This is My Confidence

Samuel 2018  •  Sermon  •  Submitted
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Too many of us have placed our confidence in the wrong things. Our circumstances may change. People might let us down. Our status might be stripped from us. So how do we get our confidence back? We place it in the steadfast love of God. This is my confidence.

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Introduction

Welcome Live Stream
Week 23 in our series on the books of Samuel

Recap

David hiding in strongholds of En-gedi
Saul just so happens to enter the same cave to relieve himself
David sneaks over and cuts off a corner of Saul’s robe
This seemingly insignificant act begins to bother David’s conscience because he realizes he’s not this kind of king — He doesn’t cut corners.
David says, “I’ll become king, but not like this. Not this way.”
Our text last week ended with Saul, having finished up his “business,” leaving the cave completely unaware of David’s actions.
David has allowed this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get revenge on Saul to slip through his hands.

Scripture (1 Samuel 24:7b-22)

1 Samuel 24:7–8 NLT
So David restrained his men and did not let them kill Saul. After Saul had left the cave and gone on his way, David came out and shouted after him, “My lord the king!” And when Saul looked around, David bowed low before him.
1 Samuel 24:7-
Immediately, we see the change in David’s heart. Last week we saw David “get up” with the intent to act, to bring harm upon Saul.
Now, as Saul exits the cave, David runs after him and bows low before him.
We can respect a person’s position without agreeing with them:
Our president
In our marriage
With our boss
With your kid’s teachers and coaches
Romans 12:1 NLT
And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him.
Romans 13:1 NLT
Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God.
We have an obligation to respect those that God has placed in positions of influence and authority over us.
The level of respect we exhibit is the level of respect we command
The level of respect we exhibit is the level of respect we command
If you constantly disrespect your boss or supervisor, do not be surprised when those under you begin to treat you with the same level of disrespect when you’re promoted.
If you disrespect your spouse in front of your kids, you are giving your kids permission to treat both you and your spouse that way.
When you fail to show respect to those in authority, you give those around you permission to be disrespectful to those charged with leading them.
The level of respect we exhibit is the level of respect we command
David knew that once he became king, he would have to give an account for he had treated his predecessor, Saul.
Let’s not forget that David is traveling with 600 men and Saul’s army numbered 3000 of Israel’s choice men—the best of the best.
These are men that David will one day be tasked with leading.
I’m sure David held Saul in a pretty low regard at a personal level, but as God’s anointed king, Saul was due the utmost respect from the people of Israel, and that included David.
If David is to be a king that commands respect, he must now bow low in respect to Israel’s current king.
1 Samuel 24:9–13 NLT
Then he shouted to Saul, “Why do you listen to the people who say I am trying to harm you? This very day you can see with your own eyes it isn’t true. For the Lord placed you at my mercy back there in the cave. Some of my men told me to kill you, but I spared you. For I said, ‘I will never harm the king—he is the Lord’s anointed one.’ Look, my father, at what I have in my hand. It is a piece of the hem of your robe! I cut it off, but I didn’t kill you. This proves that I am not trying to harm you and that I have not sinned against you, even though you have been hunting for me to kill me. “May the Lord judge between us. Perhaps the Lord will punish you for what you are trying to do to me, but I will never harm you. As that old proverb says, ‘From evil people come evil deeds.’ So you can be sure I will never harm you.
1 Sam 24:9-
