Heart Series: Under Pressure | 1 Samuel 21

You're listening to the Bridgetown Church Podcast with

Pastor Casey Kendall, where our vision is Jesus, our mission is

people, and our cause is love. Thanks for tuning in.

Let's dive in. We're in First Samuel chapter

1 Samuel 21 · chapter mention

21, and if you have your Bible handy, we've been in a series

entitled Heart, and this title of The message is Under

Pressure. I know your mind immediately you

heathens went to David Bowie, but I, I want to talk to you

today about living under pressure and what happens in our

lives when we're under pressure. This is actually what happened

to David in First Samuel chapter 21, beginning in verse 13.

1 Samuel 21 · chapter mention

We'll go to the end of the chapter, but we will back up to

the beginning of the chapter to set the tone in the scenario of

what's happening around us. The Bible says in verse 13, So

he changed his behavior, if you could just say changed his

behavior before them. He fiend madness in their hands.

He scratched on the doors of the gate and let his saliva fall

down on his beard. This is the man who beat

Goliath. This was the man who in his life

was anointed and called to be the king of all of Israel.

Then Akash said to his servants. Look, you see, the man is

insane. Why have you brought him to me?

Have I need of Mad Men that You have brought this fellow to play

the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my

house? Lord, we pray that as we hear

your word that you would Pierce our hearts, Lord, that You would

give to us the power to remain under pressure and still be

spirit filled and express the fruit of Your spirit to the

world around us. Lord, we ask that in these

pressure cooker moments that you would bring your strength, your

hope to every heart that's in this place.

And I pray Lord that you would do this in the name of Jesus,

that you keep us in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on

you because this morning we trust in you, O Lord, and we ask

that you would do this work in Jesus name.

And everybody said Amen. If you would, as we always do.

It's a habit here at Bridgetown. If you would just look at your

neighbor and say neighbor, my neighbor.

No, all of you say it. Neighbor, my neighbor.

I'm under pressure. Yeah, Yep, I'm under pressure.

It was the doctor's declaration to my wife and I when we were

having our first son, Tyler, who's now 25 years old.

Then he looked us in the eyes and he said these words.

I want you to have clear expectations when you come into

the labor and delivery room. And this is what I want you to

know is that giving birth is beautiful, but it's also messy.

Every mom should have said Amen right there.

He said I don't want you to be overwhelmed, but here's what I

want you to know, that new life is coming when you are

overwhelmed with pressure. He once again told us that new

life is coming when you are overwhelmed with pressure.

I don't know if you've ever found yourself there.

Maybe not in a hospital room, but possibly for you sitting in

this place. You have found yourself here in

this life. You wanted the privilege, but

you really didn't want the pressure.

If I would have known the pressure of having children, I

think I would have been celibate.

I wanted the privilege of having children, but I don't know if I

wanted the the pressure of having children.

Maybe you found yourself into this into this place today and

you you find yourself that you are both compressed and crushed

by the pressure. Maybe you've come into this

place and it's through the heat of the moment that has left your

heart with heaviness and emptiness in the pressure.

Maybe for you, you've come into this place and it is the

difficulty that has left you a little disturbed and coming in a

lot depleted and unable to sing that the goodness of God is

still pursuing after you. Maybe you've come into this

place surrounded by lots of pressure.

And here's the thing about pressure is pressure is not

prejudice. It hits anyone at any time and

in any place. I mean, you coming into this

place, even this morning, there is physical pressure that some

of you have been facing with your illness.

For some of you, it's not physical pressure.

There's there's been mental pressure that you've been facing

of the depression and the anxiety and the fear that

overwhelms your heart. Maybe it's not mental pressure,

but some of you, you have marital pressure.

Maybe you have occupational pressure.

Maybe you have parental pressure.

Maybe you have student pressure. Maybe you have teacher pressure.

Maybe you have dating pressure. Lift your hand if you're single

in this place. No, I'm just kidding.

You don't have to. Maybe for you.

I believe what has tripped us up many times is a statement as we

follow Jesus. It's a statement that looks cute

on coffee mugs but is not found in the Bible.

And that is this is it. God will only give you what you

can handle. That is oftentimes the most

quoted but also the most misused statement because God often

allows things that are more than you can handle.

God will often in your life bring you to places that are

like people in the scripture that are filled with things that

just seem too much. Look at Job if you would with

his tragedies, Abraham with the sacrifice of his son, Elijah

with his depression, Jeremiah with his loneliness and

rejection, Moses with the murmuring and complaining

people, Hannah without a child, Naomi the loss of her husband,

and Lazarus was dead. I don't know where you found

yourself this morning experiencing something that you

just think that you can't handle.

