grasping, entitled father, Saul, ever was. That's the wait.

[21:16] But secondly, trusting. And this is, this is beautiful. I love the way this is written. This is chapter 24. It's beautiful but it's actually tragic at the same time.

[21:27] Because Saul, he's not given up. He's coming after him. And so it says, verse one says, when Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, hey, behold, David is in the wilderness of En Gedi.

[21:42] Don't you love those kind of guys? Like, who told him? David, you know, David's had enough betrayal already. But it says, then Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David.

[21:56] Do you know what? David's got 400 men. That's about 10 to 1. This isn't fair. Okay? This is totally outnumbered. But what's lovely is this. This is the point where actually the Bible gets a little humorous.

[22:10] It's actually about, it's a little bit of toilet humor here. And it's in the Bible. So it's worth doing. But it says here, verse three, and he came to the sheepfolds, by the way, where there was a cave.

[22:26] And Saul went in to relieve himself. Now, David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave. I mean, just imagine, it's a cave.

[22:37] Okay? It's dark. It's smelly. David and his men are hiding there, crouching down for their lives to escape from Saul, killing them. And into their very cave, out of all the caves that there were, and there were a lot, wanders Saul.

[22:52] He strips off his armor, takes off his clothes, totally naked, totally vulnerable, takes down his pants, starts doing a number two, right in front of them. Now, talk about low-hanging fruit.

[23:04] Okay? For a soldier, this is about as low as it gets. And the men of David, they said to him, here is the day of which the Lord said to you, behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him, and here's the key, as it shall seem good to you.

[23:27] Literally, that's what is good in your eyes. You see, it looks amazing. God has promised you victory, David. He didn't tell you the timing, but look, it's right here on a plate for you.

[23:42] But the key thing that David knows is Saul is still God's anointed king. He's God's chosen man for this role. And to attack him was to attack God's chosen man for all his faults, for all he had done wrong.

[23:59] God was the judge, and to take the judge's position right now was to attack God, and David knows that. I mean, how do you know if a circumstance that God brings is of God or is a test for you?

[24:18] Well, it comes down to actually how attuned your heart is to the heart of God, and how regularly you've been allowing his word to be shaping your heart and your soul and your life. Because you remember, just as in the Garden of Eden, just as with Abraham and Sarah who were barren with no child, just as with Saul is later on, we always have moments where you're tempted to take a shortcut, to do what is good in your own eyes.

[24:44] And what happens when you come into those moments of temptation where it just looks so good is your inner lawyer will give you a thousand justifications for why you should do this thing, even though you know God's word says no.

[25:02] Here's four things I think David's inner lawyer would have said to him. One, I need this. You know, God doesn't want us to suffer any longer, right?

[25:13] Here he is. We should just kill him. Years of hiding, years of stress and fear in one second could all be over. And it's also for his men too.

[25:23] It's not just for him. You know, they can't teach much more of this. We need this. I need this. Secondly, he deserves it because Saul is evil and unjust.

[25:37] You know, he's got every right to feel bitter about this. He's innocent. This is justice to get back at him. He deserves to be taken down. I need this.

[25:47] He deserves it. Thirdly, I'm entitled to it. Now, this is probably one of the strongest because David has been promised and anointed as the future king.

[26:00] It is his by right. So, he should just take it for himself, right? He shouldn't have to put up with any more of this, should he?

[26:12] He's entitled to it. He needs it. He deserves it. I'm entitled to it. Fourth, I won't get another chance. This is the ultimate FOMO because this is more real than any of our FOMOs that we face in our life because the opportunity cost is huge.

[26:30] the stakes are not just your career. The stakes are life and death for all of them. That's pressure. That's peer pressure too from his men.

[26:43] And you know, the job or the relationship that suddenly appears and looks so good but you know it's not healthy spiritually for you or for your family. There's a temptation for us to shortcut God's promises and his provision.

[26:55] Do it in our timing, in our way, and especially, some of you know this, if you've been waiting faithfully for a long time, you can end up losing hope. And yet, here's the thing.

