Sermon Transcript:Thank you all so much for the welcome. It's really nice to be back with you today. Last week we did David and Goliath. We talked about David Goliath if you weren't here, we concluded after three exchanges of armor garments were sold tries to give David his garments, and David rejects it because David never takes all this place. And then David takes gulyas armor, and he takes it on the battlefield, making it clear that David really is the champion that he always appears to be in the scriptures. We describe it as a scanning scrawny little kid who couldn't have won the battle. And what a miracle is that it happened, it is a miracle that it happened. But it's not a miracle. Because he was so weak, he was a great warrior already. He already knew how to fight, he just hadn't been involved in wars, he'd been killing animals. And so when he killed Goliath, he took his armor, he became the great champion. But what he concludes with the most important part, and the part that leads to all four chapters that we're covering today, although we'll cover it very briefly, I know you don't believe me when I say that, about anything but as possible. The most important exchange of all, is the exchange of garments and armor between Jonathan and David, because Jonathan gives Jonathan his sole son, Saul is the king Jonathan will inherit the kingdom. But instead, Jonathan gives his royal garments and his armor to David, acknowledging that David is the rightful person to be the next king. And the really remarkable thing about that exchange of garments at the beginning of chapter 18, which is the beginning of our passage for today. The really remarkable thing about that is that Jonathan deserved to be the next king, Jonathan did everything to earn the right to be the next king. And this is what I was pointing out to you, at the very end of our time together last week, that Jonathan had already shown that he was courageous, just like David is courageous, he was skilled in battle, just like David is skilled in battle, he is faithful to God, and to God's people, just like David is faithful to God, and to God's people. I mean, everything about him makes him a hero. That's why he has the event at the Philistine garrison, where Jonathan goes up by himself with an armor bearer carrying things for him. But he's by himself fighting this battle against the Philistines that he wins. And then all of Israel joins in the victory that comes from that conquest that Jonathan has. It's exactly like David standing there by himself and having this conquest with Goliath, and then all of Israel joining in the victory that comes afterwards. And we're not we're told those two stories, only four chapters apart. And we're told the two stories right next to each other, so that we will see that Jonathan deserves to be king, even though Saul has failed miserably. Jonathan deserves to be king. But David is going to be the next king. And to be clear on what I was concluding with last week. All of this is to come to the point, that there's only one that God chooses, and anoints and crowns, the one who's going to be king. And in the Old Testament, that figure is David, at the very beginning of the of the message last week, I made the point to you. Even Jesus is not called the son of Solomon, even though Solomon is closer to Jesus than David is. And Solomon's kingdom in Israel is greater than David's kingdom in Israel. Solomon is David's son, right? But Jesus is the Son of David, that's how he's always referred to. Because David in the Old Testament is the chosen one, he's the anointed one. That doesn't mean he can save us. It doesn't mean he is the Messiah for eternity. But it does mean he's the image we're supposed to go to, if we want to understand what Jesus is called to do, as the Son of God Himself, who comes down into this world to be our king, and then demonstrates that in what you will be celebrating an Easter in just a couple of weeks in the resurrection, and it's not just a joyful celebration, it's a declaration that he is still, Lord, because he is the only chosen one. I mean, the real question, in all of these passages that we're looking at is whether you're in or out whether you are in the in group, right or out. So I'm I'm not from here, y'all to figure that out, I suppose. But it all been extremely welcoming. And all of El Paso has been extremely welcoming to us. My wife and I were in Colorado in the intervening week, we were just taking a break. And when we came back, we came back Friday night, spent all day yesterday in El Paso and everybody was extremely gracious to us. When you're an outsider, it matters how people treat you and now they receive you. That's why I appreciate that you all do the thing where you stand up and say, Hey, let's have a time of welcome and let's shake hands and find somebody you don't know and greet them. I turn around. I don't know anybody. So I'm really happy when somebody greets me. I appreciate it. The whole point is it's nice to be on the inside, but we don't think as clearly as we might need to about what it means to be on the inside. In terms of our relationship with God, we, we do think of it more in terms of what we can do to wedge our way in. And if I had offered somebody a gift in order to give me a handshake this morning, that would be wedging my way in so that somebody would think I could be a part of their group. And that would be absurd, that would be missing the point of you being a welcoming people or something like that. So what