”Tale of Two Hearts” Pastor Ryan Matthews, June 6, 2026

Hello and welcome to church. We're so

glad that you were able to join us here

at the McDonald Road 7th Day Adventist

Church for our worship time. I hope that

your time is blessed. I hope the music

blesses your soul. I hope the message

touches your heart. And if if it does,

we would be honored if you would share

this content with somebody else so they

can be blessed as well. We're so glad

that you can be a part of our online

church here at McDonald Road and hope

that you are blessed in your worship

together with us today. God bless and

enjoy our worship service.

>> Good morning, church family. Happy

Sabbath.

>> What a beautiful day it is outside.

>> As you know, we've been studying the

series of David for just a little while.

And when Tony, Jamie, and I sat down and

we were talking about who was going to

preach about which part, they said, '

Ryan, we want you to preach about the

death of Saul.

And I sat back and I thought about it.

Okay, that's going to be one of the

quickest sermons I ever do.

Church, Saul dies. Amen. And I was going

to go out the door and we'd have five

minutes. But I sat back and I thought

about it and I started thinking and

praying. And as I was working through

this, I had a story that kept popping up

in my head about a small hiking trip

that I did back in September or October

with our Pathfinder group, our rangers.

Now, who here knows where Big Frog is?

All right. I didn't know what Big Frog

was, and I was told it was going to be a

short hike. Well, that short hike was 15

miles.

Yeah, I didn't laugh that hard. So,

we showed up Friday and we hiked down to

the basin. We camped and we woke up that

morning for our brisk hike and it was

hot and there was a storm rolling in.

And um needless to say, I had an

adventure on my own, but I don't want to

focus on that. What I want to focus on

is some of the kids. We had one of the

young men show up and who here remembers

having a backpack with all the books

that you could carry in?

Yeah. And how did that backpack hang? It

hung about right here and you had to

lean forward just to gain momentum to

go. Now picture that going 15 miles up

big frog. That's how this young man was

going.

Now what I want to focus on is the is

the fact that one of the men, one of the

other young men in the group stopped and

said, "Hey, let me carry that."

And the other guy said, "No, no, I got

this." And we all know what pride looks

like, right? That's what that was going

on right there. So, we continued to hike

up Big Frog for quite some time and they

were gracious enough they would stop and

let me catch up. It would be during one

of those times that that the other guy

finally relented and he said, "Hey,

would you mind still carrying my

backpack for me?"

And the young man agreed and we

continued on up our hike.

But church family, what I want you to do

is I want you to um think about this

because in that instance, I believe that

this is what grace actually looks like.

It's not pretending the weight isn't

there.

It's not gritting your teeth and

carrying on. It's letting someone strong

enough carry what you can't because you

were never meant to carry it by

yourself.

And maybe this morning that's exactly

what God is asking some of us to do.

So let's hold on to that picture for

just a moment because we'll come back to

it. What I want to talk about is the

story that we've been we've been going

through over the last couple weeks about

a shepherd boy who became king. He would

be anointed and he'd be waiting. There

would be giants and there would be a

wilderness and what it looks like when

God chooses someone

and what it costs to carry that calling.

And today we arrive at a moment before

everything changes. A moment where

everything changes. And it's not in a

throne room. It's not in triumph. It's

not a crown being placed on someone's

head. It's on a battlefield. It would be

Mount Gilboa. And if you can for a

moment, I want you to picture this with

me.

The war cries have faded. There would be

smoke in the air. And around all of

that, there would be an eerie silence.

It would be the kind of silence where

something feels over because Israel has

been broken.

The army scattered and hope feels gone.

And in the middle of all that

devastation, there are two men that are

connected to this moment. One of them is

lying on the battlefield. Saul, the king

of Israel, the tallest man of the

nation, the man God once anointed, and

the man who had everything a leader

could ask for, the calling, the

authority,

the opportunity. But somewhere along the

way, he lost himself,

wounded, afraid, and surrounded. And in

his final moments, he falls on his own

sword.

Not taken down by the enemy, but taken

down by himself. But there's another man

that's connected to this moment. And

that guy is miles away. He's not on a

throne. He's not celebrating. He's still

waiting. He's still in the wilderness.

He's still carrying a promise that

hasn't arrived yet.

Man's name is David.

And when the news finally reaches him,

he doesn't celebrate. He doesn't say

finally.

He doesn't gather his men. He doesn't

start a coronation at this point. He

tears his clothes. He falls to the

ground and he weeps and he fasts and he

writes a lament for a man who has spent

years chasing him.