Here is a biblical truth that God does not prevent pressure

because pressure points to something.

Pressure points to new life is coming when you feel an

overwhelming sense of pressure, and I want to free us from this

is it. God doesn't expect us to handle

this, but he does expect us to hand this over to him.

And I think it's important that we realize this because some of

us, we are trying to rally our own strength rather than solely

relying on the strength that God has given to us.

I love what Charles Spurgeon said, the British preacher who

once said these words. I pray I learn this quickly in

my life, he said in regards to his depression.

I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the Rock

of Ages. Oh, how we need this because

we're putting our hands and places and carrying weights that

God has never called us to carry.

He's bringing us to a spot that is so free.

Yes, it might be painful, but it will be freeing.

Listen, you're not the only one facing the pressure.

I love what the apostle Paul said in Second Corinthians

chapter one, verse 8 through 9. He said, we do not want you to

be uninformed, brothers and sisters, about the troubles we

experienced in the province of Asia.

Listen to what he says. We were under great pressure,

far beyond our ability to endure, so that we despaired of

life itself. Indeed, we felt we had received

the sentence of death. But this happened that we might

solely rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the debt.

Listen what happened to the life of Jesus in Luke 22, the Bible

tells us in verse 44. And being in agony, he prayed

more earnestly. Jesus seated on the throne in

humanity in agony. And some of you are in that spot

this morning. It was even difficult for you to

wake up. It was difficult for you to lift

your head from the bed. The agony of what you are

feeling has detoured and distracted your life to a place

that when it is oftentimes said to get in community, you don't

even want to be around community.

You just want to in your own life, find that you can just

isolate yourself. Listen, this is the agony that

David is in in chapter 21. If we were to subtitle title the

chapter of First Samuel 21, it would be under pressure.

David is under pressure. David, as you know, all of

Samuel is wrapped up telling the tale of three kings.

In First Samuel we know that the Bible declares to us that there

was that Israel asked for a king by the name of Saul who then

forsook the Lord and disobeyed the Lord.

That led into God anointing King David and David points us to the

greatest king of all and that is Jesus.

At this point in time of the story in First Samuel 21, David

has defeated Goliath. David now defeating Goliath has

everybody singing his hit song on OK love and that is this.

Saul has slain his thousands, but David his 10s of thousands.

You think that Saul is king would be excited and he's

stricken with extreme jealousy over Davidde life.

Saul seeks to kill David, not to lift David up.

You remember he throws Spears at David.

He now seeks out through Jonathan to kill David.

He seeks out through his own army to wipe out the man who

brought the greatest victory to the nation of Israel at this

time in the valley of Elah. And here is David.

He's not reigning as king, although he's anointed to be

king. He is running for his life.

The king has become the fugitive, and here is David in

this point in time, not in the palace, but in pain.

He has the calling, He has the anointing.

But Saul wants him killed. This is the dry season.

This is 10 to 12 years of David's life running for his

life, trying to catch a breath because one thing after another

keeps on hitting him. He lost everything.

David lost the respect of King Saul.

He lost Michael, his wife. He had to leave Jonathan, his

best friend he had to turn away from.

And now David finds himself in this pressure moment, sitting

and not just waiting, but he's now acting in fear.

They say that pressure makes diamonds.

Isn't that a cool slogan? Pressure makes diamonds.

We say things like that all the time.

Pressure not only makes diamonds.

Pressure makes dumb decisions. Pressure can cause people

seeking for a divorce when there's no reason to get a

divorce. Pressure will make you a proud

owner of a timeshare, David. His dreams are deferred, his

hope is dashed. In this moment, he's filled with

the crushing pain, the unspeakable pain, and he makes

poor decisions. In chapter 21.

Isn't it good that God highlights the reality of the

real story of people's lives? They're not hidden from us.

We're not just seeing David's highlight roles on Instagrams or

his cool messages on X. We're we're not seeing his cool

Snapchats or whatever it might be.

We are seeing the reality of David's life and he makes some

very poor decisions. He is at this place and I

believe some of you are at this place.

And I want this to be a warning. I want this to be a guardrail.

I want this to come alongside of you as a as a trusted friend and

bring some truth in your life. When you are in a pressure

moment. What should we be aware of?

What should we be aware of because a lot of us are waiting

for something to change. I was helping a friend move just

yesterday and he said to me, he said the elevator is slow and it

is slow. And if you know me, I am very

claustrophobic and every elevator, I never want it to

break because the door is going to take a long time to open.

And so I said to them, I got it. I'll take this down myself.