I want to show you in these parts of the story in First Samuel 18, through 21, they if you have a Bible, and you look on with me, that's great. If you don't, I'm going to try to just give you enough so that you can make sense of all these stories. And it is four chapters, they're not long. And they are really interesting chapters. And they are critically important in understanding what happens with David from this day forward. Because as soon as David kills Goliath, you know, now he's a national figure, everybody kind of understands who he is. As soon as that happens, all the lines in Israel divide between those who are with David, and those who are against him. And that becomes the only thing that matters. And so if you look at chapter 18, verses one through four, verses one through five, I'm sorry, you see the whole story of Jonathan giving his armor to David exchanging his armor. And at the end of that, you see, it says this was good in the sight of all the people, and also in the sight of all of Saul's servants. So it sounds like, every everybody's got to be for David. But but that's not the way it goes. I mean, the very next part of the story is how Saul becomes jealous. And I'll kind of cover just a little highlight of what those stories are about in a minute. But right now, just just grasp this that right after Jonathan favours David, and all the people love him, immediately, Saul becomes jealous, nervous that David is going to draw away the loyalty of Israel from him. And he goes through these couple of different efforts to kill David. And then Jonathan tries to reconcile things at the beginning of chapter 19. And, and saw even responds and says, Oh, okay, I'll stop trying to kill him, you can count on it, it's going to be fine. But then immediately after that, Saul becomes jealous again, and tries two more times, two more ways to try to kill David. And then at the end of chapter 19, you have the passage I want us to start with today, which is chapter 19, verses 18. And following, this is what it says, Now, so what happens is Saul is trying to kill David, he tries to throw a spear at me, he tries to kill him in his house at night, David sneaks away, as David sneaks away. This is what happens in verse 18 of chapter 90. Now David fled and escaped, this is a weird story. This is why I'm reading it to you in the in the holes in the in this whole section of four, four chapters. Every story is basically Jonathan loves David. Saul hates David. And so Jonathan is doing simple things to express how much he cares about David. And Saul is doing terrible things to try to kill David. And then there's this weird story in the middle. There's always a story like this, and these really important parts of Scripture, by the way, and it's there for a reason to make the most important point. So here's this point in First Samuel 19, verse 18. Now this is weird, David fled and escape, and he came to Samuel at Rhema. You remember, Samuel is the prophet that had anointed David before he was the prophet that anointed Saul to begin with, and then Saul just betrays his anointing choose to be himself. So this is the Samuel the David comes back to So David runs to Samuel, he came to Samuel at Rhema. And he told him all that Saul had done to him. And he and Samuel went and lived at Neha. And it was told Saul, hey, David's at Neha in Rhema. And Saul sent messengers, to take David, when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, this is the weird part part of the weird part, when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, because Samuel has all the prophets with him. And so they declare the word of God and the will of God, and they sort of show this kingship of God in the midst of Israel. So Saul sends messengers to take David out of that group, so that Saul can kill him. But when the messengers come, it says, they see the prophets and they see them prophesying. And Samuel standing as a head over them, the Spirit of God came on the messengers of soul, and they also prophesied, so they just kind of fall into the group and they're like, glorifying God and acknowledging, you know, of all the things that are being acknowledged. He doesn't say what's being declared. But I mean, clearly Samuel has anointed David to be the next king over Israel. So they're joining in the chorus, they're singing the songs that acknowledge that this is not going souls way this this is going David's way. So that's what happens to souls messengers. Well, that's not gonna go well with Saul. So in verse 21, when it was told Saul, he sent other messengers, and if you are familiar with scripture, if you're not you will recognize this, but if you're familiar with scripture, all these things are just bouncing off your head to say, oh, man that happens over and over again. They send messengers to take care hija Oh, well, let's take Elijah and then the messengers end up dying. And so he sends other messengers to take Elijah, and then they send other messengers. It's like that. That's what's happening here. So they come the messengers of Saul, they also prophesied when it was told Saul, he sent other messengers and they also prophesied. And Saul sent messengers again the third time, and they also prophesied, he didn't say nothing yet, listen to this part. Then he himself saw, he's like, nobody's gonna bring David back to me. I can't trust anyone, I'll do it myself. He himself went to Ramah and came to the great well, that is in sick you. And he asked, Where are Samuel and David, and once