Integrity in the Cave

Good morning.

It's awesome to be in the house of the Lord once again.

You know, today we're still in the series on David, and today we're going to be talking about integrity in the cave.

You know, in our lives, we have many, many opportunities to do things without anybody else knowing what it is that we're doing.

We have opportunities to even do things that other people around us know what we're doing, but they agree with what we're doing, whether it's right or whether it is wrong.

And today we're going to look at David in 1 Samuel chapter 24.

1 Samuel 24 · chapter mention

After Saul is chasing David, he sends 3,000 men in his army after David to kill David.

Because Saul had allowed his jealousy, his rage against David to take over.

Because David had popularity and he had a growing popularity.

Saul is already king.

David has been anointed to be king, but Saul is yet chasing after David, one of his own.

Now David had already killed Goliath and gone after the Philistine army.

If anything, Saul should have been more than happy to have David in his company.

But yet because of jealousy, because of the popularity contest that he was losing, he decided to go after David.

Now David only has 600 men, but Saul has 3,000.

But there's something that David does in chapter 24 that we have a lot that we can learn from.

And there's a lot that I'm going to unpack here this morning.

So I'm going to move swiftly.

I'm not going to rush, but I'm going to move swiftly.

Because when it comes to integrity, I believe that each and every one of us have some opportunities and some areas that we might need to do some reality checking in.

Amen.

Amen.

So as we move into the scripture, let us pray.

Father in heaven, I ask you now that you would speak to me and speak through me, O God.

I pray, Father, that this word would not fall on deaf ears, Lord God.

But I pray that it would take root and residence in the hearts of your people.

Let us be made better people because of your word today, Lord God.

And I'm thankful for this word, because it has come into my life, Lord God, to allow me to do a reality check.

So, Father, thank you.

And I pray, Father, that if there's anyone here today who's far from you, who does not know Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior, I pray, Lord God, that today is today that they would recognize that and surrender unto you.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

So I have a definition for integrity of heart.

And I have it here on the screen.

I'm going to read through it, and I want every one of us to think through this.

Integrity of heart.

Doing the right thing when you have the opportunity to do something wrong and believe you can get away with it, or without anyone else knowing about it, or holding you accountable for it.

Sometimes it's not just nobody else knows.

Sometimes it's that the people that are with you agree with you and they won't hold you accountable for the thing that you are doing that is wrong.

Just because someone agrees with you doesn't mean that it's the right thing to do.

You know, sometimes we find things uh that that work for us, and as long as we have someone else who agrees with us, that's all we need to justify our actions.

And in this, David could have gone along with his own men who were encouraging him in the moment.

And we'll get to that in just a minute.

But David's heart was convicted in this chapter.

He realizes that his heart is not to please himself, but is to honor and to please the Lord.

When we talk about integrity of heart and we talk about moral compass, there's a scripture that tells us that the Gentiles knew right from wrong and they didn't even have the law to judge them.

They didn't have the law, but they knew by the conscience of their heart what right and wrong was.

From Romans chapter 2, verses 14 through 16, it says, For when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law.

Romans 2:14–16

They show that the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.

So everybody that's doing wrong knows that it's wrong.

Even if they like doing wrong, because they know it's wrong and they want to get away with doing it, and they know that it hurts someone else, but they're going to do it anyway.

And so no one can say they haven't learned, and because they don't know Jesus, they don't know right from wrong.

God has given us a moral conscience.

He has given us the knowledge to know right from wrong whether you read the Bible or not.

People just know.

So no one has an excuse to say that they don't know.

And the beautiful thing about God's grace is that He lets us know before we go too far.

The question is: are we willing to listen and take the appropriate action to do what is right?

Even when others say you're justified in it.

Yeah.

So let's look at the big idea here.

When you're in the midst of those dark places, when you're in the midst of a place where you have secrets that are hidden from the rest of the world, that's where your character is truly revealed.

Oh, the things that we can do that nobody else knows about.

But God sees all, God knows all, and God judges all.

So here's the first section.

The opportunity is what we see with David here in verses 1 through 4.

See, David had the power to retaliate.

But verse 1 says, When Saul returned from following the Philistines, he was told, Behold, David is in the wilderness of Engedi.

Then Saul took 3,000 chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the wild goats' rocks.