I hit on Level 3, I hit the button 1 and I'm waiting and I'm

waiting and I'm waiting and I'm waiting and I'm waiting and I'm

waiting. Then now I'm waiting and

sweating. I'm waiting and sweating.

I'm waiting and sweating. I'm waiting.

It felt like forever and it was only like 3 minutes but it felt

like forever. Then I'm waiting, sweating, and

then panicking. And then not only was I

panicking, I was looking for somewhere where I could be

exiting. I had to get out of that place

and all I wanted was for the door to open and I could breathe

in some fresh air. And some of you right now you've

been waiting and waiting and waiting and waiting, and now

you're waiting and sweating. Now you're waiting and

panicking, and now you're waiting looking for an exit.

But it's the same place you need to stay because it's in that

spot that God is going to do His greatest work.

And I think sometimes, sometimes we quickly get out of situations

simply because we don't like the pain or the pressure that we're

in. And what that births in our

lives is we cut and negate the new life that God wants to bring

because we want to escape quickly out of pressure and

painful moments. And that is exactly what David

does. David finds himself at this

place. And we would look at the end of

the chapter, he is acting crazy. But if we go all the way through

this chapter, we're going to learn David does some things he

shouldn't have done in the midst of his pressure.

The first thing he did was this, write this down.

This is going to be important that you real you live this out

on Monday. David, number one in pressure

says things he should have never said.

David under pressure says things he should have never said.

Notice this Jonathan is now gone.

David now he came to Knob to Ahemalek the priest.

And Himalek was afraid when he met David and said to him, Why

are you alone and no one is with you?

And so notice this, David said to Himalek, the priest, excuse

me, the king has ordered me on some business and said to me, do

not let anyone know anything about the business on which I

send you or what I have commanded you.

And I have directed my young men, he says, to such and such a

place. David flees from Jonathan, but

then he goes from where Jonathan is at to a city called Nob.

Now Nob is known as the Priestly City.

It's in this spot of Nob, if you're taking note that 85

priests are there, and David seeks quick refuge and Nob and

he runs into a man named Ahimelech.

The priest Ahimelech was related to Eli.

And there at this spot, Ahimelech, the Bible says, was

afraid because he knew that David should have been

surrounded by men. But David's not surrounded by

men. He's alone.

That's where fear will often lead me.

Alone, alone, isolated. And no one, he says, is with

you. And then the Bible says that

David said, now this is a man after God's own heart.

This is the king of Israel. This is the same man who wrote

the majority of the Psalms. In the book of Psalms.

He says to him, elect the priest.

The king has ordered me on some business, lie #1 #2 And he said

to me, Do not let anyone know anything about the business

which I send you. Lie #2 Then he says these words,

or what I have commanded you, and I have directed my young man

to such and such a place, which is lie #3 Notice this David, the

man after God's own heart is a man who lies.

Three lies. The king sends me on some

business. Don't let anyone know.

And I've directed my young man to such and such a place.

I want you to see this because I want you to see.

David's difficulty led to David's deception.

And in this deception, because of David's languish, he lies.

He adopted what is commonly known as situational ethics, and

that is situational ethics is what is the best option in the

midst of this. But notice this, the lie meets

the immediate needs but has a horrible end.

David, as John MacArthur said, lied and because he was in a

tough spot, the lie could not be excused because of the pressure

that he was under. And this is often times what

happens in every one of our lives is this.

Like David, our speech is driven by the stress and the situation.

I believe because we see things that seem to be out of control,

it leads to often times how we communicate to other people.

Pressure on the outside will often push up what is on the

inside. And there we say things that we

later regret to people that we say we truly love, that leads to

hurting people that we say we're wanting to protect.

And listen, if you would, in pressure, we say things that we

shouldn't say. But I want you to hear this

today. What comes out of your mouth

matters. Can I just say that again, what

comes out of your mouth matters? You remember I told you that

story of that guy at the stoplight when I'd stopped and I

was looking to my right and to my left.

And I looked over to my left and there's this older gentleman in

his car and, and I just just looked at him and all of a

sudden he pulled his top denture piece out of his mouth.

What comes out of your mouth matters, He then began, as he

was waiting for the light to turn green, he began to pick at

the dentures. And then he licked his dentures.

And then he rubbed his dentures on his shirt, and then he stuck

his dentures back into his mouth.

What comes out of your mouth matters.

And we say that's disgusting, but why does my sin always look

worse on other people? Because what's coming out of my

mouth could also be very disgusting.

I want to say this with all grace, but I want to say this

truthfully. Christianity and cussing don't

go hand in hand. I just want you to hear that you

claim to be a Christian and your mouth is full of cursing.

It doesn't match up, it doesn't go together.