said, Behold, they're now in Ramah. And so he went there today off in Rhema. And the Spirit of God came upon him also. And as he went, he prophesied until he came to Nazareth and Rhema. And he stripped off his clothes, and he to prophesied before Samuel, and lay naked all day and all night. Thus it is said, and then they give us this expression, we don't use the expression. So we don't know how it means this, but it says is Saul also among the prophets. Now, it's obvious from the context what that phrase means. It means even the person who is most determined to undermine the message of the prophets, because the Prophet Samuel, and all of his people have said, David is to be the next king, even the person who is most dead set against that ends up falling down, humiliating himself, in nakedness, meaning there's nothing about his own pride that he can retain. Remember, he's so concerned about protecting the kingdom, he has said to Samuel, oh, just pray for me so that I can keep the kingdom he wants his dignity maintained more than anything else, he loses all of his dignity, and all of his self will to fall down on the ground and acknowledge that everything the prophets are saying is true. That's what happens to Saul, the person who wants most to undermine what's happening with David, he can't do it. So the statement is Saul, also among the prophets, is a way of saying in this sort of snarky tone, or sarcastic tone, it's a way of saying, Nobody can stop what God has determined to do. No one can stop it. So it's coming, no matter what you can choose to be with it. You can choose to be against it. But you can't stop it, no matter what you do. That's the one thing we're going to see inevitable here. And it has to do with David's anointing, because David is the chosen one. So the first and clearest and most important expression of what it means that there's no stopping what God has determined to do, is acknowledging that everything about being chosen, is about being in, as we would say, now in Christ in Jesus, who is the Messiah, in reality, for eternity. In the Old Testament, the division is simply who's for David, and who's against David. That's why all of these chapters are about that. Now. And I'll show you that in the clear words of the text in in at the beginning of chapter 18. Here's Jonathan, Jonathan, I'm looking in verse one, and I'll be following and I'm just going to be skipping through a lot of verses. So if you want to keep up, like raise your hand and I'll tell you the verse otherwise, I'm just gonna skip through these real quickly. So here's Jonathan, Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And because he loved him as his own soul, Jonathan stripped himself of the robe and gave it to David and so on. And all the people felt the same way good in the sight of all the people and also all the side of soul servants. Then you get to Saul Saul's response Saul is in verse eight of the same chapter, Saul is very angry. The saying that David is killed his 10s of 1000s while soldiers only killed his 1000s the saying displeased him dead Saul's responses to say what more can he have but the kingdom and Saul I, David from that day on that same that next day, it says a harmful spirit from God rushed upon Saul, and he raved within his house while David was playing the lyre. And Saul hurled his spear at David in order to pin him to the wall to kill him. But David evaded him twice soul was it goes on to say, afraid of David, later in verse 815, it says, And he stood in fearful all of David, but all of Israel and all of Judah, loved David. Then Saul goes through different efforts to kill David aside from just throwing his spear directly at him, where he can run away he decides to say, Oh, I actually love David, let me say, I love David. I want to give him my daughter in marriage, but cuz then he'll have to give me a price for My Bride because the idea of a bride price was common thing in their day. So he'll have to give me some kind of price for the daughter that I'm going to give him. And I'll have him go out and fight the Philistines as the price and then the Philistines will kill him. And I'll finally be done with David. So he tries that he wants her to be literally in the words here that she may be a snare for him. She wants to kill David with him. And it says, As a result, if you don't know this part of the story, Saul basically says to David, hey, if you'll kill a bunch of listings and give me proof of it, the proof is gory. Go read the details yourself. I don't feel like explaining it. So he says, If you'll go kill the Philistines, and then I'll give you my daughter to marry, and David goes and kills twice as many Philistines as Saul requires. And he comes back having won the victory, and he gets Micah and met Michael in marriage. And what it says about Saul is as a result of this, Saul was even more afraid of David. Saul was David's enemy continually. Then the commanders of listings came out to battle. And as often as they came out, David had more success than all the servants of Saul so that his name was highly esteemed what us all do in response to that he tries to kill David two more times, and the rest of chapter 19. He tries to sneak he, he tries another time to throw a javelin at him and kill him that way to pin him to the wall. He He sends messengers to David's house to kill him in his house. Michael, lets David out the window. And so he's able to sneak away and then we read the chapter we read, what comes after that in chapter 