[27:07] Saul, under pressure from his men in chapter 15, he caved in to them. And David nearly does too. He listens to them. He creeps up to Saul. He sees his robe on the ground.

[27:17] He cuts it. Just as, remember, Saul tore Samuel's robe to show that the kingdom was torn from him. So David cuts it to show Saul, it's not your kingdom anymore.

[27:29] And just as he's going in for the final kill, it says this, David's heart struck him. Listen to that. David's heart struck him.

[27:42] This is incredible. Given the pressure, given the history, given the waiting, the spirit of God pricks his conscience with all of that, all the justifications, justifications, it's a godly alarm system saying you should not be doing this.

[28:00] And because in the waiting he's constantly tuned his heart to God in his word, in prayer, in confession, and repentance, he listens. And he obeys in the heat of the moment.

[28:13] And he trusts God's entire, his entire life, God for his entire life, his entire future, and that of his men. And he says, I'm not going to hold on to any bitterness.

[28:23] I'm not going to hold on to entitlement. I'm not going to try and get my own way. I'm going to leave judgment in the hands of God. And he says this, he says, the Lord forbid that I should do a thing, do this thing, to my Lord, the Lord's anointed.

[28:39] Do you see who's at the forefront of his mind? It's Yahweh his Lord. And he turns around to his men. And I can imagine, this is what they're saying, they're going, what are you doing?

[28:52] You idiots. Like, you're never going to get another chance. Are you nuts? And it was super heated, and we know that because it says in Hebrew, it says David persuaded them.

[29:05] In Hebrew, it actually says David tore into them, meaning he went, don't you dare touch them. Because they were not happy about this. But he's got a conviction that trusting God is going to work out in the long run.

[29:20] And Saul, their persecutor, gets up and walks freely out of the cave to carry on hunting them for another few years.

[29:32] Wow. You see, faith doesn't always feel good in the short term. But faith is more solid than your feelings. Because God is more sovereign than your feelings.

[29:43] And God is our helper. I want to turn to bring up Bernard to share a little bit of some of his story of how he's seen God just at work in his life in a very practical scenario in the waiting.

[30:00] So, if we can just hand it over to Bernard. Bernard Thanks, Chris. Boy, it's kind of hard to follow on the back of David's story.

[30:11] But Chris asked me to share something that... Bernard, I think you're on mute. Oh, I'm speaking, but maybe... Can you hear me? Can you hear me now?

[30:23] Okay. Can you hear me? Yeah. Okay. Yeah. It's kind of hard to follow on the back of David and Saul's story.

[30:34] But Chris asked me to share something that kind of happened in my career that required quite a bit of waiting. And so, basically, I've been working for my company, a IT and telecom company, for 30 years.

[30:54] I know for a lot of our young people in Mortimer, that would be beyond a lifetime sentence. How can you work for one company for 30 years?

[31:08] Three years seems like a long time. But, basically, what happened was... So, I run Asia Pacific for this company and I've been doing it since 2008.

[31:24] So, that's probably about 13 years. But, actually, it was the journey of how I got this role that Chris wanted me to share. So, back in 2003, which is quite a while ago, nearly 20 years ago, I was...

[31:40] My boss then, who was the head of this region, left and four of us was invited to interview for this job. And then, kind of long story short, it came down to two of us, between myself and a colleague of mine who's a little bit older than me, probably 10, 15 years older than me.

[32:02] And, in my final interview with my then boss, he asked the standard question of, you know, why would you think best that you had...

[32:12] Why do you think you're the best candidate for this role? And, boy, when Chris talked about David and his heart struck him, I had kind of a similar feeling at that point.

[32:26] I felt like that God was speaking to me and striking my heart and basically said to me that, you know what, it's not your time, you should recommend your colleague.

[32:40] So, at that point in the final interview between the two of us, I recommended to my boss that he should choose my colleague to be, to take this role.

[32:53] Thinking maybe one day, you know, it will be my turn. But I really felt, you know, he had more experience, he had another 10, 15 years more experience than me and so forth. So, I ended up working for my colleague for three years subsequent to that.