If God has changed someone's heart, he changes somebody's

mouth. And let me just take it a little

bit further because I feel like I can.

There's something called Christian cussing and that is we

only say the 1st letter of the word or we use words like

freaking let us be men and women of character that our mouth

matches what's going on inside of our heart.

Because the pressure's not changing you, it's only

revealing you. And we think, well, the

pressure's just changed me. And here's what I, I will often

do. And here's what we will often

say to people. It's often times because of

what's happened to me that that's actually why I said this.

But but, but listen, my words coming out of my mouth could

just be as disgusting as the event that I saw.

And I was grossed out in my car looking at a man who was pulling

something out of his mouth that actually should have stayed

inside of his mouth. And maybe your words should just

stay inside of your mouth. Maybe our word should just stay

inside of our mouth. Maybe you might think it, but

that doesn't mean you actually have to say it.

And maybe in this moment, what's happening in our lives is what

the poem once said. I know my diet is not the best,

but it really is the words that you have spoken that I cannot

digest. We begin to believe that it's OK

to cuss because of our crisis. We say things like this.

That's the stress speaking or I'm going to get myself in

trouble. It's because of the menstrual

cycle. It it's actually because things

are hard at work that I come home saying these things.

It's actually because of my bad day that I have a bad mouth.

No, no, no, no, no. Listen.

If we shake the cup, what comes out is what's inside of the cup.

What's already in there is what has come out and defiled the man

or the woman. Listen, we might say, how did

David sin with Bathsheba? How did that all happened all at

once? I don't believe that happened

all at once. I believe this happened as a

small factor in First Samuel chapter 21.

1 Samuel 21 · chapter mention

David began to lie and thus the effect now reaches Second Samuel

2 Samuel 11 · chapter mention

Chapter 11, that it actually started in First Samuel chapter

1 Samuel 21 · chapter mention

21. And you might say, well, I just

lied just a little bit about that.

And it leads to greater and greater and greater and greater

devastation in our lives. These are the words that we say

I hate you. These are the words we say, I

wish I was never a part of this family.

These are the words that we say, How could I have ever thought to

marry a man like you? How could I have ever have

thought in my life to have a wife like you?

Students, teenagers to their parents, you're just a horrible

parent. Why?

Because you're so strict. And because you're so strict,

you're horrible. Did you know someone else could

have done a lot better than you? We say things like I will never

forgive you. We say things like we should

have never gotten married. We say things like this, I can't

stand it to be here. We tell people to go to How

could someone who's going to heaven tell someone that

statement? We say things like you're an

idiot. I wish you were never born.

And here's in this moment that we have a choice to use our

mouth in three ways. We could use our mouth to

direct. We can use our mouth to direct.

David could have been honest in this situation.

We could speak truth in love and we can help the situation and

not harbor or hinder the hurt in the situation.

We can use our words to delight people.

We can speak the truth in love, and love gives birth to

encouragement, but maybe in delighting you don't just make

strong state statements. Maybe we're going to ask great

questions. Maybe honesty needs to be seen

as something that's going to be refreshing or you can destroy.

Do you know what happened in Nob with David's lie?

85 priests were slaughtered in that city because of David's

actions. I was looking up for the city of

Nob, what it meant in the history behind Nob, and I just

kept getting the slaughter of Knob, the slaughter of Knob, the

slaughter of Knob, all stemming from David's lie in Knob.

All that we would see that our speech could be something that

is slaughtering. And I think when we say things

in pressure, we say things we later regret.

Maybe that's not you. Maybe you're not saying things

that you shouldn't be saying, but maybe in pressure, if you

take no, write this down. In pressure we take things we

shouldn't take. In pressure we take things we

shouldn't take. The Bible says in verse 3, David

says, now therefore what have you on hand?

Give me 5 loaves of bread in my hand, which was the show bread

for the priest or whatever could be found.

And the priest answered David and said, there's no common

bread on hand, but there is holy bread if the young men have at

least kept themselves from women.

And then David answered the priest and said to him, truly

women have been kept from us about 3 days since I came out,

and the vessels of the young men are holy, and the bread is in

effect common, even though it was sanctified in the vessel

this day. So the priest gave him holy

bread, for there was no bread there but the showbread, which

had been taken from before the Lord in order to put hot bread

in its place on the day when it was taken away.

And now a certain man of the servants of Saul was there that

day detained before the Lord. And his name was Doeg the and

Edomite, the chief of the herdsmen who belong to Saul.

And David said to him, Alec, is there not here on hand a spear

or a sword? For I have brought neither my

sword nor my weapons with me, because the King's business

required ace another lie. So the priest said, the sword of

Goliath at the Philistine whom you killed is in the from the

valley of Elah. There it is wrapped in a cloth

behind in the ephod. If you will take that, take it,

for there is no other except that one here.