20, after the part that we just read about soul being among the prophets, what comes after that? Is Jonathan telling David, I think my dad's trying to kill you. David's like no da, I think I've noticed that this is happening. And Jonathan says, but let me work it out. So that if he really is trying to kill you, I'll warn you if he's not than you, then then then you'll be able to come back and everything will be fine. But in the process of doing this, this is what it says about Jonathan, that he establishes a covenant with David, and this is the part of the story we all know Jonathan loves David. And so they go out in the field, and they establish this covenant. And I'll give you more details about that part of the story in just a minute. Right in the middle of that Saul is so angry, that this is what he does to Jonathan it starting in verse 30. This is what he says. Saul's, so Jonathan is favoring David. Saul wants Jonathan to become the next king. Because Saul wants his kingdom to go on forever. He didn't care about God's Kingdom or the people of Israel, He cares about himself. And so in the process of that Jonathan comes to Saul and says you, why are you why are you after David, don't be after David reconcile with him. And the result of that is that Saul says to Jonathan, how angry he is with him. He says to him, You are the son of a perverse and rebellious woman. I don't have to have a men's from the room. But I mean, basically, women always get the blame. She's not doing it, his mother's not doing anything. This is all Saul's fault. But anyway, he blames the woman anyway, you son of a perverse rebellious woman, do I not know that you've chosen the son of Jesse, to your own shame to the shame of your mother's nakedness? For as long as the son of Jesse lives on the earth? Neither you nor your kingdom shall be established? Jonathan, you're not going to have a kingdom. If you favor this, David, as long as he's alive, our kingdom is threatened. That's what he's saying. So send him bring him to me so that I can kill him. And then when he's dead, your kingdom will be secure. And Jonathan says So why, why my father, why should you be put to death? What is he done, but Saul hurled his spear at Jonathan, his son, he hurled his spear at him to strike him, then Jonathan knew that his father was determined to put David to death.So Saul's, it's very confusing. Saul is so angry with Jonathan, that Jonathan's Kingdom is not going to be established because Saul hates David so much. And David is going to take the kingdom, because God has given it to it, that Saul is willing to kill Jonathan, over the fact that Jonathan has chosen David. Jonathan has established a covenant with David, everything in this, we've only said one thing so far. And the one thing we've said is, there is no stopping God's purpose, and he's going to take it where he wants to take it. There's nothing you can do about that. That means everything is going to be divided over our involvement in God's purpose, which in this case, is the chosen one always is the chosen one. David in the Old Testament, that's the example that we're being given so that when Christ comes in the New Testament, will understand what's happening. And what happens in the New Testament. In fact, Jesus uses these very words describing something that probably points directly back to Saul and Jonathan and their conflict. This is how Jesus says it. When disciples come to him and say, Well, you know, we just we Want to be your followers too? We just don't want to create a bunch of conflict with other people. And And Jesus says, Do you think that I've come to bring to give peace on the earth? Jesus comes to bring peace on the earth. Don't get this wrong. He says it in his opening sermon in the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the peacemakers. They're the ones who receive the kingdom that God has given. He is a peacemaker. That's what he's about. So what on earth is this statement? Jesus saying in Luke chapter 12? Do you think that I've come to bring peace on the earth? No, I tell you, but rather, division. And listen to the example he gives For from now on in one house, there'll be five divided three against two and two against three, they will be divided, first example, Father, against son, and son, against father. It's not about Jesus coming into the world and saying, I need some people who want to fight. I don't want people who want to be soft and create peace. That's not at all. He wants us to be peacemakers. But it is about Jesus saying, when you choose to be in me, you're going to choose to be in a place that other people are going to reject. Because being in Christ makes you someone different from the people who are committed to the rest of the world. To once we're in Christ, the division is created and the division is only and always about whether you are in Christ again, the way Paul says it and I mentioned this very briefly at the end of the sermon last week. The way Paul says it in the New Testament is that we are chosen in Him. God has chosen him before the foundation of the world, that he would be the one slain for us. But we're chosen in Him meaning the only difference. So while I was up in Colorado, I'm still you know, I'm Dallas Fort Worth not a lot of snow. I don't know how much snow y'all get here. Doesn't matter. Your place is beautiful, no matter how much snow you get. But for us snow is still a mystery, you know. So when we get to be around snow, we love it. It was weird. This week, there was