the combination of the words rib [roc·heve] (conduct a legal case; NLT, “advocate”), din (judge) and shapat (judge) in 24:12 and 15, places the reference to the “vengeance” of God in a juridical context, so that the controlling motivation for the appeal for God to avenge does not reflect a thirst for blood, but rather a thirst for justice.
rîḇ) (conduct a legal case; NLT, “advocate”), din [TH1777, ZH1906] (judge) and shapat (judge) in 24:12 and 15 places the reference to the “vengeance” of God in a juridical context, so that the controlling motivation for the appeal for God to avenge does not reflect a thirst for blood, but rather a thirst for justice.
Vannoy, J. Robert. Cornerstone Biblical Commentarya: 1-2 Samuel. Vol. 4. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2009.
Vannoy, J. Robert. Cornerstone Biblical Commentarya: 1-2 Samuel. Vol. 4. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2009.
David here, acting as pro se lawyer, is laying out his case for Saul, challenging Saul to come up with any evidence that David has conspired to kill him as Saul believes.
Quoting the old proverb, David says that if he is truly evil there would be a breadcrumb trail of evil deeds behind him.
Matthew 7:16 NLT
You can identify them by their fruit, that is, by the way they act. Can you pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
Evil comes from evil
Numbers 32:23 NLT
But if you fail to keep your word, then you will have sinned against the Lord, and you may be sure that your sin will find you out.
Matthew 15:18–19 NLT
But the words you speak come from the heart—that’s what defiles you. For from the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, all sexual immorality, theft, lying, and slander.
What is in your heart eventually makes its way to the surface. Evil comes from evil.
What fills your heart? What trail are you leaving behind?
What behaviors, thoughts, words, etc, fill your days?
How would those close to you describe your behavior, words, etc?
David challenges Saul to identify the evil David has committed.
His claim is that his trail is clean. He has not conspired against Saul. He continues to recognize and uphold Saul’s position as the Lord’s anointed king.
VALUE: Integrity
“Living a life worthy of imitation.”
What would people find if they looked at your trail?
1 Sam 24:
1 Samuel 24:14–15 NLT
Who is the king of Israel trying to catch anyway? Should he spend his time chasing one who is as worthless as a dead dog or a single flea? May the Lord therefore judge which of us is right and punish the guilty one. He is my advocate, and he will rescue me from your power!”
This is a common theme for David. He often sites his
“Saul! Why are you wasting your time chasing me? Why have you exerted so much energy hunting me down? Can’t you see that I have never done anything to harm you?”
Let’s take a peek back inside the cave where David penned . Because its hard to understand how a man on the run can be so confident. He shouts that God will rescue him from Saul’s power, but how can he be so sure?
Psalm 57:1–10 NLT
Have mercy on me, O God, have mercy! I look to you for protection. I will hide beneath the shadow of your wings until the danger passes by. I cry out to God Most High, to God who will fulfill his purpose for me. He will send help from heaven to rescue me, disgracing those who hound me. Interlude My God will send forth his unfailing love and faithfulness. I am surrounded by fierce lions who greedily devour human prey— whose teeth pierce like spears and arrows, and whose tongues cut like swords. Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens! May your glory shine over all the earth. My enemies have set a trap for me. I am weary from distress. They have dug a deep pit in my path, but they themselves have fallen into it. Interlude My heart is confident in you, O God; my heart is confident. No wonder I can sing your praises! Wake up, my heart! Wake up, O lyre and harp! I will wake the dawn with my song. I will thank you, Lord, among all the people. I will sing your praises among the nations. For your unfailing love is as high as the heavens. Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds.
Psalm 57:1-
David declares, “My heart is confident in you, O God.”
Today, I want to help you get your confidence back.
Despite the doctors report. Despite the anxiety you feel at work. Despite your uneasiness with the political climate.

