Mike Bickle emphasizes the importance of walking with a free spirit rooted in gratitude, using David's life as a model. Despite facing extreme highs and lows, including being pursued by King Saul, David maintained a humble and grateful heart, recognizing that he was receiving far more from God than he deserved. Bickle highlights that David's ability to perceive God's mercy and kindness allowed him to remain steady and joyful amidst adversity. The sermon encourages believers to cultivate a spirit of gratitude, understanding that their relationship with God is a gift that surpasses their circumstances.

Father, I ask you in the name of Jesus for a revelation of gratitude, a revelation of your heart that produces gratitude. And I ask you to bless the hearing of the Word. And Lord, I ask that you would bless the Fire and the Night, as they're in their seminar right now with Andy Kaminsky. And I ask that you would bless Rhonda, Huey, and the Heartland Summit that's meeting over in the Multipurpose Room even now, Lord. And I ask that you bless IHOP, the worship teams and the intercessors that are at the prayer room right now. And I just ask to release your Spirit upon all these gatherings. And move upon us, Lord, as we gather before you in these different venues. And we bless you in Jesus' name. Amen. Romans 1, 1 Samuel 18. After David killed Goliath, which was 1 Samuel 17, the chapter just before, he suddenly now enters into a new season in God. And he's promoted to national prominence, suddenly. It's a time of much honor in David's life, much uncertainty, and that's really one of the key phrases, and much danger. This is a very dramatic life with great paradox. It's a great paradox in David's life. The highs are highs and the lows are lows, and they're happening at the same time. This period lasted about four to five years. 1 Samuel 18 is, at first glance, just looks like a couple of stories that kind of randomly are put together, but it's really one of the more remarkable insights, a sneak preview, so to speak, into David's heart. We take a view of his heart from 1 Samuel 18, that we have a remarkable insight into his life so we can imitate it in our life. That's the point. Paragraph B, in 1 Samuel 18, we see young David. He's about 20 years old, and circumstances that reveal the foundations of his heart. His experiences in this season, this four to five years, is so extreme. He received an unusual measure of favor. He's been promoted by God, protected by God, protected from Goliath, protected from Saul, promoted in a way that was really unparalleled for a 20-year-old. He's moved from his little town of Bethlehem. He's probably rarely left it. He's now living in Gibeah, which is where King Saul lived, which was the capital city, so to speak. It's where the royal headquarters was, the head of the government. It's like a 20-year-old from a little rural town moves in, joins President Bush's personal staff. He goes from a rural town, never been to school, straight on to the president's staff. He's a national hero. He's on the front of USA Today. I mean, literally, he is a national hero. He saved the nation in the chapter before. And his culture shock. One thing that we studied some sessions ago was that David was one of eight sons, and he was rejected by his family. So he's got a real big swing here from being rejected by his large family in a rural town. He's on the president's staff. He's 20 years old. He's a national hero, and he's working right in the White House. And it seems like every few days or weeks or months, whatever, we don't really have the kind of specific detail, but something really big happens of promotion or really negative happens that's attacking him, and every day he doesn't quite know if it's a good day or a bad day. He doesn't quite know what to expect. The extremes are intense, but the remarkable part about this chapter is David's humility and his stability in God in the midst of such extreme uncertainty. You know, if it's good and we know it's good, we're postured one way. If it's bad and we know it's bad, we're postured another way. But when it's good and bad every other week and you never know what it's going to be, that's a whole other dimension. You don't quite know what to expect or how to carry your heart. I mean, it's bad to where Saul wants to kill him. Saul tries to kill him on three occasions in this chapter. To kill him, a 20-year-old. I mean, to murder him. And he's living in his house, or he's living in the palace, so to speak, or in the royal grounds of the royal house. Paragraph C. In this environment, circumstances constantly changed from blessing to danger back to blessing. He responded. David responded with remarkable gratitude. I mean, I just don't know too many people that could have had the steadiness that David had. And, of course, the question we ask is, what did David know and see that we don't, by nature, know and see? How could he have been so stable and so humble in such an environment? And can we be that humble and can we be that stable in a changing environment when the senior leader is trying to murder us, and he's the one that's been promoting us? David responded with gratitude. His steadiness and his humility was the fact that his spirit was alive with God. He