a bunch of fresh snow that fell each day and then every day it melted, right? So we were we were in this friend's cabin. I don't have a cabin in Colorado, we got a friend with a cabin in Colorado. So he lets me stay there. So I stayed at this friend's cabin in Colorado, it's up on the side of a mountain. It gets snow all over the roof. It's really beautiful scene. And then we hear you know, we're inside the house we hear. I don't know what it is. Whatever it is, we go outside, there's a mound of snow next to the house. Well, lo and behold, snow falls off the roof of the house as it begins to melt does take rocket science to figure out that was gonna happen. But it happens, you know. So we're inside the house. It doesn't bother us at all. Our my son in law, he walks outside the cabin. And he as he's walking out this giant line of snow falls off the roof right next to him. So he didn't land on him. Could have, but it didn't land on him. It landed right next to him. And he was mortified. You know, it's like, oh, what's coming, it's like an avalanche. It's coming down. Look, if you are in the house, there's no snow going to fall on you. If you are out of the house, you're at risk. And the truth of the matter is if you're outside the house, you're gonna get snowed on no matter what you do. If you're in that area, right? It's come in no matter what. That's the point of this statement. Being in Christ is the only thing that matters for us to be sheltered from the snow that comes to be sheltered from the judgment that comes from the coverage from the death from the pain from the separation, that comes that's the only way being outside means you will be snowed on being inside means you will be protected. And that's the only difference that matters. So everything from this point forward. And in the story, this is clear. Everything from this point forward is about whether you are in him or outside of him to be in him means you're going to be cursed, you're going to face the judgment that comes and to be out to be in him means you don't face that to be outside of him means you face that judgment. That's the only absolutely the only thing that matters. Okay, so you have the picture so far of what's going on in chapter 19. That's what's happening with Saul. It's also among the prophets. So the second part of this is just to recognize the difference between those who are against him, and those who are for him, and Saul represents those who are against him. We get one more example of it, by the way, at the very end of this section in chapter 21, when the king of Gath Acas refuses to let David find shelter there, but that's a different part of the story we won't have time to get into today. So here, this is the one thing I want you to notice about. It's at the very end of Chapter 18. So right after David marries Michael and gives Saul this proof that he's killed 200 Philistines and that He's the great champion. I read this section to you a moment ago. It says in verse 30, then the commanders of the Philistines came out to battle and as often as they came out, David had more success than all the servants of Saul, so that his name was even more highly esteemed than before. The point here is, you can be against Christ. But what you can't do is be against Christ and succeed, because he's the chosen one. Saul can be against David. But in every effort that he has to be against David, David just becomes greater. And Saul becomes even less secure than he was before. Again, when you have time go and read it yourself. Now I, you know, again, I'm a professor of philosophy and history, those are the two disciplines that I got my final degree in. And so that's what I teach. When I teach, I teach in one of those areas normally, and when I teach philosophy, one of my one of my things is, I think it's important that human beings have freewill, not everybody has to think that there are other ways to think about human agency and how we obedient to God, I'm just telling you that the way I think of it, the funny thing is when I say that people have freewill, and you know what I mean by that, like, you can make your own choice, you come to a fork in the road, you're gonna make a decision to go one way or the other, I get it, there are reasons to say, well, it's fixed, you're gonna go one way, and you're not gonna go the other way. And every time you'd go that way, there's a good reason to say that I just think you can go either way, again, doesn't change anything, theologically to know either way you can go. But here's the point that I owe, you can go either way, when I say that people offer a reasonable rebuttal to me. And this is a reasonable statement, they say. So you just think human beings can do anything, you just think people can fly if they want to fly. And that's not what I think at all, I don't think I can step off of a tall building, and not fall to the ground. I just think among the choices that God gives me, I have freedom to choose whether I go this way. Or that way, he doesn't give me the choice not to have gravity applied to myself, when I step off of a tall building. That's not one of the choices that God gives me. But one of the choices God does give me is whether to step off the building or not. That's what I'm saying about being in Christ. You don't have the power to deliver yourself from judgment, you simply don't. But I can promise you that on this day, God is extending the invitation to you to be in the Chosen One, to be in Christ. If you choose to be in Christ, if