[33:10] And, in that, there was a lot of different circumstances where I was able to support him. He actually fell into a bit of a depression in the middle of that and I was able to kind of support him through that.

[33:25] At the end of that three years, he left the company and at that point, I thought, oh, you know, maybe it's my turn. And then the company decided to fly somebody in from the US and passed over anybody in the region to take that role.

[33:41] So, then I worked for this new boss for another year and then they moved him on to another job and I thought, wow, finally, okay, it's my turn to do this role.

[33:54] And then they decide to do another restructure and merge the region with another region and then they put another boss ahead of me. So, I was passed over twice.

[34:06] So, this is now kind of five years, four years on and now I work for my new, second new boss for another two years.

[34:17] So, now kind of six years on from the time that I felt God saying, you know what, you should recommend your colleague and, you know, something happened, an incident happened and it actually created a really difficult situation for my then boss who had to take responsibility for that incident although he wasn't involved and he left.

[34:42] So, now it moved from, it's now the end of 2008 and at which point the company then said, okay, we've kind of run out of candidates now.

[34:54] All those people we've put on top of Bird we've kind of run out. Maybe it's time we asked Bird to kind of take the role. So, you know, that was kind of a long story short.

[35:06] It was about six years between the time of my interview and I was appointed for the role and I know it seems, six years seems a long time probably especially for those that are young in their career it seems probably a lifetime but, you know, what I didn't know and it didn't to me and it reminded me of a verse in Genesis 29 when Jacob was waiting for Rachel and Laban kind of did a bait and switch with Leah and but in 20 in verse 20 it said but they seemed to him but a few days because he loved her and so actually those six years really didn't feel like that long to me.

[35:59] I really felt like and by the way the time of waiting is not a time well I'm going to sit on my hands and feel sorry for myself. It was really just a time of leaning and trusting in God and really he taught me a lot and one thing at the end of that when I was appointed to that role and I've been in it for 13 years now was that prior to me the average tenure of somebody who survived in this role was two years so it wasn't a longevity role and now I've been in it for 13 I don't know if God wants me to be in it for any further but I certainly feel like that it was a time of waiting that God's timing was surely a lot better than my own timing.

[36:45] So Chris sorry it was longer than it needed to be. No that's great thank you Bernard and I think one of the things that just even I'm sure Bernard may not say this but I think just you see how just even walking in just the ordinary faithfulness of just trusting God over time over time and I know even Bernard you said to me that one of the things God had worked in your heart was actually a desire that you wanted to see the other people succeed as well and I think that comes out of actually a security and a trust that actually you know that actually God has got you and so thank you so much for sharing that I think that's just really encouraging for us.

[37:27] So I want us to just finish with one more point we've looked at waiting we've looked at trusting in a God who is faithful and the last thing is I want to do is talk about seeing because it's not that actually God always works everything out in our own way and actually this call to wade and to trust is not a call as Bernard said to just accept every bad stuff that comes your way and just live with it it's a call to a big vision of God which gives you courage in uncertainty so you don't grasp so you don't live and seek your own entitlement but actually David gets up out of the cave and he goes to confront Saul he's not passive in this at all but his heart is in the right place before he goes to confront and actually by the way if you have relational tension never go and confront someone until you've actually done heart surgery on yourself first because you'll only make things worse but David at this point he's seeking to win

[38:30] Saul's heart to open his eyes to see reality and he shouts to Saul he goes hey my lord the king and he bows down and then he shows him the cut robe and he goes see my father see the corner of your robe in my hand in fact the word see is repeated at least four times in two verses he says do you see do you see reality do you see every lie that you have been believing is false here is the evidence in front of you I could have had revenge I could have held on to business but I haven't because I'm not I'm not trusting and getting my own way in this I'm leaving judgment in God's hand because I know his hands are bigger than mine and he says may the lord judge between me and you but my hand shall not be against you I'm not going to take revenge I'm not going to attack I'm not going to withdraw I'm not going to do anything except I'm bringing the goodness of God to you and Saul's eyes which have been blinded by this ever deepening spiral of grasping and jealousy trying to hold on to his ambitions and control for one split second are opened and he sees the reality and he says this you are more righteous than I for you have repaid me good and the word good is actually repeated multiple times good whereas I have repaid you evil you see