Same moment,

same pressure,

same God, but two completely different

hearts.

And church family, that's what this

sermon is about today. It's not just

what happened on Mount Gilboa, but what

was already being formed inside these

men

long before they have ever arrived

there. Because hear me, the battlefield

didn't create who Saul and David were.

It revealed them. And if we're honest,

pressure has a way of revealing us, too.

Now, before I get to the battlefield, we

need to understand how they each got

there.

Because Saul and David didn't just end

up there differently. They responded

differently all along the way. Same God,

same calling, same pressure,

but different hearts. So, let's look at

Saul. By the time we get to 1st Samuel

28, God has gone silent.

And that silent isn't random. It's the

result of years, years of resisting

correction, years of blaming others,

years of slowly drifting.

And in Patriarchs and Prophets, the

author notes that Saul didn't suddenly

lose access to God on Mount Gilboa.

He had by his own act of fortified the

benefits of all the methods of inquiring

of God,

rejecting Samuel,

exiling David, and slaying the priest.

The silence on the eve of battle was a

harvest of years of cut channels. And

now the Philistines are closing in. The

army is trembling. And Saul needs an

answer. So what does he do?

I'm glad you asked.

He goes to find a witch

at Endor.

1st Samuel 28:es 6-7. And when Saul

inquired of the Lord, the Lord did not

answer him either by dreams or by urum

or by the prophets.

Then Saul said to his servants,

"Find me a woman who is a medium that I

may go to her and inquire of her."

So now the man that was once the point

anointed by God is now walking through

the dark looking for a witch.

The same king who had once outlawed

mediums is now secretly searching for

one.

And don't miss this detail because Saul

had removed mediums from the land

already and he knew what God had said

about this and he had publicly taken a

stand against it.

But the moment that he asked for one,

one of his adviserss immediately say, "I

know where one is. There's one in indoor

almost too fast."

Almost like they already knew

in church. That speaks volumes to me

because sometimes you can tell the

direction someone is headed by the kind

of people that are surrounding them.

See, Saul may have removed the witches

publicly, but apparently he kept company

with people who still still knew where

exactly to find them. That says

something about the environment he had

allowed himself to be surrounded with.

So hear me. The people around you matter

because when your faith gets weak, when

pressure hits, when heaven feels silent,

the voices close to you either push you

towards God or quietly help you justify

drifting away from them.

See, Saul asked for compromise and the

people around him knew exactly where to

take him. But I can't help but wonder,

what if someone in that room had said,

"No, King,

let's pray again.

Let's seek God one more time.

Let's not go down that road. But nobody

did

because somewhere along the way, Saul

had surrounded himself with people who

enabled his fear.

So instead of confronting it, and before

we judge Saul too quickly, we have to

ask ourselves these questions. Who are

the voices that are shaping us?

who gets access to our fears

and who speaks into our silence

because the wrong company will normalize

the very thing God was trying to rescue

from. And that's why scripture says bad

company corrupts good character.

And the right people, the right people

pull you back towards Jesus when you're

drifting. 1st Samuel 26:es 9-11.

But David said to Abashai, "Do not

destroy him. For who can stretch out his

hand against the Lord's anointed

and be guiltless?"

David said, "Furthermore, as the Lord

lives, the Lord shall strike

him, or his day shall come to die, or he

shall go out to battle and perish. The

Lord forbid that I should stretch out my

hand against the Lord's anointed." And

every time David pulls back, not because

he's passive, not because he doesn't

want a throne, but because he

understands something ne Saul never

learned.

You don't have to manipulate what God

has already promised.

Same pressure,

different hearts.

And here's what I want you to see before

we go any further. The battlefield at

Mount Gilboa didn't create who these men

were. It revealed it. Because who you

are under pressure

is who you've been becoming all along.

So let's look at what actually is

different between these two men. Because

this isn't just a history lesson. This

is a mirror. And when you hold it up,

you start to see something. See, Saul

had every opportunity to correct uh

course correct. Samuel told him

directly, God gave him chance after

chance after chance, but every time

correction came, Saul deflected it. He

blamed the people. He blamed the

circumstances. He found a reason why it

wasn't really his fault.

And here's what happens when you do that

long enough.

Your heart starts stops being moldable.

It hardens. Not dramatically, not all at

once, just slowly, one defended mistake

at a time. See, and David wasn't perfect

either. And we'll see this further along

in the series. We'll make it very clear.

But when David was wrong, he didn't

defend himself. He yielded.

He trusted. He waited.

