CBFC Worship Service 8/2/2026

The kids can be dismissed.

Well, good morning everybody.

Do you got me?

Check one, two, check, check, one, two.

Come and there we go.

There we go.

We're getting louder.

So here I am.

I've been preparing for about a month now.

I told the elders, uh, on our elders meeting that uh I had no anxiety.

Things were going great.

And this morning my palms are sweaty playing guitar.

I had to go to the bathroom before, but I'm here, I'm ready to preach.

Um, I think God really um has a great story, a great promise to you all.

And I hope for some of you that might be sitting here not knowing where your trust is, not knowing where your faith is, that you can see through this story, you can see through what he did with David, that you can um humble yourself, soften your heart to hear his message.

Um so we are going to be reading in 1 Samuel 26.

Um so if you'd like to stand, and we will read that if you're able, 1 Samuel 26.

The Neziphites came to Saul at Gibeah, saying, Is not David hiding on the hill of Hakilah, which is before Jason?

So Saul rose and went down to the wilderness of Ziph, having with him three thousand chosen men of Israel to search for David in the wilderness of Zif.

Saul camped in the hill of Hakilah, which is before Jeshimon, beside the road, and David was staying in the wilderness.

When he saw that, Saul came to him in the wilderness.

David sent out spies, and he knew that Saul was definitely coming.

David then arose and came to the place where Saul had camped, and David saw the place where Saul lay, and Abner, the son of Ner, the commander of his army, and Saul was lying in the circle of the camp, and the people were camped around him.

Then David said to Ahimelech, the Hittite, and to Abishai, the son of Zariah, Joab's brother, saying, Who will go down with me to Saul in the camp?

And Abas Abishai said, I will go down with you.

So David and Abishai came to the people by night, and behold, Saul lay sleeping inside the circle of the camp, with his spear stuck in the ground at his head, and Abner the people were lying around him.

Then Abish said to David, Today God has delivered your enemy into your hand.

Now, therefore, please let me strike him with a spear to the ground with one stroke, and I will not strike him the second time.

But David said to Abishad, Do not destroy him, for who can stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be without guilt?

David also said, As the Lord lives, surely the Lord will strike him, or his day will come that he dies, or he will go down into battle and perish.

The Lord forbid that I should stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed.

But now, please take the spear that is at his head and the jug of water, and let us go.

So David took the spear and the jug of water from beside Saul's head, and they went away, but no one saw or knew it, nor did any wake, for they were all asleep, because a sound sleep from the Lord had fallen on them.

Then David crossed over to the other side and stood on top of the mountain, at a distance with a large area between them.

David called to the people and to Abner, the son of Nur, saying, Will you not answer Abner?

Then Abner replied, Who are you who calls to the king?

So David said to Abner, Are you not a man?

And who is like you in Israel?

Why then have you not guarded your lord the king?

For one of the people came to destroy the king, your lord.

This thing that you have done is not good.

As the Lord lives, all of you must surely die, because you did not guard your lord, the Lord's anointed.

And now see where the king's spear is, and the jug of water that was at his head.

Then Saul recognized David's voice and said, Is this your your voice, my son David?

And David said, It is my voice, my Lord the King.

He also said, Why then is my Lord pursuing his servant for what I have done, or what evil is in my hand?

Now, therefore, please let the Lord the King listen to the words of his servant.

If the Lord has stirred up stirred you up against me, let him accept an offering.

But if it is men, cursed are they before the Lord, for they have driven me out today, so that I would not have no attachment with the inheritance of the Lord, saying, Go, serve other gods.

Now then, do not let my blood fall to the ground, away from the presence of the Lord.

For the king of Israel has come out to search for a single flea, just as one hunts a partridge in the mountains.

Then Saul said, I have sinned, return my son David, for I will not harm you again, because my life was precious in your sight this day.

Behold, I have played the fool, and have committed a serious error.

David replied, Behold, the spear of your king.

Now let one young men come over and take it.

The Lord will repay each man for his righteousness and his faithfulness.

For the Lord delivered you into my hand today, but I refuse to stretch out my hand against the Lord's anointed.

Now behold, as your life was highly valued in my sight this day, so may my life be highly valued in the sight of the Lord, and may he deliver me from all distress.

Then Saul said to David, Blessed are you, my son David, you will both accomplish much and surely prevail.

So David went on his way, and Saul returned to his place.