Now, 3,000 men to go chase after one man.

It's a lot of men.

Just how afraid, or just how much do you desire to wipe David off the face of the earth that you take 3,000 men to chase down one?

Verse 3 says, and he came to the sheepfolds.

By the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself.

Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave.

He just so happened to go to the same cave that David and his men are in.

Interesting.

Interesting how God can sometimes give us the opportunity to really and truly show who we are.

Some things that come to you are maybe just a test to see how you actually respond to it.

And the men of David said to him, Here are these friends that we have.

Here is the day of the of which the Lord said to you, Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do to him as it shall seem good to you.

Then David arose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul's robe.

There's an opportunity right there for David to go ahead and take him out.

The opportunity was there.

How many opportunities do we have right in front of us to do the wrong thing?

And how many times have we actually done the wrong thing because our friends are in our ears justifying to us that it's okay.

You would be right to do it.

Think about it.

Relationships.

Think about the job that you prayed for that you didn't have that the Lord blessed you with, and now all of a sudden you got problems with and you don't want to do what they tell you to do.

Oh yeah, you can justify speaking against whoever it is that you don't agree with, and you might be right.

But is it the right thing to do?

And you might have other people agreeing with you that you are right, but does your right actually result in wrong?

Think about that.

And then here's the next thing the conviction.

There was not just an opportunity, but there was also a conviction.

David's heart stopped him.

We see this in verses 5 through 7.

And afterward David's heart struck him, because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe.

He said to his men, The Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Lord's anointed to point out my hand against him.

Let's pause right there.

David recognized that it wasn't just somebody that he was seeking revenge towards, but he recognized that this was God's anointed.

You may not agree with who's in position, but if God placed them there, you still have to be obedient to God.

Amen?

And David recognizes that, and his heart is convicted in this.

And so the Lord's anointed to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord's anointed.

And then verse 7 says, So David persuaded his men with these words, and did not permit them to attack Saul.

And Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way.

So the next thing that we see is the restraint.

Oh, when we have an opportunity and our hearts are convicted, do we have the discipline to be restrained from the things that we really want to do?

There are some people in my life that, man, if I didn't have a God in my life, I'd still want to get back at them.

And I know I'm not in that by myself.

There are some people that have done you wrong.

And you can justify getting them back.

But is it the right thing to do?

Is it what God would have you to do?

And so we have to operate in restraint.

And we see that in verses 8 through 15.

It says, afterward David also rose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, my Lord the King.

And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed his face to the earth and paid homage, respect.

Now, I don't know that I would ever bow my face to the earth in front of somebody who's trying to kill me.

That's a lot of boldness there.

That's a lot of trust in the Lord there.

But he bowed his face.

He still did not abandon respect for authority and respect for the position.

Sometimes when people in authority make us upset and mad, we sometimes abandon respect.

One of the things I tell people this all the time.

Now, this is just kind of a general statement.

I think it's true for the most part, that most men, you can tell them you love them and that's great.

But the thing that really gets a man's blood boiling is disrespect.

You know, wives can love on their husbands, but if they disrespect their husbands, that causes a big, big problem.

And anybody who has to go through disrespect is someone who's not getting the minimum thing that's due them as a person.

People deserve to be respected as a person.

You may not like them and you don't have to run up to them, have relationships with them where you're buddy, buddy, and you're hanging out all the time, but everybody is due decency and respect.

Whether you like them or not, because we are still people.

And God created people.

We are God's design, we are God's idea.

And so, if God felt that we needed to be here, then I think we need to understand that God wants us to have the minimum of at least having respect for one another.

I don't care what your color is, I don't care what your ethnicity is, I don't care what side of the railroad track you grew up on, everybody's due the decency of respect.

Amen.

Y'all were quiet until I brought that in.

Amen.

And so, as the proverb of the ancients say in verse 13, out of the wicked comes wickedness, but my hand shall not be against you.

In other words, David says, I'm not going to pay, repay you evil for evil.

Out of your wrongdoing, wickedness can come out of that.

But David said, I'm going to restrain myself.

Verse 14, after whom has the king of Israel come out?

After whom do you pursue?

After a dead dog?

After a flea?

David's like, really?

You're coming?

What are you coming after?

What are you coming for?

