Wait for It

Today on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Welcome back to Summit Life with J.D. Greer, pastor of the Summit Church in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina.

I'm your host, Molly Vidovitch. I've got a question for you. What do you do when the path you're on in life takes a turn for the worse? In today's message from 1 Samuel 24, Pastor J.D. follows David into an unexpected place, the wilderness. At this point in his life, David has been chosen to be king but isn't on the throne yet and circumstances actually sent him running for his life. David's temptation in this season certainly echoes our own. When our plans seem to be going south, we can either take matters into our own hands or we can follow David's example, doing the hardest thing in the Bible. Trust God and actively wait on his timing.

Does this sound familiar? If so, grab your Bible and let's join Pastor J.D. now. 1 Samuel 24, if you have your Bibles this morning, and I hope that you do. 1 Samuel 24, I hope that you are reading through these stories of David as we work our way through them. I cannot possibly cover everything that is in these chapters.

And there's some really fascinating stuff in them that you would be greatly benefited by that I just don't have time to cover. David's life in these chapters reads like a good news, bad news story. You know, good news, bad news story, where one thing is just followed by another thing, like the story of the two friends who wonder, will there be baseball in heaven? And so they agree that whichever one dies first, they will come back and tell the other one the answer. Well, sure enough, one dies and his ghost appears to the other one the next day and he says, I got good news and bad news. Good news is, there is indeed baseball in heaven.

The bad news, you're pitching on Friday. David's story reads like a good news, bad news story. In 1 Samuel 16, Samuel shows up out of the blue, goes into the pasture and anoints David as king. That's good news, right? After that, David gets sent back to the sheep pasture where he's forgotten about for several years. That's bad news. Then David wins an epic battle against Goliath, becomes a national hero, marries the king's daughter and gets a job on Capitol Hill. That's more good news.

Then King Saul turns out to be an egomaniac who tries five different times to pin David to the wall at the spear. That's bad news. Then he gives David's wife, his daughter, to somebody else and uses the state controlled media to trash David's reputation. Bad news. Then he puts out a warrant for David's arrest and says he'll pay a bounty to anybody who brings David back to him, dead or alive.

More bad news. Just as David presses through one challenge and you think things are finally gonna get better for him, he's greeted with another obstacle. Reading through these stories this time in preparation for this series reminded me of reading about the Lewis and Clark expedition in Stephen Ambrose's book, Undaunted Courage. A fascinating book if you've never read it, but for two years Lewis and Clark and their team battled fatigue and hunger and raiding parties and desertion by their crew and a lot of other setbacks as they pressed westward in search of a waterway that would carry them to the Pacific Ocean. They had been led to believe that once they reached the continental divide in Colorado or what is in today what we call Colorado, they thought they would find the Columbia River where they would put their boats and their boats in and float lazily all the rest of the way to the Pacific Ocean. Stephen Ambrose says that as they approached the continental divide, Meriwether Lewis was really excited and so he ran ahead of everybody so that he could be the first European descended person to see what he assumed was going to be a long sloping valley that stretched all the way to the to the Pacific Ocean.

Instead Meriwether Lewis became, after he crossed that continental divide and got up to the ridge and looked, he became the first non-native American to ever lay eyes on the Rocky Mountains. Just when you think things are going to get easier for David, Rocky Mountains. And that raises this question that I want us to consider together today. What do you do? What do you do when the path you're on takes an unexpected turn for the worst? When your career hits a snag and you were like I did not see that one coming. Or maybe you say career snag, I mean my career can't hit a snag it's never gotten started.

I graduated high school with such high hopes or I graduated college with such high hopes but I can't even find a job right now. Or your kid starts having problems when they get into middle school and you didn't see it coming they were they were so good when they were younger, eating disorder or depression or bad behavior. Or maybe you're not married and you thought surely by this age you would be married. Or maybe you are married but this marriage that you're in if it can even be called a marriage is is a far cry from the marriage you dreamed of when you were a kid.