This is My Confidence

From David’s Psalm, I want to give you...
Four themes that define a confident heart:

Sovereignty

“I cry out to God Most High, who will fulfill His purpose for me.” (vs 2)
I don’t have to break God’s commands to get where God wants me to go. I don’t cut corners.
David doesn’t know how God is going to do it, but He knows God will. He’s confident that God will fulfill His purpose; and that God gives His best to those who wait on Him.
David is pleading with God to change his circumstances, but after praying, David trust the sovereignty of God, and he waits.

Steadfast/Unfailing Love

“My God will send forth his unfailing (steadfast) love and faithfulness.”’ (vs 3)
David is confident in God’s steadfast, unfailing love for him.
His confidence is in God who is working all things in his life according to a loving plan.
Many of us walk around unsure of God’s love.
When things go wrong in our life we begin to think that maybe God is punishing us for some sin in our past.
The Gospel does something for you… it teaches you that Jesus has suffered for your sin in your place.
This means when things go wrong in our life, we don’t have to sit and wonder if God is repaying me for something I’ve done.
J.D. Greear says that, “[Christ] Got harshness and condemnation so all you would have is goodness and mercy.”
- Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever. (ESV)
Your sin has been removed; you are assured of steadfast love, and that God is working all things for your good ().
Maybe this morning you’re saying, “Pastor Ryan, that is easy for you to say… (like I don’t have my own problems…), but you don’t know what I’ve been through or what I am facing right now.”
If God’s goodness and mercy are following me, why did God allow me to be divorced? Why was I overlooked for the promotion? Why did my parents disappoint me?
I can’t directly answer every question, but I can tell you this with confidence: God has a loving purpose He was and is pursuing in you and that He is using every moment in your life to work towards that purpose.
Sometimes we pray for relief (as we should), but what God gives us is refinement.
Why? Because His highest value in us is our trust in and satisfaction with God and our possession of a character like His… and He often uses pain and struggle to produce this in us.
We have to come to the place where we are confident that in all things and at every moment, God is working for our good!
Listen again to what David wrote:
“I am surrounded by fierce lions who greedily devour human prey—whose teeth pierce like spears and arrows, and whose tongues cut like swords. Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens! May your glory shine over all the earth.” -
What!? David says, “I’m surrounded by fierce lions” and follows it up with, “Be exalted, O God!”
You have to be confident in the steadfast, unfailing love of God to say something this outlandish.
David is being chased by a rabid king who is trying to kill! He and his men are hiding in caves. I feel like people are trying to devour me and every night my dreams haunt me like hungry lions.
You see, David has gotten past the point where his circumstances determine his view of God.
You’ve had a bankruptcy; an unexpected pregnancy; been betrayed by a friend or spouse; been laid off; lost someone you love… David says I know the fear. I know the pain. I’m familiar with the emptiness.
Even so, “Be exalted, O God, above the heavens!”
This is my confidence.

Selflessness

Psalm 57:5 NLT
Be exalted, O God, above the highest heavens! May your glory shine over all the earth.
psalm 57:
David has prayed for relief, but his primary prayer is for God to be exalted, whether in David’s rescue or in his pain.
David has prayed for relief, but his primary prayer is for God to be exalted, whether in David’s rescue or in his pain.
Psalm 57:7 NLT
My heart is confident in you, O God; my heart is confident. No wonder I can sing your praises!
What do you pray for in pain? There’s nothing wrong with praying for relief. Pray through the breakthrough. But do you ever move beyond personal relief to God being exalted.
This is one of the primary differences between David and Saul. Saul thinks this is all about his comfort and his name and his kingdom. David knows it is not about him or his kingdom, and so he’s willing for his reputation to suffer and his body to ache if God will be exalted.