It's the word of the Lord.

You may be seated.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, Lord, um, we just pray that your words are spoken, Lord.

We pray that we accept them with a softened heart and open mind and uh uh change.

If we are walking that wrong path to change, to turn back to you and to follow your good and great will.

Be with us this day in your precious name, amen.

So before I begin, I want to address something.

Because if you notice two weeks ago when Daniel spoke, it sounds very similar, doesn't it?

Um, even some theologians got confused and believe it is the same story.

But I'm here to tell you after my research, I don't believe they are.

I believe they're two distinct uh events.

There's differences in the locations, in the timing, the activities that happen, and even David's response.

Although they parallel, they do still demonstrate kind of the same uh uh theme on both occasions in David's life.

So remember this today.

God's promises are never to be accomplished through sinful means.

Faith waits on God's timing rather than forcing his hands.

Faith waits on God's timing rather than forcing his hands.

Anybody ever shop at IKEA?

You know, that store where you need a map to get there and map to get inside there, and you're walking around, they claim that everything in this room, bookshelf, bed, you know, mirror, you can build that home and we can put it in your trunk.

And then when you get home, you see the directions, and it's you know, 50 different pieces of wood, and they have so many screws that they say A, A, A, A, A, A.

Um, and then if you're really brave, you say, Oh, it's a bookshelf.

Let me just put it together.

I can put a bookshelf together.

And you get through, you have extra screws, the one shelf that's painted is on upside down, and you don't know what's going on.

Well, oftentimes the goal was to build it, but you forgot the designer's instructions, you know, to follow them.

And isn't that sometimes how we treat our Christian life?

You know, God promised us forgiveness, justice, that he would build his kingdom.

But instead of sometimes trusting in his way, we try to accomplish things on our own.

And that's the temptation that David faces in 26.

He still showed that his faith was in the foundational word of God that only God could fulfill.

Now you heard that two weeks ago, so that was Daniel's main point.

That he showed his faith was in the foundational word of God that only he could fulfill.

But most of us, when we're reading scripture, we want to identify with the hero, right?

We want to identify ourselves with David, and now we're gonna trust the Lord, we're gonna wait on him.

But a lot of times, aren't we, Saul?

We take things in our own hands, we fight for control, we cling to our reputations, we justify our anger in some way, we try to accomplish our good things with the wrong methods.

You see, Saul lived a horizontal life.

It was everything that was in front of him.

He had earthly power, he had human approval, he was preserving his kingdom, whereas David lived that vertical life.

His decisions were governed by what God said, by what God seemed the most advantageous.

So that is a tension in this chapter, and it might be the tension in your in your life.

Who's governing your life?

Who is in control of you?

You see, at the end of 24, Saul's tears were just emotional.

You know, they weren't transformational.

Repentance that lasts only to the next temptation is not really biblical repentance.

In fact, Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7 10, godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret.

Whereas worldly grief produces death.

See, you can mouth, I'm sorry, but if your heart hasn't changed, is it truly repentance?

Saul felt sorrow, whereas David had obedience.

And, you know, there's a difference.

They both were sinners, but it's where they ran to after they sinned.

You see, Saul kept trying to fix it.

You know, he kept trying to make it better, whereas David would go to God and he humbled himself before him.

So we begin 26 with the Ziphites again.

Same thing in 24, betraying David once again from his own tribe of Judah.

Instead of aligning themselves with God's anointed king, future anointed king, they sided with a king who was desperately trying to hold on to power.

He knew that his kingdom was crumbling.

He wanted to fix it himself.

And how easy is that for us?

Do we follow the crowd that it seems safe?

Would you do something if it was in front of you?

If somebody was being bullied or hurt, would you stand off?

Whoa, I don't want to get involved.

Would you choose your comfort over conviction?

Do we align ourselves with whoever's winning?

Jesus warned in John 15 that his followers should expect to stand apart.

They should be different.

In fact, he uses a word, if the world hates you, keep in mind it hated me first.

See, sometimes we live such a cultural Christian life, and we forget what it actually means to be a biblical Christian.

Because a cultural Christian life has no transformation going on.

A biblical Christian picks up his cross daily, loses his life to save it, denying himself.

So David, uh starting in verse 3 or 4, knew exactly where Saul camped.

He sent spies, he was very strategic.