But Saul fought to stay in control. Back

to patriarchs and prophets. The author

names this exactly. She calls Saul a man

given over to the worst of tyrants

himself.

See, that's the diagnosis. Saul wasn't

ruled by the Philistines. He was ruled

by his own perverse will. See, David

learned how to let go. And you can see

that difference everywhere you look in

their stories. Because after Saul

disobeyed God's direct command,

do you know what his first concern was?

It was not restoration. It was not

repentance. It was honor me before the

people.

See, that's a tell right there.

Image over integrity, appearance over

honesty.

He wasn't broken over what he did. He

was worried about how it looked.

David carried his own failures too,

heavy ones. But when the weight of his

sin finally landed on him, he didn't ask

anyone to cover it up. He wrote Psalm

51.

So in Psalm 51:es 10-12, he says,

"Create me a clean heart, oh God, and

renew a steadfast spirit within me.

Do not cast me away from your presence

and do not take your holy spirit from

me. Restore to me the joy of your

salvation and uphold me by your

righteous spirit.

It was not make me look better. It was

not help me manage the situation. It was

creating me a clean heart.

See, Saul cared about how he looked.

David cared about who he was becoming.

And that difference showed up every

single time pressure arrived.

Because when pressure hit Saul, he moved

fast and impulsively. He didn't seek

God. He sought relief. He made decisions

out of fear and then dressed them up as

leadership.

But David moved differently.

Even in the wilderness, even when he was

being hunted, even when everything felt

uncertain,

he sought God before he moved.

He wasn't passive. He was rooted. And

there's a real difference between those

two things. See, passiveness means you

don't move at all. But rooted means you

don't move until you know.

See, when pressure hits, your roots get

revealed because whatever you've been

building your life on, that's what's

going to either hold you or give away

when the storms come.

And nowhere is that more clear than how

these two men ended up. Because in

Saul's final act, he did the thing that

was the most Saul action he could.

Surrounded by the enemy, wounded, and

afraid, he fell on his own sword.

He was controlling the one thing he had

left,

his ending.

And even in death, he couldn't let go.

Not just physically, but spiritually.

Because the real fall happened long

before Mount Gilboa.

It happened every time he chose himself

over God. Every time he protected his

image instead of his heart,

every time he reached for control

instead of surrender. And David again,

when the news reached him, he didn't

reach for control. He grieved. He

mourned the man who had spent years

trying to kill him. And church, that's

not natural. That's not human instinct.

That's a heart that has been shaped by

something bigger than itself.

See, Saul died holding on to himself,

but David lived letting go of himself.

Now, I want to be careful here because

it would be easy to walk away from the

contrast thinking David was just better

than Saul.

He was more gifted. He was more

spiritual. He was more chosen. He was

more ruggedly handsome. But that's not

the story. See, David wasn't chosen

because he never failed. He was chosen

because when he failed, he kept turning

back.

See, there's the difference. Saul failed

and he hardened. David failed and he

returned.

And that's the whole thing right there.

Both men sinned. Both men fell short.

Both men had moments where they got

completely wrong.

But one of them, every time he drifted,

founded his way back. And not because he

was stronger, not because he tried

harder, but because his heart never

fully closed.

It stayed reachable.

And that's what God is looking for all

along.

a heart that kept coming back to him

again and again.

Because God can work with a broken

heart, but not a proud one.

A broken heart says, "I need you."

But a proud heart says, "I've got this."

And the distance between those two

postures is the distance between David

and Saul.

And when you lay it all out side by

side, it's striking because Saul

couldn't hear God, but David wouldn't

move without him.

Saul took control, but David trusted the

timing.

Saul protected his image, but David

protected his heart.

Saul ran from connection, but David ran

towards repentance. Saul asked, "How do

I look?"

But David asked, "Who am I becoming?"

See, Saul died on a battlefield, still

holding on. David knelt in gre knelt in

grief. Still letting go.

Same story, same God, same pressure, but

two completely different hearts.

And here's what I need you to hear

before we go any further. Because this

was never about a throne. It was never

about who would be king. It was about a

heart God could trust

with what he had prepared.

Because the throne was never the point.

The heart was always the point. And

David didn't become king when Saul died.

He became king in how he responded.

I just want to pause right here for just

a second because this isn't just David's

story. This isn't just Saul's story. It

would be mine. And I have a feeling that

for some of you, it might be yours as

well. Because I know what Saul's pattern

feels like from the inside.

Not the crown, not the battlefield, but

the pattern, the drift, the silence from

God that you don't know what to do with,

so you reach for something else to fill

it.