Or maybe you just got divorced and never in a million years would you have thought that you would be the one out of your circle of friends who would get divorced. What do you do when life takes an unexpected turn for the negative? I want to use these stories of David today to warn you against the temptation that we tend to fall into in moments like that. And that is to take matters into your own hands or to put it in theological terms to attempt to perfect by the flesh what was promised in the spirit. Y'all this is a major theme in the Bible. If you pay attention you will see almost every Bible character go through a season like this one and I'll show you a few of those today but it's just gonna happen in a major way to David. First Samuel 24 because of Saul's murderous egomania David has been forced to flee into the wilderness. Then Saul received some intelligence from some of his spies that David and his merry men are hiding out in the caves of En Gedi. And so chapter 24 verse 2 Saul took three thousand chosen men the the rangers the the navy seals the delta force out of all Israel and he went to seek David and his men in front of the wild goats rocks and he came to the sheep vaults by the way where there was a cave and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now some of your translations will say there cover his feet. Cover his feet is a Hebrew euphemism for doing number two. Okay but get this David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the very cave that Saul went into.

I mean y'all talk about an awkward moment is this good luck or bad luck? David and some of his men are hiding in this cave and Saul goes into that very cave without his guard to do number two. I mean this could not have been a pleasant experience that cave is dark and dank with no ventilation but verse four the men of David said to him hey this is it here is the day of which the Lord said to you remember behold I will give your enemy in your hand like he's right there he's got his pants around his ankles there's nobody with him go go I mean there's hardly a more vulnerable position that a man can be in am I right and the men are like David now now now is your moment. Then David verse four arose in Hebrew that word arose means decisive action.

David grabs his knife presumably to get up and go kill Saul and somewhere David is coming up behind Saul holding his nose I guess he thinks wait wait this is murder even if God has put Saul here in front of me taking his life is wrong. Can I just pause here for just a minute and say something that some of you need to hear fortuitous circumstances are not always the sign that God is behind something. I say that because it is amazing how many people justify immoral or foolish behavior through some coincidence.

Oh my current marriage was not working and I met this new guy at work who was just perfect. I mean we love we even love the set we have the favorite song right now on k-love it was just too coincidental it just felt felt like fate. I really wanted that I really wanted that car and unexpectedly the price dropped then unexpectedly I got approved for a loan and then I got a credit card thing in the mail telling me I was good for this amount of credit and I feel like God has given me a sign that he wants me to have that car.