And under the cover of darkness, he and Amishite enter the camp, and there lies Saul, fast asleep by the Lord's deep sleep.

Now, this is kind of confusing a little bit, so I did some research, and it's a Hebrew word, say Tardama, and it even comes from Genesis when he put Adam asleep, or in Job, well, El Paz was sleeping and saw visions, also in Isaiah and Judges.

But it's a divinely induced sleep.

And here not only Saul and Abner, but the entire army, the entire people that he was with.

And they come upon a sleeping Saul with his spear stuck in the ground beside his head.

And that detail matters because throughout 1 Samuel, that spear has been a symbol of authority, of his power.

I mean, it was the same spear that he hurled at David in 18 and 19.

It was the same spear he hurled at Jonathan in 20.

Now the very spear that Saul trusted helplessly lies beside him.

And I do have an illustration for this.

Do I have a sword bearer in here somewhere?

A sword bearer.

Oh, here he comes.

So I now you would have probably thought I was weird if I had a spear.

But I do have a sword.

So this is my son Connor.

And and and this is important, you know, you gotta stay up here.

So in fact, lay down.

Lay down.

Now we do have insurance, correct?

We do have insurance.

So, you know, if if Saul really trusted what you do when you're laying down with and you're a warrior, is you don't have the spear or the sword by your head.

You know, you you're sleeping like this, you know, or you're sleeping with your hand like this, you know.

But he helplessly let it sit there, you know, beside him.

And then here comes young Abishha, right?

A young man, passionate, courageous, uh hastily, and even impatient.

And he said, uh he says, Well, let me pin him the ground.

And here I'm thinking Abishal is thinking like uh uh Aragorn and like Lord of the Rings.

He comes over and you know he wants to just like you know drive it down and even give it a good twist, you know, twist it and pull it up.

And all right, Khan, you can take that back now.

Before somebody gets hurt.

And it it's not sharp.

It's it's very it's very blunt.

It's not sharp.

But Abbeyshaw had the will of man.

He wanted to fix the problem hastily.

Let's do it right now, rather than submitting to the will of God.

And humanly speaking, it makes perfect sense, right?

One blow.

Pin him to the ground, no more running, no more caves, no more hiding, one decision, and David becomes king, but he refuses.

And this is important.

He refuses and says, Who can stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed and remain guilt guiltless?

We're gonna come back to that because that's important.

And he understood something we often forget.

A right destination never justifies a sinful path.

Ever.

Ever.

There was a half-marathon runner, Jess McLean, you might have seen it in the news, was leading a race, I think, in California or something.

And near the end of the race, she accidentally followed a wrong volunteer.

She crossed the finish line first and everybody celebrated.

But after they looked at the tape, she took a shortcut.

She was convicted and she voluntarily gave back the medal.

Why?

Because it was better to win honestly than dishonestly.

Because God knows your heart.

He knows your heart.

And David even understood something greater.

It's better to wait on God than arrive early with sin.

He promised David the throne.

He never told him that he could take it.

Taking matters into his own hands.

Alistair Begg says, Scripture exhorts you to wait not on a specific time, but on the faithfulness of the one who promises, namely God himself.

And that principle reaches all the way to the New Testament.

Paul said in Romans 12, repay no evil for evil.

Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.

Leave it to God.

Don't take it into your own hands.

Look at that.

David, a thousand years before, is living Romans 12.

A right destination never justifies a sinful path.

And before we move on, it's important.

David was carrying evidence from his time in the camp.

You know, in chapter 24, he had a piece of robe and he was convicted about that, but that robe symbolized Saul's kingdom.

Here, he leaves with a spear and a water jug.

He leaves with the power of Saul in his hand, the earthly power that is helpless for God's sovereignty.

And he left a little water jug.

The water jug that was so close to his head that I'm sure Saul realized that that was his life that he could have taken.

That water of life.

But he chose mercy instead.

He took only what would prove that mercy triumphed over revenge.

Three objects, one message.

David trusts God's promises more than his own opportunity.

So then through that, we get to Saul's final interaction with David and his confession.

David left.

He went to an opposing hill and called out first to Abner, and he was disgusted at what he saw, what he saw from his men, leaving their anointed king there.

And eventually, after that conversation, Saul reached out and said, Is this your voice, my son David?

And a key point is David's response, because he has something similar in chapter 24, but with one aspect missing.

You see, he says, It is my voice, my lord, the king, not father.