May the Lord therefore be judged and give sentence between me and you and see to it and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand.

God said, you know, David said, you know what?

I'm going to put God in this.

I'm going to put God between me and you.

Because here's the thing.

When a person is saying to you that, listen, let's let the Lord judge whether we're right or whether we're wrong.

If we're in disagreement, let's see what God has to say about it.

And sometimes that is the best thing that you can do.

Because as Christians, sometimes we forget to just stop and say, you know what, let's not argue.

Let's pray about this.

Let's work this out.

Let's figure this out with the Lord's influence.

Let's see what the Lord has to say about it.

But sometimes we just go back and forth with each other and we don't understand that what the enemy wants is for us to wrestle against one another.

Scripture says, for we fight, we don't wrestle against flesh and blood.

In other words, we shouldn't be fighting one another.

We've got to recognize when it's a spiritual battle.

We've got to recognize when it's all because Satan does not want you to get to where you're supposed to be.

You've got to understand, David was on his way to being king already.

He didn't have to fight for it.

The anointing was already on him.

And you need to understand that there is a destiny for you that God has already laid out and defined and designed just for you.

And you're still trying to fight to get your way there.

God's like, just let it be.

I got it.

You're going to get to where God wants you to be through your obedience, not through retaliation, not through revenge.

But God has already laid it out.

The question is, are we really seeking the Lord?

Yeah.

Then we have this.

Last thing, then I'm going to get on to preaching.

I am.

I'm serious.

I'm going to start in a minute.

I'm not there yet.

I'm just reading scripture right now.

But I won't be long, I promise.

I know church folks get hungry on Sunday morning.

The vindication.

The last part from verses 16 through 22.

As soon as David had finished speaking these words to Saul, Saul said, Is this your voice, my son David?

And Saul lifted up his voice and wept.

Because he knew he could have been had.

But he lifted up his voice and he wept, and he said to David, You are more righteous than I, for you have repaid me good, whereas I have repaid you evil.

You see when you let God do it, those that are in the wrong, they'll see it.

The only way you don't see it is that you just disobey God.

And here's some here's the truth.

A lot of times we we think that people don't see it.

No, they're just hard-hearted.

They see it, they know.

Their hearts are just hard, and they don't want to accept it.

And we ought not be that way.

Because when God shows us our wrong, we ought to be willing to say, Lord, it's me.

Yes, Lord, I need to change something about my ways so that you can be honored and glorified in my life.

In verse 18, he says this, and you have declared this day how you have dealt with me, and that you did not kill me when the Lord put me into your hands.

For if a man finds his enemy, will he let him go away safe?

So may the Lord reward you with good for what you have done to me this day.

And now, behold, I know that you shall surely be king, and that the kingdom of Israel shall be established in your hand.

Saul began to even recognize not just David's character, but where David was headed because the Lord had placed him in that position.

He recognized what God was doing, even though he was evil and wicked in his heart.

It's hard not to see what God is doing when it's right there in your face.

And oftentimes we may ignore it, but it's there.

Verse 21 Swear to me, therefore, by the Lord, that you will not cut off my offspring after me, and that you will not destroy my name out of my father's house.

And David swore this to Saul.

Then Saul went home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold.

Now understand something about this.

Saul has three thousand men.

Now he's on this journey hunting after David.

Now he just went into this cave to relieve himself.

Now, where were the 3,000 men?

If they wanted to, Saul could have called all his men and said, Hey, I found them.

It's 3,000 of us, it's 600 of them.

Let's kill them all.

But Saul's heart was convicted.

And he went on his way.

You see, sometimes we're still trying to fight when we've already won.

Sometimes we're we're still trying to fight, and on the other side, we're fighting against God when we already see that God has told us to retreat, but we're still going.

But Saul recognized something here.

He recognized the mercy that David had given to him.

He deserved to die.

Saul deserved to die.

But David had mercy upon him.

Not just mercy, but he had respect for him and respect for the authority.

Now let me start preaching.

Number one, not every opportunity is permission.

Just because you want it to be doesn't mean it should be.

We have a lot of opportunities, and it looks like, oh, look, the Lord has delivered Saul into your hand, David.

He said he was going to give you your enemy.

Your friends would tell you, that's the opportunity right there.

This is God doing this.

Now, what if David had killed him?