you accept the grace that God has given to you, then you have this protection, you have this blessing of being in the chosen one. And I'll tell you more about that in a moment. But if you don't, you can choose to be against Christ, you can choose to fight against him, you can choose to pronounce curses against him, and chase him down and tell other people that they shouldn't believe and you can do whatever you want to to fight against him.But he's still the chosen one. I mean, he's still and I could, we could raise hands around the room. And I could point to the people, because in every body of Christ, this is the case, he is still the one who came into lives who are in this room, and transformed them from the lostness from the waist that they experienced before, into something with meaning and purpose and direction. Not perfect. No one's arrived. But knowing we are in Him, we are part of the family. So on this first step, we acknowledge this, that even those who are against him, end up furthering his cause. And I wish I could just go story to story and point out the different examples of this through here and how this happens. Because every time Saul tries to do something against David, David just becomes more powerful. God uses it as an example of just how thoroughly he is blessing David, and how much everything else is about that. So the opposite half of that, you know, if, if there's no stopping God's purpose, and God's purpose is to divide everything on Christ, you're either in Christ, or you're not in Christ, then one side of that is you're not in Christ, okay, you're gonna oppose him, but you're never going to stop him. And you're not going to change the reality, that he's the one about whom all the blessings exist. The evidence of that, by the way, I just have to say this part. I mean, the evidence of that is so clear in the resurrection. That's the whole point, the curse that all of us are facing, that none of us can deny that from the beginning of history until this moment has been true about every single human being that's ever lived, is that they're under the curse of death, that when the grave opens, its MA and consumes us we are gone. There is no coming back. And then Jesus, the one and only chosen one, and this is the point of Peter sermon at Pentecost, by the way, the the one and only chosen one, Jesus gets put in the grave by the people who don't want to admit that he's the king who oppose him the same way Saul oppose David. So they put him in the ground, they crucify him, and they put him in the ground. And then he comes out so that all of creation, and God his Father, and Jesus himself and the spirit within us can declare to everyone that Jesus is the chosen one. The resurrection makes it obvious. The blessings reside completely in him. The curses reside entirely outside of him. That's why the curse is what he overcomes in the resurrection. That's who Jesus is. So being outside of him terrible place to be the other half, to be inside, to be chosen in him to reside in the Messiah. And this is what's modeled for us in Jonathan, we all love Jonathan and David's story, if you don't, if you're not familiar with it, read it in chapter 20. And you'll get the whole picture how much they care for each other, Jonathan is willing to give up everything else, in order to be loyal and faithful to his friend David. And David trusts Jonathan completely. I mean, they have a beautiful friendship. The point of it isn't that Jonathan and David have a beautiful friendship. The point of it is that anyone who commits to David is blessed in exactly that same way. And if I could read your stories through the rest of First Samuel, you would see David doing exactly the same thing to one person after another, including Ahimelech, who is a priest in chapter 21, the last chapter that we would cover if we had more time, in that chapter when David goes to his temple and needs bread for his men, and he needs a sword to carry Ahimelech helps him out when Ahimelech comes to him later, after his entire family has been destroyed him like family has been destroyed. When Ahimelech comes to David, David says, stay with me. It's on my account that your family ended up dead because you were faithful to me. So I can guarantee you, you and your family are now going to be safe with me, I will provide for you from this day forward. It's always being a bit about being in him. And so when Jonathan and David have this beautiful friendship, that they have the covenant being established between them, it's an invitation for us to understand what we have with him, when we commit our soul to him. So here's here's how Jonathan enters into that covenant. In chapter 20. It says, Jonathan says this to David, may the Lord be with you, as he has been with my father, meaning God had anointed my father to be the King Saul. But God has taken that away, I can see that. So now I just pray the Lord blesses you, and I'm with you. May the Lord be with you, as he has been with my father, if I am still alive. And by the way, it's really important here that Jonathan's not choosing this for himself, hey, I don't trust my father's family. So I'm going to side with you. Jonathan is the champion who could win the battles. Remember, he goes into the battles, he just knows that David has chosen. And so he goes with God's choosing? May the Lord be with you, as he's been with my father, if I'm still alive, show me the steadfast love of the Lord, that I may not die. Do not cut off your steadfast love from