In 24, he said father, because he was still with Mikael, Saul's daughter.

That was no more.

It's important.

And then in verse 21, Saul finally says, I have sinned.

They sound encouraging, but they sound a little too late, right?

Throughout his life, Saul acknowledges his mistakes without surrendering his heart.

And that's the main difference.

We can look at somebody and say, Hey, I'm sorry, but if you truly don't mean it, if you're not truly repenting, see there's a difference between admitting guilt and truly repenting.

James reminded us, God approaches the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

You see, humility is changing direction.

Repentance is turning around.

Saul admitted sin with his mouth and not with his heart.

But all of this is for a reason.

The whole Bible, all this revealed word is for a for a reason.

Because David is not the hero of the Bible, right?

He's more of a precursor, but Jesus is.

David points beyond himself.

And like David, Jesus was rejected by those he came to save.

Like David, Jesus had every right to exercise his power, but he refused.

He even refused when Satan was tempting him in the desert, in the wilderness.

He said, I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world apart from the cross.

And Jesus refused refused in Matthew.

Even when Peter drew his sword to the guards, he said, put your sword back in its place.

See, he did not want to do anything by a horizontal way.

It was always about God's will, God's plan.

Jesus would not accomplish God's purposes by sinful means.

As Philippians says, he humbled himself by coming obedient to point of death.

Therefore, God highly exalted him.

David waited for the kingdom, and Jesus waited for the crown.

And at the proper time, he gave oath.

What does this mean for us?

Who do you trust?

Where is your faith?

You know, I said this earlier, but any time you're reading scripture and you see repeated words, those are important.

And four times in twenty-six and three times in twenty-four, you heard the Lord's anointing.

The Lord's anointing.

It signifies being chosen, being set apart, being empowered for God's purpose.

The Lord's anointing.

First Saul, then David, and they both pointed to Jesus.

In fact, Christ or Christos in Greek means the anointed one, following the Hebrew word Messiah.

Jesus' atoning sacrifice is now anointing us before God and justifying us.

Under his mercy, not to face condemnation, but have eternal glory.

We read this in 2 Corinthians 1, verses 21 and 22, where Paul writes, God himself in Christ anointed us, sealed us forever, giving us the Holy Spirit as a pledge.

2 Corinthians 1:21

That is our promise.

First, Saul, the first anointed king, who squandered God's calling through his heart and through his rebellious activity.

Then David, the future anointed king, who trusted God's timing, showing reverence and patience throughout it all.

Jesus, the final and perfect anointed king, who fulfilled God's plan through perfect obedience, even to death on a cross.

And then us that have a free anointing through Christ.

It is by grace we are saved, not by works, Paul says in Ephesians.

That's for us.

That same reverence that David had for Saul, we have with God through Jesus.

That we are seen as anointed, sent apart, blameless as his child.

And I hope you asked the question today, where are you at with that?

Where are you at in your life?

Have you accepted that atoning sacrifice on that cross?

Have you received that anointing?

Are you being sanctified as God works in your life?

Because if you're a believer, he's working in your life.

Each and every day, Philippians 1, 6.

Whoever started that work in you will complete it.

Are you trying to accomplish God's will by your own methods?

Forcing relationships, manipulating situations.

Or are you willing to wait on God?

See, David returned that spear.

What do you have?

You know, often we, again, want to be the heroes, and a lot of times we're we're the Pharisees, we're the people that are going to cast the stones and the rocks and all of that stuff.

David returned the spear and put the power back in God's hands.

That's faith.

And ultimately, that's what Jesus did.

He could have taken that for himself, but it was the Lord's will that was his true purpose to follow.

That he entrusted himself to the Father, and the Father vindicated him.

And I hope we may be a people who trust God enough to await, obey, and leave all the outcomes in his hands.

Because remember, a right destination never justifies a sinful path.

We're done.

Amen.

Made it.

Alright.

Let's pray.

No, do you have a song?

Oh no, we have communion.

Okay, and you're leading that route.

Alright, I'm gonna pray while you guys can Emily Fowler, just thank you for this day, Lord.

I pray that your message uh went into hearts and changed minds and thoughts and and wills, Lord, and that we uh give it all to you and all the things that we do, that we live as the light of the world each and every day, um, because who knows who is gonna come into your life next and want to hear about the gospel of Jesus Christ in your precious name.

Amen.