What if David had killed Saul?

It would have been a bad decision.

Because that's not what God was doing.

You see, sometimes an open door does not automatically mean God wants you to walk through it.

All doors that are opened doesn't mean that they're meant for you to walk into.

Every opportunity given to you doesn't mean that it is of God.

The one thing that we have to judge in our hearts are the things that we really want to do and the opportunities that we have to do it.

Because the opportunity to do what you want to do, you can put that on God and say, Ooh, God opened that door for me.

God gave this opportunity to me when God says, No, I didn't.

It wasn't meant for you to take the opportunity to do wrong, it was for you to take the opportunity to do right and reveal godly character instead of what your heart really wants to do.

Because at the end of the day, if if if conscience, if if David wasn't conscience stricken, David would have killed him.

But you know, that change of David's heart was the Holy Spirit speaking for us.

Sometimes when you just want to do something and then you feel guilty, you feel like, no, I should not do this.

That's the Holy Spirit restraining you from doing the thing that you ought not do.

Because sometimes those bad decisions can be the can destroy your destiny.

I can think of some decisions that I could have made in my life and some decisions I did make in my life that didn't take me to the place that God really had for me.

And sometimes we're making decisions every day of our lives and we're not recognizing that the place that we were supposed to be, that decision is a decision that makes other decisions.

The decision that you make today, even the one that you say you're not going to do, you already made a decision.

You decided not to.

The thing that God tells you to do and you decide not to do it, you made the decision to change perhaps your destiny.

You see, I'm gonna tell you this story real quick.

I tried my best not to come back to Louisiana.

I did.

I know, that's crazy, isn't it?

We got some lovely people down here.

We lived up north where it's cold, and I tell you the people up there are cold too.

They are.

Amen.

Somebody said amen.

Yeah, yeah.

But let me tell you, here's the reason why.

It's because um I was employed by a company where my boss was a racist, all right?

But I still had to respect the authority, all right?

I had to respect the position.

And because of that, I about once I got out of here, I would never come back to Louisiana.

You know why?

Because of that experience.

But guess what?

I was judging all of Louisiana by my one bad experience.

That wasn't fair, that wasn't right, right?

And here I am, I've been back three times since.

How many of you know you don't tell God what you're not gonna do?

God has ultimate authority, right?

And so we can make some decisions that make decisions for our lives, but if whatever God has for you, it's for you, and you're gonna do it regardless.

Now, there are some things that God will say, Oh, you don't want to do it?

Next.

He'll just choose somebody else to do it.

I don't need anybody else doing whatever it is that God wants me to do.

So I don't want to destroy my destiny by some decision based upon my own selfish desire.

So we have to surrender unto the Lord.

Opportunity must always be tested against obedience.

Every opportunity you have, test it against obedience.

Ask God, is this what you want me to do?

Oftentimes what we do is say, God, will you give me?

God, will you open that door for me?

We make our requests unto God and tell him what we want rather than asking him, what does he want?

Sometimes what looks like an opportunity is actually a test of your character.

That opportunity that you thought was the door for you to walk into, God said, I'm just gonna test you.

I'm going to see.

Because I had plenty of opportunities, even since I've been here, to do some things that would have taken my time away from the opportunities to minister to God's people.

And they looked like a good thing to do.

And I praise God for my wife because she put me in check just about a week or so ago.

In case y'all didn't know, Rashonda's kind of tough.

Yeah.

I call a row dog.

Yeah, yeah, jailhouse.

I'm gonna be in the jailhouse, but that's all right.

I'm gonna take you out to eat, Miss Mona.

Thank you.

Yeah, but listen, I thank God because I have a wife that will hold me accountable and who will call me out and say, look, you're doing too much of that.

I feel like you're not spending the time that you need to be spending with God.

You're a little, you seem to be a little bit distracted.

And I thank her for that.

Because sometimes something that looks good, it seems like a good thing, might be taking you away from the best thing.

And there was nothing wrong with where I was spending my time.

It was distracting me from spending time in places where I should have been.

It was a good thing, and it would bring us some great blessings, but it wasn't necessarily what God wanted me to be doing with all of my time.

So we have to be careful about those opportunities that we have.

And as I move on, what you do in the cave reveals what is in your heart.