There was a season in my life when

everything I had been building toward

fell apart. A dream I had worked for was

gone. And instead of pressing into God

in that moment, I drifted.

I went back to what was familiar, what

was comfortable,

what numbed the ache.

And I told myself it wasn't that bad. I

told myself that I had it under control.

But that's what to Saul told himself too

every single time. And the thing about

driftwood is it doesn't feel like drift

when you're in it.

It feels like survival. It feels like

I'm just getting through. I'm just

managing. I'm just holding it together.

But underneath all that managing, I was

protecting myself. I was controlling my

situation while keeping God at arms

length because letting him in meant

letting go.

And I wasn't ready to let go. Not yet.

But God was patient with me.

He didn't show up with condemnation. He

didn't remind me everything I had done

wrong. He sent people

He sent a woman who loved me quietly and

faithfully when I didn't feel worthy of

love at all.

He sent a group of men that were honest

with me with their struggles and my

struggles in a room that honesty didn't

equal shame.

And slowly those walls started coming

down. Not all at once, not dramatically,

just slowly in one surrendered moment of

time. And I remember the moment I

finally stopped protecting myself. I

stopped managing the outcome. I stopped

trying to control my own ending and I

just said, "God,

I'm tired.

I'm tired of holding on to this. Take

it."

>> And that's not a glamorous testimony.

There wasn't a lightning bolt. There

wasn't an audible sound that happened.

It was just a heart that finally got

tired enough to let go.

And see, that would that would be when

things would start to change. Not

because I became strugg stronger, but

because I finally stopped pretending I

was.

So I spent years being Saul without

knowing it, controlling the outcome,

numbing the silence, protecting my

image. But God was patient enough to

wait until I was tired enough to let go.

Now I want you to picture two scenes.

The first one is a battlefield. It's

Mount Gilboa. The war cries are gone

now. There'd be broken shields scattered

everywhere. Broken spears throughout the

whole place. There would be horses with

no riders walking around or trotting.

I'm not sure what horses do. Um, and

there would be men that showed up that

morning that never got the opportunity

to go home.

The the there would be the smell of

smoke in the air. The ground would be

soaked and the army would be scattered

at this point.

Now, I want to take a second. I want to

read these words gently because some

people in here may um you may have

something that you're carrying right

now. So 1st Samuel 31:es 3-4.

The battle became fierce against Saul.

The archers hit him

and he was severely wounded by the

archers. Then Saul said to his armor

bearer, "Draw your sword and thrust me

through with it. Least these

uncircumcised men come and thrust me

through and abuse me." But his armor

bearer would not, for he was greatly

afraid. Therefore, Saul took a sword and

fell on it. So in the middle of all

that, a king alone, afraid and wounded.

The silence of God is pressing around

him like darkness. And in the final

moment, he reaches for the only thing he

has left,

control.

And he falls on his sword.

Not surrendered, not open,

just done.

Holding on to himself until there was

nothing left to hold. See, and that's

one picture. The next one, what I want

you to see is a man sitting in grief

miles away from this battlefield. He

didn't cause this. He didn't ask for

this. But when the answer arrives, he

doesn't celebrate. He doesn't

strategize. He doesn't plan his

coronation. He tears his clothes. He

weeps. And he fasts.

And then he picks up a pen and he writes

a lament

over a man that had spent years trying

to destroy him. 2 Samuel 1 11-12.

Therefore, David took hold of his own

clothes and tore them, and so did all

the men who were with him. And they

mourned and wept and fasted until

evening for Saul and for Jonathan his

son. For the people of the Lord and for

the house of Israel, because they had

fallen by the sword.

See, there would be no bitterness, no

relief. It would just be grief, just a

heart that is wide open.

Two men, same moment.

One closed, one open. And I want to ask

you something.

Which picture looks more like the

direction your life is heading in right

now?

Not where you started, not where you've

been, but where you're heading.

Because that's the question that

matters.

Because here's what I know about

McDonald Road Church. You are not

passive people. You love God. You show

up. You serve. when you give. But

sometimes even people who love God can

be building the wrong thing on the

inside.

Showing up on the outside while slowly

hardening on the inside. Serving with

your hands, but protecting your heart.

And God isn't just watching what you do.

He's watching the heart that you do it

from.

So I want to ask you these three

questions. And I don't need anybody

answer them out loud. I just want you to

sit with them.

When God feels silent, do you press in

or do you drift towards something else?