Of course taking out this loan is going to put me in significant debt and will likely make me car poor and eliminate any possibility of ever being generous but why else would all these circumstances just happen. Friends I am not saying that God never uses coincidences to direct us but sometimes coincidences are just coincidences and they're nothing more but the thing you can always count on to guide you is God's word. So the foremost consideration in David's mind is not what are these circumstances guiding me to do but what does God's word say. Furthermore you all realize that God is not the only one who arranges lucky coincidences in your life right. You don't think satan does that too. You see the temptation that David is going through follows a pretty clear pattern satan is tempting David to take matters into his own hands and he even uses scripture to do it. Do you see how David's men quoted scripture to urge David to kill Saul do you see that in verse four this is this is what he said to you remember Samuel prophesied this this isn't the bible that was how satan tempted Jesus in the wilderness too wasn't it he took him up on a high pinnacle and he said God wants to give you all of this and that was true God had said he wanted to give Jesus all the kingdoms of the world but then satan said I can give it to you right now did you just take this little shortcut you want to go through the cross you want to go through any suffering you can have it all right now don't wait on God to give you this go get it now for yourself yeah that's what satan does he starts with the truth he holds up something God wants you to have and then he urges you to step outside of God's will to go get it to take a shortcut I mean think about it in the garden of eden said what did satan say God wants you to be happy and to have godlike wisdom and that was true and then satan said to get there I'm going to show you a shortcut eat of this forbidden fruit to Abraham satan said God has promised to make you the father of a great nation and that was true but then he said you know what Abraham you're childless and you're 90 and Sarah your wife is 75 years old and so you need to go have a kid with your servant Hagar in other words step outside of God's will and take a shortcut you see the pattern the temptation is to pursue the promise of the spirit by the power of the flesh by stepping outside of God's will you will never find God's will by doing things your way instead of his you were listening to summit life with jd greer as we take a brief pause from today's teaching I want to share with you about a fantastic resource from summit life that's available to you free of charge each day our daily email devotional is a great way to develop a daily habit of keeping yourself grounded in the word of God these devotionals even follow along with the current teaching series here on summit life and they include a scripture reading a devotional thought and a prayer prompt to help you start your day on the right foot we know that sometimes heaven forbid you might miss our program here on the station but the good news is that these daily devotionals cover what we're talking about here on summit life so if you ever miss a day you can stay caught up with a quick reading in your email it's completely free and you can sign up today at jdgrier.com slash resources we pray that these devotionals are a source of encouragement and growth in your walk with Christ and remember free resources like this are made possible by the generous support of listeners like you now let's get back to today's teaching with pastor jd greer here on summit life watch what david does david crawls right up behind Saul and Saul leans over to grab some toilet paper or whatnot david very stealthily cut off a corner of Saul's robe but afterwards david's heart struck him because he had cut off a corner of of Saul's robe david felt guilty for even doing that now at this point y'all david's men are just apoplectic they're like first david you don't kill the guy who's been trying to kill us when god puts him right in front of you but now now you feel guilty about messing up his clothes verse six but david said to his men the lord forbid that i should do this thing to my lord the king the lord's anointed to put out my hand against him seeing that he is indeed the lord's anointed even if Saul is in the wrong david says this is god's appointed king and these are god's appointed circumstances and it is not for me to take matters into my own hands i cannot achieve the purpose of god by breaking the commands of god think about it y'all killing Saul would have solved so many of david's problems wouldn't it he could have framed it all self-defense he could have played the victim card well Saul's been using his position of power to abuse me and manipulate me and by the way wasn't Saul guilty of death for what he'd done and hadn't god promised david the throne anyway yeah all of those things i just said are true and david could have used any of them as justification but david knew that you never achieve the purposes of god by breaking the commands of god never so david persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul Saul finishes up his business gives it a royal flush i guess uncovers his feet and exits a cave david waits for a few minutes until Saul is a safe little distance away from the cave then he calls out to Saul from the mouth of the cave verse 8 my lord the king and when Saul looked behind him david bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage 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 into my hand in this cave and some of my men told me to kill you but i spared you i said i will not put out my hand against the lord for he is the lord's anointed then he waved a little corner of the robe that he cut off he said by the fact that i cut off the corner of your robe and i did not kill you you can know from this proof this evidence this piece of your garment in my hand that there is no wrong or treason in my hands i have not sinned against you though you hunt my life to take it may the lord judge between me and you may the lord avenge me against you but my hand shall never be against you because the proverbs of the ancient says it correctly out of the wicked comes wickedness in other words your sin does not justify mine for me to do wickedness would make me wicked regardless of what you did to provoke it only from the wicked comes wickedness and when you do wickedness it makes you wicked regardless of what somebody did that you think justifies it the opposite of this proverb by the way would be the ends justifies the means david then finishes his little soliloquy with this plea after whom has the king of israel come out after whom are you pursuing after a dead dog after a flee a dead dog can't bite you a flea cannot hurt you i'm no threat to you at all saul as soon as david finished speaking these words to saul saul said is this your voice my son david and saul lifted up his voice and wept he said to david you are more righteous than i for you have repaid me good whereas i have repaid you evil may the lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day and now behold i know that you david you shall surely be king and that the kingdom of israel shall be established in your hand 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 and david swore this to saul now watch this then saul went home but david and his men went back up to the stronghold i want you to notice that david did not go back with saul it looked like saul had repented didn't it he said