Now let's talk about this cave because sometimes this cave is these, it's these dark places, it's these secret places, it's the places that we go and we live in isolation where nobody else knows where we are, nobody else knows what we're doing.

It's our comfort zone, it's our safe place.

And sometimes what you do in your hidden, secret, safe place will reveal what's really in your heart.

Don't make decisions without discernment.

Because decisions without discernment can be disastrous.

See, sometimes we're in our secret places, and we're not spending time with God in those secret places.

We're spending time in other places, we're doing things that God may not approve of.

Or we've got people in our ear telling us what they think we ought to be doing.

And God is saying, when the opportunity comes, what are you going to do with it?

See, Proverbs 1625 says, there is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.

See, it would have seemed right to go ahead and eliminate and annihilate Saul, who was chasing David.

But David realized that it might seem like it's right, but it's really going to lead to death.

Because that decision perhaps would have destroyed David's opportunity to become king.

Because he decided to go against the Lord's will.

See, David was already anointed to be king.

But God was developing the character necessary to carry the crown.

Sometimes let's put it this way even on your job, you may have to deal with some things that you really don't want to deal with.

But there might be a position that you're striving for.

How you deal with things today will determine whether or not people see you worthy of the position that you're going after.

How you treat your boss and how you speak to your boss today might determine your next opportunity.

And sometimes it doesn't matter whether you think they're right or whether you think they're wrong, you still have to do the right thing regardless.

You have to recognize when God has set you up for success, but don't be your down, don't be your own downfall to your own destiny.

See, that's where David was.

He could have been the downfall to his own destiny by one simple decision.

Before God changes your position, he often tests your heart.

Sometimes people are wanting to go to the next level, they're wanting to do the next thing.

But maybe God is saying, You're just not ready yet.

I've tested your heart, and if I give you what you really want, if I give you what's in your heart, if I give you what you're going after right now, it would be the death of you.

It will destroy you.

And sometimes you got to know how to develop spiritual character right where you are.

Because how you handle now determines how you will handle what's next.

And some of us are trying to move to the next level when we're not mastering where we are.

We can't get it right right here.

But all of a sudden, we want to be way over here or up here.

And God is saying, you're not ready for that level of anointing yet.

I've anointed you in this place down here for where I want to take you next, but you can't get to what's next because you're not doing well down here.

Some people are trying to get to heaven, but they don't want to go through Jesus.

Some people are trying to be blessed, but they don't want to be obedient.

We got to do well with where we are.

So our private decisions reveal more about us than our public actions.

In Romans chapter 12, verses 17 through 21.

Romans 12:17–21

It says, Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

If possible, I love this, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

Now let's pause there for a moment.

If possible.

I mean, you know, sometimes it's not possible.

Because some people don't want to be at peace with you.

Right?

If possible, so far as it depends on you.

You do all you can do, but after you've done all you can do, it ain't on you no more.

Right?

You try to live at peace with people, but sometimes you got to realize people don't want to be at peace with you.

They don't want to be your friend.

And let me tell you something, people even at work tell me, man, you walk in the room and you're just happy.

I say, and here's what I tell them.

I say, one, it's God's grace, and I don't let people bother me.

I don't.

They tell me, man, I look, I look young.

I'm old, y'all.

But they tell me I look young.

I say, look, that's God's grace.

I don't let people worry me.

Because here's what I understand.

I'm going to put myself in the path and around people who don't frustrate me, who don't make me mad.

I know who I am.

I know who I am better than y'all know.

Y'all see me happy and smile, and that's because I'm around people who make me happy and smile.

But I'm not always around people who make me happy and make me want to smile.

They try to pull stuff out of me that I know is in there that they're just tugging and tugging, and if I don't get away from them, it's gonna come out.

Sometimes you've got to know your limitations.

And and and although the Lord will find a way of escape for you, he will give you a way of escape when you're tempted, but you got to take the way of escape.

Sometimes we just stay too long around people that are just pulling at us and trying to get it out of us.

Sometimes you just have to say, you know what?

Let's talk later.

And walk away.

Because if you don't, it's gonna reveal that thing that's deep down inside of you.

And that's not really who you want to be.

That's not the character trait that you want to exemplify.

But it's in there because we're all wrapped in this flesh, and there's some evil in all of us.