[40:06] David's trust in God as the judge when he could have grown bitter but he doesn't he leaves all of that in God's hands it leads him to bring blessing and good to even the wicked and unjust people like Saul whereas Saul's trust in himself leads him to doing evil to innocent people and you know we are the same because in the uncertainty of our waiting in the pain of hurt and betrayal we can be tempted to listen to lies we can be tempted to cling on to bitterness we can be tempted to look at the short term to zoom in on the macro lens of just the moment and try and get everything for now and miss the wide angle lens of God's character and his promises because you see before each one of us today you will have tests on whether you're going to trust God in your waiting or do what's good in your own eyes and God puts in front of your face this morning as he wants to every day not a cut robe but he wants to put pierced hands and feet of Christ before you in front of your face and says see you have in many ways treated me like Saul in your entitlement in your impatience in your pride in so many different ways and yet

[41:27] Jesus was persecuted a fugitive betrayed rejected treated far worse than Jesus than David ever was on our account but I am so patient with you I am patient wanting people to repent and come back to me do you know Jesus could have wiped out every one of his enemies like that instead he chose not to take it into his grasp it into his own hands like Philippians 2 says but he chooses to take the nature of a servant he pays the ultimate cost ultimate opportunity cost of death on a cross you see David's life was actually protected by God but Jesus life was not and I can imagine in heaven the angels would go are you crazy God do you not know what Chris is like do you not know what you're entitled to do you not know all the things that he has done to you and he would say yeah but my love and my grace come to undeserving entitled and impatient people and I want to give you what you don't deserve the grace of my love and a relationship with me and he is the one who is crowned the ultimate king the resurrected king of glory and if you want to have a big view of God right now you've got to place his story and overlay it onto your story because sooner or later this week you're going to have cave moments in your life maybe and if you haven't been getting in

[43:15] God's word regularly if you haven't been rehearsing his love and his faithful to you thanking him and allowing his promises to work in your life you'll believe what everyone else says around you and it will be a lie and you'll be blind to the reality of the big picture of what God is doing and you'll do what is good in your own eyes and it will cause harm to others but if you tune your heart to the ever faithful suffering love of Jesus towards you then his story will reshape your story because what you see is he brings life out of death when you trust him with your life there may be moments where things will feel like you're dying but he always brings resurrection out of the cave you see right now I want to ask you where are the moments where you're waiting where are the moments where you are in pain or frustrated you see God is wanting to work a resurrection story in your life but you've got to get off your throne like

[44:19] Jonathan you've got to trust him with the timing like David and if you take the promises of God my God is my helper the Lord is the upholder and sustainer of my life and you've got to wield those every day to help you fix your eyes on Christ and every day we're doing that helping each other with that you will look back I can guarantee in years to come and say Jesus you are more righteous than I I have repaid you with plenty of sin I've been impatient a whole lot of other things but in Christ you have repaid me with such abundant good because Jesus you are so good to me and the question is today as he puts that in front of you will you trust him with the weight will you trust him with your hurt will you trust him and run to him and let him be the

[45:22] God of your life I want to pray for a second and then we're going to move into breakout rooms but I want you to take a second to think about this story I want you to think where in this story resonates with your story where are the areas where God is calling you to trust in him today to have a bigger vision of him and his goodness and his love what resonates in your life where is he calling you to trust him so father I just want to thank you that you are the ultimate faithful God thank you that even though we look so much in the macro the little tiny moments of life you see the big picture and thank you that your faithfulness has been proved to us ultimately on the cross but actually again and again every single day you prove it to us

[46:30] Lord forgive us for where we fail to see that you are faithful I pray Lord even as we go into our breakout rooms and chat together I pray that you would speak to us you would encourage us that you would help remind us that you have got today that you are our helper and help us to look up and see you and trust you in