And David said there is no, none like it.

Notice this. Give it to me.

Look at, look at twice this word.

Notice this, this word we begin to take things we shouldn't

take. Notice verse 3 David says give

me 5 loafs. Now notice if you would

following here in this chapter at the end of verse 9, give it

to me now. Commentaries disagree on if it

was OK if David should have taken the showbread from the

temple and from the priest. They say Jesus used it as an act

of showing mercy. Some say that Jesus was being

sarcastic with the Pharisees in regards to them trying to keep

the the minute things and the legalism that they were trying

to hold on to, whatever it might have been.

This was to represent and to be a place of worship.

And David begins to take things that he shouldn't take.

And this is his word. Give it to me once in verse 3

and once in verse 9. Notice the word give there means

to hand this over. Hand this over to me and here's

what I want to remind you of today and pressure.

He sought his own way to get provision rather than God's.

And I think we fall into this trap and that is this, that we

think that immediate fleshly pleasure takes away external

pressure. It doesn't.

If we think that outside sin and us getting that sin will bring

the release of pressure, it only adds to the pressure.

And here's what the enemy does. He says, act like this.

Do this and you can find within yourself that you will be

absolutely free. That's the exact thing that Eve

and Adam did in the garden. Take the enemy set, eat, for

then your eyes will be open. Notice this.

The lie is this is that we truly believe that fleshly pleasure

can take away internal and external pressure.

And I am reminded constantly of the tragic life story of Ravi

Zacharias, a man who was the apologist of the century, who

spoke for Jesus, who defended Jesus.

But come to find out, he really didn't live for Jesus.

In the testimonies of his life coming from the women that he

involved himself with, he would cry out in those rooms.

They said, you don't know what kind of pressure I'm under.

And I think that's the excuse that we use when we go and we

find ourselves drinking another cup of alcohol to just calm

ourselves down. I think that's what we do when

we go to the drugs, when we go and have this relationship with

food. And we think that that's going

to be freedom or we enter into another relationship because we

think that if we do that, then our eyes will truly be open.

And this is what happens. You take things you shouldn't be

taking. The showbread, the sword. 85

lives of priests who represented God.

Oh, that we would set in our motion that pressure is coming.

And I think we love to talk about the promises of God, but

we don't like to talk about how God allows pressure to happen in

our lives. Oh, that we would see that it it

is coming or maybe it's even there, but you don't have to

respond that way anymore. Listen, maybe the third thing,

and I'm just going to wrap this up because I'm going too long,

is this it is We go to places we shouldn't go.

We go to places we shouldn't go. Listen, what happens to David?

David arose and he fled that day before Saul and went to Akash,

the king of Gath. And the servants of Akash said

to him, is this not David the king of the land?

Did they not sing of him to one another?

And dances, saying, Saul is slain to his thousands, David is

10s of thousands. And now David took these words

to heart, and he was very much afraid of Akesh, the king of

Gath. Gath is in the country of the

Philistines. The Philistines are the enemy of

the people of Israel. And David goes down, and then he

changed his behavior before them.

Just like us, when we're around certain people, we'll often

change our behavior to meet the criteria that they are at

instead of what God is calling us to.

And there he finds himself in the enemy's territory.

And then the Bible says that David fiend madness scratched

the doors of the gate and let his saliva fall down on his

beard. And then Akash said to his

servants, Look, you see, the man is insane.

Why have you brought him to me? Why have you brought him to me?

David goes to a place he shouldn't go.

And maybe as you've come into this place today, you are going

to places that you shouldn't be going to, websites you should

not be going to, friends you shouldn't be going to.

And it's God's heart to bring you back to his land.

Isn't it amazing that First Samuel 21 isn't the end of

David's story? It's just a part of David's

story. The pressure will not last

forever, but what comes from that pressure and how it forms

us could last forever. And David runs in fear for his

life. And maybe today you've been

running in fear for your life. Fear of that husband, fear of

the situation, fear of that wife, fear of the job, fear of

the financial pressure that's coming your way.

Fear has LED you to this place of staying longer than you've

ever wanted to stay and paying more than you've ever wanted to

pay. And Jesus, out of his grace and

mercy, like David, calls you to come, come back to the land

that's governed by God, that your decisions are governed by

God, and see what I will do in the midst of this situation.

Will you pray with me? We hope you enjoyed this message

and we'd love for you to join us in person every Sunday at 10:30

AM. For more information and

updates, visit wearebridgetown.com.

Thanks for tuning in and we'll see you next week.