You may have been saved for a long time and you feel like you got it whipped.

I promise you, somebody can say something or do something that can make you act like somebody you thought was gone a long time ago.

They're still in there.

All of us are bipolar.

There's that spirit man, and there's that corner man.

You can fool yourself if you want to.

I know me.

And I know y'all too.

So there's something I can see it on your face.

When we when you start taking a person there, it's there, and you've gotta know when it's time to stop.

I told y'all call Rashonda row dog.

Bless the Lord.

But understand something.

The reality is it can be poured out of you.

But you got the Holy Spirit living inside of you that tries to keep you at bay.

But the only way that you step past that is that you don't want to obey when he speaks to you.

And thank God that's that Paul saw this.

He knew that he had it to stop.

He knew that when his heart was conscious stricken, he knew that at that moment he had to stop and obey God.

He had the opportunity, he had the justification, he had the agreement of his army speaking to him about doing it, and he had the weapon.

But he decided to drop his weapon.

He decided to bow his face to the ground and honor the king.

Sometimes you may not want to honor the king, but let me hurry up and move on.

From James chapter 4, verse 17.

James 4:17

It says, So whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it for him, it is sin.

We can know right.

And if we don't do it, we sin.

It's not just a sin of commission, it's a sin of omission as well.

If you know the right thing to do and you don't do it, it is sin.

And once again, David had people telling him he was right.

The situation and the circumstance told David that you're right.

If you want to kill him, he's chasing after you.

He's chasing after you to kill you.

And he's wrong.

The justification does not give us permission.

See, spiritual maturity is not never making mistakes, it's responding quickly when God corrects you.

So it doesn't mean that as spiritual beings, that we're not gonna mess up.

But when we know we messed up and God shows it to us, we need to repent and change.

Number four, you can honor someone without approving of their behavior.

And I'm gonna move swiftly through this.

Someone else's ungodly behavior does not give you permission to abandon godly character.

I don't care what's being done against you, you have to do the right thing.

Their actions reveal their heart, but my response reveals my heart.

I want y'all to say that.

Their actions reveal their heart.

My response reveals my heart.

That's the difference between people who mistreat you and how you respond to them.

Respect authority, especially when it's by God's appointment.

The powers that be are ordained by God.

And I've got to read this one because in the state of our nation today, we've got so many differences of opinion.

But the one thing that we have to understand is that government was God's idea.

That was God's idea.

I don't care what your problem is with whoever's there, it was God's idea.

And if you need the biblical scripture to help you, Romans chapter 13, verses 1 through 7.

Romans 13:1–7

Let every person be subject to the governing authorities.

For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God.

Therefore, whoever resists the authority resists what God has appointed, and those who resist will incur judgment.

For rulers are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.

Would you have no fear of the one who is in authority?

Then do what is good, and you will receive his approval, for he is God's servant for your good.

But if you do wrong, be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain.

For he is the servant of God, an avenger who carries out God's wrath on the wrongdoer.

Therefore, one must be in subjection not only to avoid God's wrath, but also for the sake of conscience.

For because of this you also pay taxes.

Now, see, I thought taxes were evil.

The Bible says we gotta pay taxes, y'all.

Oh well, I guess we keep paying them.

For the authorities are ministers of God, attending to this very thing.

Pay to all what is owed to them, taxes to whom taxes are owed, revenue to whom revenue is owed, respect to whom respect is owed, honor to whom honor is owed.

It doesn't matter what your opinion is.

The government is ordained by God.

That doesn't mean that every person in that office is going to obey God, but it is ordained by God.

And the best thing we can do is not go against God's design and God's decision.

You may not like it, but it's what God says we are to do.

It's His order.

So don't let your hurt turn you into the person who you hurt or who hurt you.

Because sometimes we want to do people the same way they do us.

Because hurt people hurt people.

Allow God to change your heart.

David refused to become Saul in order to defeat Saul.

Yeah, he could have killed him to defeat him.

But it wasn't right for him to turn himself into the one that was chasing after him.

You don't have to manipulate what God has promised.

If God has already promised it to you, you don't have to manipulate in order to get to the place where God has for you to be.

Let it be.

And lastly, let God handle what you cannot fix.

Give it to God.

And each and every one of us every day have some things that we need to turn over to God.