my house forever, when the Lord cuts off every one of the enemies of David from the face of the earth. And Jonathan made a covenant with the house of David saying, May the Lord take vengeance on David's enemies. He's blessing David, and he's cursing David's enemies. He's all about being in David, then. So Jonathan made David swear again, by his love for him, for he loved him as he loved his own soul chapter ends the same way in the middle is the section where Saul tries to kill Jonathan, because Jonathan is so committed to David, that section I read to you earlier. But when you get to the very end of this chapter, chapter 20, it says, Then Jonathan said to David Go in peace, because we swarm both of us in the name of the Lord saying, The Lord shall be between me and you, and between my offspring and your offspring forever. And he rose and departed, Jonathan went into the city. The point is that Jonathan has committed himself and his posterity to David. And just so you know how the rest of the story plays out. All of Saul's family is destroyed after this. They're all cursed and destroyed, except for one descendant of Jonathan. one grandchild lives the battle and David provides for that descendant, you know, it goes through is Prussia, and then the fifth shaft. And if you know the story, you know, what I'm talking about. Everybody else is everybody else in souls family ends up being cursed and put out because they have rejected David. But Jonathan chooses David. That's how the story is told to us. I'm giving you all of this so you can understand what's happening here is not new. This is not a new part of Scripture. When God gave the great promise to the first father of the Hebrews, you know, Abraham Avraham, the father of multitudes, his name, when God first speaks to Abraham, about leaving the place where he lived, and going to a land that I will show you and making him the one who would be the blessing to all the families in the earth. He says, and I will, this is the Lord's words to Abraham, he says, and I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse those who curse you. And you will be a blessing to all the families of the earth, meaning from anywhere on the earth, people can come and bless you, and they will be in they will be the ones who are being blessed. That's all that matters. And when we take that into the one who fulfills all the promises to Abraham, and David, all the promises to Israel, are the one who fulfills that is Jesus Christ, the only thing that matters is being in him or not in him. Now, my dad died about three years ago at the end of the year in December. And so I've not told this story. So I'm going to try this. And if I, if I crumble, then I crumble. And we'll just run to the end. Okay, so I'll do the best I can. But I think I can do it today. I've thought through it enough, I think I can manage it. So So here's, here's the thing. My dad was a real, you know, I, in his eulogy at his funeral, I compared him to the 10 commandments, that's what he was to us. You know, he was the rules. And so very strict, very high expectations is what he had. And, you know, he was he, I loved him. And I love his example. He and he's just he was a Patriarch who took us our family out of just sort of poverty and penury, into responsibility and just trying to be good, good citizens. You know, he just changed our entire family's trajectory. So I love my dad and everything about his heritage. But man, he was hard nosed, and he was intimidating. You know, when it came down to it. He was a boss over a lot of people. And that's sort of how I acted does sometimes. So that's the attitude I thought about. And when I was growing up, later, I realized it was different than that. But what happened was, a couple of things happened. I got married when I was really young. We still didn't have any money. I mean, I was fortunate my my parents provided for me to go to college. So I got a college degree. As soon as I got out, we needed a place to live. We couldn't afford to buy a house. I mean, we didn't we just chuckled when people said oh, you need a 15% down payment on the house.When we're at maybe we'll have a 15% down payment on a house. That's how we thought about it. Okay, so it's just a kid got married when I was 20. So it was doing the best I could. So we just started renting a house. Well, it turned out that we were good renters. So you know, we paid our rent on time, all the time, and so on. And the owner of the house, I ministered to him a couple of times, I was already in ministry at the time and and you know, as he approached his own death, he decided to sell us the house using all of our prior rent as the downpayment on the house. extremely generous, right? So I mean, it's not like I earned anything out of this, but extremely generous man made this possible. And so when he did that, I'm like, I'm gonna be a homeowner. So I go, and I brag to my dad. And he's proud, like, you know, just as proud as a dad could be. And I felt like a million bucks. Now, I don't remember the order in which these things happened. I just know, these are the two things that happen that shaped me for the rest of my life with him. And I thought, Ah, I'm in with my dad, because he knows I'm responsible. Now, I'm not just living in a rent house and not able to provide which isn't a bad thing. By the way. I was. I should have been proud. I was able to do that. But you know, when you're proud, your dad has expectations. You want to measure up your dad's expectations. So