When the pressure hits, do you react out

of fear

or do you wait and trust?

And when your moment comes, the moment

God has been preparing you for,

who will you be?

Because here's the truth. I've had to

learn the hard way, and someone else

said it before me.

You won't rise to the level of your

calling.

You'll fall to the level of your

character.

And character isn't built in a moment.

It's built in all the moments before

that. It's built in the wilderness. It's

built in the waiting. It's built in the

quiet seasons when nobody's watching and

God feels so far away. And you have to

make

decisions. Am I going to drift

or am I going to press in?

See, that's where David was shaped. Not

on the throne, but in the wilderness.

That's where you're shap being shaped to

right now.

Whatever season it is that you're

walking through and whatever silence

you're sitting in, whatever pressure

you're feeling, God is not absent. He is

working.

The question isn't whether he's

faithful.

The question is whether your heart is

staying open.

Now, I want to say one more thing before

I close because everything I've

described today, the responsive heart,

the surrendered life, the willingness to

let go, none of that is something that

you can manufacture on your own. You

can't decide to have David's heart the

same way that you decide to set alarms

or change a habit. The reason David

could mourn for Saul, the man who spent

years trying to destroy him, is not

because David was spiritually stronger.

It's because David had been shaped by

something outside of himself.

Grace that reached him in the wilderness

and mercy that stayed with him through

his worst failures and a God who kept

pursuing him even when he drifted.

And that same grace didn't stop with

David. It walked into history in human

form. It lived the life we couldn't

live. It died the death we deserved to

die. And it rose on the other side of

it, proving that the heart God is after

is a surrendered one.

See, Jesus is the only one who ever

brought a fully open heart and a fully

faithful life to the moment God had

prepared.

And because he did, the rest of us don't

have to earn what we can't produce.

We receive it. We respond to it. We let

it shape us the same way it shaped

David.

Not from the outside in, but from the

inside out. So when I ask you whether

your heart is open, I'm not asking you

to try harder. I'm asking you to receive

what's already been offered.

The same grace that waited for David in

the wilderness is waiting for you right

now in whatever season it is that you're

in. And that's the whole gospel. And

that's an invitation. So as we close

this morning, I'm going to ask our

worship team to come up. I want to give

space for something real. And it's not a

decision card. It's not a raised hand,

but it's an honest moment between you

and God. Because maybe you're here today

and you recognize Saul's pattern in your

own life. The drift, the control, the

slow heart you didn't even notice was

happening,

but something today named it. And

remember that hiker that I told you all

about earlier, the one at the mountain,

the one with the straps digging into his

back,

leaning forward because of the weight of

it, trying to act like he was fine, but

everybody could see that bag was heavy.

And the strange thing is sometimes we

get so used to carrying the weight.

We forget it was never meant to stay on

us.

Church family, some of us have been

carrying things for so long, we don't

even realize how heavy we've become.

Maybe it's fear. Maybe it's

disappointment. Maybe it's control.

Maybe it's shame. Maybe it's bitterness.

Maybe it's the pressure to keep it all

together. And if I'm honest, that was

Saul just adding weight. One fear, one

act of control at a time until

eventually he became crushed by the very

things he refused to let go of. But

David, David learned something

different. Not because he was perfect.

Not because he never failed, but because

somehow through the wilderness and

through the waiting, he learned how to

hand the weight back to God. He learned

surrender.

And maybe today that's the invitation.

Maybe it's not try harder, not carry

more, not pretend you're okay, but

finally saying, "God, I'm tired of

carrying this."

Let us pray.

God, I don't want to hold on to myself

anymore. I want to shape my heart, not

just my situation, not just my

circumstances, but my heart.

Make me someone that you can trust with

what you have prepared. Because the

throne was never the point. The heart

was always the point. And I want to be

found open in your name. Amen.

>> Thanks so much for joining us here at

the McDonald Road 7th Day Adventist

Church for worship. Each month we reach

between 25 and 30,000 people with gospel

content online. We're looking to expand

our audiovisisual department this year

and looking to raise $30,000 in this

project. We would love for you to

partner with us on this and consider

making a donation to our audiovisisual

department as we look at expansion and

reaching more people with the gospel

across the internet this next year. You

can go to mrcsda.org

oorgg to make a donation directly to our

audiovisisual department. Thank you so

much for considering making this

donation and the privilege is ours to

partner with you in making this a bigger

and more effective ministry here at the

McDonald Road 7th Adventist Church. God

bless each one of you and thanks again

for joining us here at the McDonald Road

7th Adventist Church.