We're trying to fix it, but we can't fix it.

In verse 12, it says, May the Lord judge between me and you.

May the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you.

In verse 15, it says, May the Lord therefore be judged and give sentence between me and you, and see to it, and plead my cause and deliver me from your hand.

See, forgiveness doesn't require foolishness.

Forgiving someone who's doing you wrong doesn't mean that you leave yourself open to be done wrong again.

It doesn't mean that you don't protect yourself.

It doesn't mean that you don't put yourself in a position to where you won't be attacked again.

You gotta recognize how to protect and guard yourself.

And the best way to guard yourself is to consult the Lord, to give it over to God.

I don't know what each and every one of you are dealing with today.

But everybody has a cave moment in life.

It could be on your job, it could be in your home, it could be at school, it could be within the community.

But each and every one of us have those cave moments that will reveal the integrity of our own heart.

Because what's hidden in your heart is gonna soon come out.

Now there's a scripture that says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks.

What's in there is coming out.

The question is, have you surrendered it to the Lord?

And sometimes we're making excuses for who we are.

We're just saying, this is just how I am.

This is just what I do.

It's not about you and what you do.

The truth of the matter is that your flesh is speaking out.

Saying that it does not want to obey.

It wants to do the thing that's comfortable.

It's hard to be restrained.

Anybody can just let go.

But do you have the strength to practice control?

To allow the Lord to strengthen your heart, to strengthen your mind, to allow the Lord to call you to not do the very thing that your flesh is crying out to do.

That happens in so many areas of our lives.

And as the worship team comes, I want you to know this that God allowed David's character to speak for itself.

He didn't have to speak up.

His character said it all.

When David decided not to kill Saul, it made Saul aware that he had the opportunity but he didn't take it.

There was his character speaking in his place.

You may be at work and you may not agree with your manager and what they say.

But you still have to respect authority.

You may not even like what the Bible says about something, but you still have to obey God's word.

It may not feel comfortable to you, it might not be the thing that you desire.

But the obligation that we have is to give God what he desires and what he deserves.

And that is, as people who call themselves Christians, people who are called by his name, to honor God in our character in everything that we do.

So I have a question for you.

When you consider the integrity of your heart, where do you find yourself?

Are you one who makes excuses to go ahead and do whatever it is that your heart desires to do, knowing that it's going to result in wrong.

You see, the thing about David's position is that he had every right within himself to make the choice to come after Saul.

But David decided in himself that he's going to obey God rather than men.

I don't know what you're dealing with in your life today.

This is not one of those shouting messages.

It's one of those that causes us to examine ourselves.

Examine what's really in our hearts and what God wants to do in you and through you.

Then ask him to perform spiritual surgery on your heart.

To take those things out that's not like him.

Because I can tell you, just a few weeks ago, I was in a position and I had to check myself.

Because even though I didn't agree with the one that was in authority, and I didn't even agree with the way they handled the situation, they were totally wrong.

The truth of the matter is, I'm a nice guy, but I don't take no stuff off people.

When they screamed and yelled at me, and everybody around heard it, and I went to the other side of the place, and people were telling me about it in that location.

It was very disrespectful towards me.

And for a number of months, I lost a lot of respect for that individual.

But the whole time God was working in my heart saying, Byron, you represent me.

It's not about what they did, it's about the influence that you still have and the responsibility that you still have to honor the Lord.

And I had every right to be disrespectful back to them in my own self.

I had opportunities, and even in my own heart, there were things that I should have been doing that I wasn't doing.

And here's what happens in life: you can have one bad experience, you can go to a store and have one bad encounter with one person, and all of a sudden, those stores are no good.

You can go to an organization, have one bad encounter, and all of a sudden, everything about that organization is no good.

But at the end of the day, when we check our hearts, not everybody takes the blame for one person's encounter.

So whatever you're harboring in your heart today, take the time in this moment to ask God to bring your heart back to the heart of worship.

Because worship is not just about what we do within these four walls, it's not about the songs that we sing, it's not about the moments that we sit down and we hear preaching.

The heart of worship is the way that we live our lives each and every day.

So as the worship team sings, if there's something you're harboring in your heart that you want to give to the Lord, the altar is open.

This is your opportunity to come and bow before the Lord as the prayer and decision partners come.