whatever. So I tried to do that I did. Ah, I'm in. My dad loves me. It's almost like he patted me on the head, you know, and said, good boy, something similar to that. I felt great. Then I got, I went to that house. My car is parked there, I back up. And you know, it's one of those days when your mirrors are fogged back then not everything default automatically. And so I backup and as soon as I back out of the driveway, I crunch a car across the that had parked across the driveway from me just right behind our driveway, I'd love to blame the car. But you know, I was the one backing up, it was my fault. So I backed into this car, of course, I talked to the people who own the car, and we're gonna work it out. And we didn't we didn't do insurance. We just I just gave him some money for it, whatever. They didn't want the insurance and I didn't want the insurance. So we got it all taken care of. But my car has got a crunch in it. Right? It's visible. My I'm around my dad on a regular basis. He has pretty high expectations of how we drive to I know I'm married, I'm out of the house. You think I wouldn't care? But you'd be wrong. I did care was like, oh, man, my dad's gonna see this. What am I gonna do? I didn't, I just found a way to weasel out of the conversation. I just worked in my mind. I'll change the subject this way. Sure enough, my dad asks about it, hey, whatever the car, you know, and I change the subject and we go a different direction. And he doesn't ask you and he just leaves it. And I feel like such a he'll, you know. And so I carry I mean, I'm like, I'm 24 years old at this time. I'm already pastoring a church. I should be capable of telling my dad, you know, I backed into a car. It was the hardest thing I had ever done to that point. I mean, I got in my car, and I drove down to my dad's office where he was working. And I interrupted his workday and walked in and sat down with him and said, I gotta tell you something. It's the dumbest thing in the world, but it's like I lied to you. And I don't know why I did. But I have a dent in my car because I backed into another car and it was just stupid that I did it. But it's stupid that I that I wasn't willing to tell you and I'm just really ashamed that I did that. And he just he said, I don't even remember that. The exact words that he said to me, but what he said to me was to this effect. I don't care about that. I don't care you back, anybody can back into somebody, I love you. I'm proud of you, I care about you. I carried that for the rest of my life, all the way until his death to know that my dad was going to be proud of me no matter what happened. And you know why he was not because I'm a bad driver. I don't think I'm that bad a driver anymore. Your car should be okay out here. I'll try not to swipe Sideswipe anybody on the way out of the parking lot. It's not because of that. He loved me because I was in his family. I was in. That's all I was in his family. And I'm promising you you can think to yourself, Oh, I think I'm good with God today, because I didn't sin as much yesterday. I think I'm good with God today, because I didn't get stoned last week. I think I'm good with God today, because I didn't fight with my wife or, you know, do something terrible at work or curse or whatever it is you're afraid of doing. You can think that and God is proud when we do the right thing. And when we exemplify the things he's commanded us to do, and it matters that we obey Him, that's all important. But when you get on your knees, and stand before Him or kneel before him and say instead, I don't know why I did this father. But I, I failed. I can guarantee you, all he's going to say is, you're in Christ, you're part of my family. That's all that matters. He will embrace you and receive you and love you and care about you. And that will never change. Because from the beginning of this book, until the very end, a book with all the commands that intimidate us, a book with all the acts of judgment, that bury us in these mounds of death and snow, in the midst of all of that is this one declaration from God that is constantly opening the door and saying, just come in here. Come in here. If you come in here, if you come in Christ, I promise you, you will always be safe in him, because I will always bless those who are in him. My prayer for you today. And my my whole reason for being able to be here for the last two weeks is to share with you from this story, what it means for everything to be divided about David, are you for David or against David, and the invitation for you today is to recognize that everything is about whether you are in Christ, or not in Christ, if you're not, right this moment, there's no magic formula. There's nothing. There's nothing. There's nothing confusing about it. Right? This moment, you have the opportunity to say Christ, I need to be in you. He wants you more than you want to be in him. That's why he came to the cross for you. So as I pray and finish I invite you in your own heart simply to look at yourself and know whether you are in him or not. Father, I pray now that you would help us to remember the simplicity and truth of the reality that our eternity and our blessing in this life is determined entirely by one truth that Your Son Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for us and rose from the grave is your chosen one, and that you invite us to be in Him. May we all be in him today. In his name we pray amen.

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