he was sorry he asked for forgiveness he even cried about it he even acknowledged that david one day would be king yet david still went back to the stronghold this is not a major point in this story but i think it's worth pointing out because maybe somebody in here needs to hear it just because somebody says they're sorry and just because you forgive them doesn't mean you can always go right back to normal so when you've been abused somebody's simply saying to you i'm sorry and crying about it does it mean that you're obligated to move back in immediately he says he's sorry and he might be she says she forgives him and she does but that does not necessarily mean that she needs to move back in there can and often should be a good gap of time to show if the repentance is real and if it will endure so david very wisely says i forgive you i'm staying here for a while but that brings us back to this question what do you do when the path you're on takes an unexpected turn for the worst you see as i read this story you basically have two choices two choices number one you can take matters into your own hands or number two you can do the hardest thing in the bible in the christian life trust god and wait on his timing taking matters into your own hands usually takes one of four forms think of these as satan sinful shortcuts first one letter a if you're taking notes rationalized revenge david's men urged him to settle the score and they felt right about doing that revenge almost always feels right doesn't it i mean when you're paying best somebody back it's verbally or through some action because of what they've done to you you feel right about it there's like a tuning fork in you that that is that is tuned to the rhythms of the universe and when you are paying somebody back for what they did wrong to you you feel nigh unto deity in what you're doing your wife doesn't appreciate or respect you so you cheat on her and you feel perfectly justified in that your boss has been a jerk to you so you do sloppy work and you find ways to undermine him even steal from the company because you feel entitled to it and you even brag to your friends about it people are uncharitable with your motives on social media so you are uncharitable with theirs you cheat on your taxes because we all know the government mishandles our money these all feel justified because of the wrong you've endured but out of the wicked comes wickedness category number two letter b pilford pleasures life hasn't delivered for you so you find escape and some stolen pleasure i mean i can't help but think here y'all of joseph and the bible and for all the unfair treatment that joseph had gone through being sold into slavery and lied about in prison unjustly when potiphar's wife propositioned him i have to think how tempting it would have been for joseph to think as badly as my life has gone i deserve this maybe that's what it is for you an affair becomes an escape of pleasure in an unfair world or maybe you find that escape in a bottle or if you're looking at porn and you think what's this really hurting anyway my job or my family is so stressful i need this god seems to god seems to have forgotten me at least i have this third one letter c cowardly compromise you think well god's not delivering so i'll take matters into my own hands like abraham did with hagar sarah she was the one that god promised to have a kid through but it's not working so you know what i'm going to take matters into my own hands and i'll take a shortcut and i'll have this kid through hagar for you here's what that looks like you're not married yet god hadn't brought along a partner for you even though you've asked him and asked him and fasted and prayed and your friends have prayed so you start dating somebody you know you should not be with because you figured that's better than being alone financially you're not where you want to be so you overwork you take a second job you cut out giving your tithe god is not moving fast enough on your timetable so you take matters into your own hands which leads to the fourth thing letter d rationalized revenge pilfered pleasure cowardly compromise panic presumption y'all my alliteration game is on point today okay because god is not delivering on your timetable you start manipulating circumstances forcing things now let me say this i know that type a people who get stuff done they're the ones hustling behind the scenes and you don't take no for an answer that's how you've gotten where you are and there's nothing wrong with that it's not necessarily a bad thing but sometimes you're doing that because you're not willing to wait and your behavior becomes obsessive and manipulative and unhealthy for me this has always shown up through self-promotion i'm not content to wait on god's timing so i'm always angling to force myself ahead through self-promotion by manipulating situations or leveraging relationships if god's not moving fast enough in the life of my kids i try to force it and all these things i am trying to complete and the power of my flesh what only god can do in the spirit see these things are the opposite of what david did david said i will not stretch out my hand in wickedness against god's anointed no matter how justified i feel in doing so i will wait upon the lord i will do things his way because he's the one that made these promises he's the shepherd to whom i have committed my soul i will wait upon the lord in fact everybody let's say that say together will you say it with me say it i will wait upon the lord y'all that one phrase would change so much in your life waiting on god is hard but always always worth it what a great reminder as we continue our teaching series through the life of king david pastor jd i remember when you first preached this series at the summit church and it took about half a year to preach since we're camped here on the program for a while can you give us the big picture well you say that like it just seemed like it went on and on forever is that what i pick up i remember you know david represents and this is what's so amazing about it is he represents the best of israel and he also represents the heartbreak of israel in fact if you look at one thing in the old testament that made people ask like there has to be more because here's david the best of the best and even he ends up committing adultery and his best friend's wife and then you know having him killed and and we need something more and it kind of sets you up who is this king that is greater than david so you know it's yes we're going to take some time to work our way through this uh slowly because literally every page there's just such gospel richness on it and as always molly we we want to give you a resource that will help you go deeper in this series um and i could not imagine anything in the old testament exception maybe of the book of genesis that you'd want to go deeper in uh than the books of first and second samuel so we want to provide that in this and so i would encourage you i mean i know that a lot of our listeners reach out for these resources regularly this is definitely one you want to pay attention to so just go to go to jdgrier.com and we'll get you started to get your copy give a gift of 35 or more to this ministry by calling us at 866-335-5220 that's 866-335-5220 or you can always give online at jdgrier.com i'm molly vidovich thanks for joining us today and don't miss the conclusion of this teaching about waiting on god that's thursday on summit life with jd greer today's program was produced and sponsored by jd greer ministries