Satisfaction

Psalm 57:7 NLT
My heart is confident in you, O God; my heart is confident. No wonder I can sing your praises!
The Hebrew word the NLT translates as “confident,” the ESV translates as “steadfast.”
This is twice now David has mentioned the idea of steadfast. The first referred to God. The second concerns David. This is a different steadfast than the Hebrew word in verse 3.
vs3; hey·sed = goodness, kindness, favor, a loyal love
vs7; kwn (ka·fav·noon) = to determine, be firmly resolved, be decided, to be bent on
David says, “I’m confident because I am bent on the loyal love of God. I’m steadfast toward God because I know God is steadfast toward me.”
The backbone of obedience is confidence in the steadfast love of God.
If you are not confident in the goodness of God to you, this is where you will get anxious, be tempted to sin, to take revenge, to compromise.
If you don’t believe in God’s goodness, you’ll step outside to obtain.
You’ve got to get ‘good’ somewhere!
David says despite the caves and unceasing threats from my enemies, I am satisfied in the Lord. He alone is my treasure, my possession, my very great reward. He is enough.
It’s no wonder I can sing your praises!
You can’t make this statement when you are not satisfied in Christ alone.
When you are tempted to take matters into your own hands, when you are tempted to sin, you’re failing at one of those 4. You don’t believe God is really sovereign; you aren’t convinced of his steadfast love; you still think, like Saul, that this is all about you and self; you aren’t satisfied with God and His approval of you.
When you feel like that, here’s the question you need to ask yourself… Why is God’s love and approval not enough for me?
All of our problems go back to not understanding the Gospel. We either don’t understand how God feels about us or we don’t value His approval enough.
>>> David says, “This is my confidence. Its not in my circumstances, because circumstances may change. Its not in people, because people might let me down. Its not in my status or position, because those might be taken from me. My heart is confident in you, O God, and there is nothing man can do to me that you have not already accounted for! You are my advocate, and you alone will rescue me.”
1 Samuel 24:16 NLT
When David had finished speaking, Saul called back, “Is that really you, my son David?” Then he began to cry.
1 sam 24:
Brueggemann notes, “He weeps because he must now face what he has long known. He weeps because he must now confront the truth he has avoided. In the moment of confronting the reality of David, Saul must face the truth of his own life. No wonder he must cry, for he must acknowledge not only that David will win and that he will lose but that his whole effort to be faithful, effective, and powerful, and even “righteous,” has failed. He has failed because of the “evil spirit” and because of the resolve of God, because of the cunning of David—and because Saul could finally not be who he wanted so deeply to be. There is here both tragedy and failure. Beneath both tragedy and failure there is the inconsolate, inarticulate, unmeasured pathos of a life gone empty. Saul must weep. He must weep before God and before David. When he has wept, then he can speak. It is his honest, unrestrained weeping that permits him to yield to the now irresistible and obvious future, which is David.”
He weeps because he must now face what he has long known. He weeps because he must now confront the truth he has avoided. In the moment of confronting the reality of David, Saul must face the truth of his own life.
No wonder he must cry, for he must acknowledge not only that David will win and that he will lose but that his whole effort to be faithful, effective, and powerful, and even “righteous,” has failed. He has failed because of the “evil spirit” and because of the resolve of God, because of the cunning of David—and because Saul could finally not be who he wanted so deeply to be. There is here both tragedy and failure. Beneath both tragedy and failure there is the inconsolate, inarticulate, unmeasured pathos of a life gone empty. Saul must weep. He must weep before God and before David. When he has wept, then he can speak. It is his honest, unrestrained weeping that permits him to yield to the now irresistible and obvious future, which is David.
No wonder he must cry, for he must acknowledge not only that David will win and that he will lose but that his whole effort to be faithful, effective, and powerful, and even “righteous,” has failed. He has failed because of the “evil spirit” and because of the resolve of God, because of the cunning of David—and because Saul could finally not be who he wanted so deeply to be. There is here both tragedy and failure. Beneath both tragedy and failure there is the inconsolate, inarticulate, unmeasured pathos of a life gone empty. Saul must weep. He must weep before God and before David. When he has wept, then he can speak. It is his honest, unrestrained weeping that permits him to yield to the now irresistible and obvious future, which is David.
Saul found himself constantly fighting against the resolve of God
James and Peter both tell us that “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
Throughout his reign, Saul was determined to fight God’s battles his own way
He’s discovering, God always wins.
1 sam 24:17-
1 Samuel 24:17–19 NLT
And he said to David, “You are a better man than I am, for you have repaid me good for evil. Yes, you have been amazingly kind to me today, for when the Lord put me in a place where you could have killed me, you didn’t do it. Who else would let his enemy get away when he had him in his power? May the Lord reward you well for the kindness you have shown me today.
Isn’t this the question we’ve all been asking? Who lets their enemy get away?
Could you do this? Would you allow your enemy, the person who has repeatedly hurt you, walk away unharmed?
Do you trust God to handle revenge? justice? forgiveness?
1 sam 24:
1 Samuel 24:20–22 NLT
And now I realize that you are surely going to be king, and that the kingdom of Israel will flourish under your rule. Now swear to me by the Lord that when that happens you will not kill my family and destroy my line of descendants!” So David promised this to Saul with an oath. Then Saul went home, but David and his men went back to their stronghold.
Saul now becomes the last one to authorize David, knowing nothing can stop the coming rule of David, because He is the God who fulfills His purpose for me. This is my confidence.
CLOSE
You see, its in the wilderness we learn to thirst for His presence.
It’s in the lonely times that we learn to live in the silence.
It’s as the other voices fade that we hear Him calling our name.
It’s our scars that prove He’s our healer.
It’s our weaknesses that provide the platform for His strength.
And it’s worth it all. Just to know Him. Because He has done great things.
THIS IS MY CONFIDENCE. AND IT’S COMING BACK.
**Altar call AFTER song
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