wasn't angry at God, and he wasn't angry at Saul. I mean, any other person would have been angry at God and Saul. Like, what's the deal? I've served you all these years, and this is what I get. Very natural response. Sinful response, but a very natural one. It's one that we can all relate to. Why? Because here it is in one sentence. Here's the key sentence of this whole chapter, of understanding this chapter. David saw that he received a better deal from God than he ever deserved. There it is right there. Even in spite of all the mistreatment of Saul, if you would have talked to David at any given time, he would have said, I'm being treated way better than I deserve to be, and I'm already way ahead of the game, even though I'm being lied to and ripped off and great injustices. In terms of the way God's treating me, I am way ahead of where I should be if God treated me with perfect justice. Beloved, if the truth was known, that reality is true in every one of our lives. And when we understand that we should be a million dollars in debt, but actually we're a million dollars ahead, we're not so angry that we're not 10 million ahead. We're not so mad that things aren't better than they should be because we should be way in the hole, but we're way ahead even in circumstances of what we deserve. If God was to give us exactly what we deserve according to the way we've responded to him all of the days of our life. And David had this revelation of this. And David, he thought, so what, the guy's treating me bad. So what? Look whose hands I'm in. Look whose hands I'm in. In Psalm 31, he talked about my times are in God's hands. He says, I belong in your hands. I'm living before you, God. Paragraph D, David saw God's gentleness to him, towards him more than he saw the injustice of Saul and the mistreatment towards him. From David's view, he got a better deal than he deserved if perfect justice had been given to him. I just wanted to say that over and over. Paragraph E, David had an unusual ability to receive, or in other words, to perceive the mercy of God. See, we all are receiving mercy far more than we can even estimate or far more than we can measure. But David could perceive it in an unusual way. Again, he always thought he was getting a far better deal than he deserved. And beloved, he was treated far worse than any of us have ever been treated. When you really read the life of David straightforward, I don't know anybody who has had a worse deal of injustice than King David in the Old Testament. Not one person. For seven years, 3,000 men were hunting him to assassinate him. 3,000 men financed by the government. And David's crime was he loved God and was a servant. And this went on for about seven years. I don't know anybody who's been in that situation. I know people that have been ripped off at the job. They didn't get the promotion that they deserve. They really deserve somebody else got it. Or they even got slandered or even got fired. But I don't know anybody that had 3,000 people trying to assassinate him for seven years with the military funding the whole process. And he was slandered across the nation. He was slandered up and down the nation by the leaders of the nation. And David had this, not 100% all the time. His humanity clearly comes out. But the rule of his life, he had this happy, cheerful spirit in God because it was because he was grateful. And it's because he did the math right. He really understood what the real score was. And you and I, we struggle with really understanding the score because we think that our dedication, I mean, kind of without really getting deep about it, we kind of have a low-grade kind of conclusion that our dedication is pretty much close to what we're getting. Beloved, it's not even close to the truth. Our dedication doesn't measure at all the goodness of how things are going for us. No matter how horrible things are, we're way ahead of the game. Let's look at a couple of verses real quick. I'll just give you a few of them here. We love him because we know that he first loved us. That's the reason we love him. We have a revelation. God from heaven is in love with me. Beloved, that's enough. After that, you really don't need anything else for real. If that be true, the God of Genesis 1 is in love with me. How did that come to pass? How did that? Who came up with this? What did I do to get that going for me? I'm so far ahead of the ballgame, and so are you, of what I deserve. Jesus talked about the immoral woman, and he said, I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, they love little. You could even put the word gratitude. They have little gratitude. And everybody's been forgiven much, but a lot of people don't esteem it, and they don't perceive it. There's no one on the earth that if they've received God's forgiveness, the forgiveness has not been monumental, but most people don't see it. Instead of the word loved much, put the word they had much gratitude, because love and gratitude is synonymous. Gratitude is the soil for which love in our spirit grows towards God. You want to get your love to grow, feed your spirit on information that creates gratitude in your heart. That's what King David did. That's what the Psalms are filled with, the revelation of David's gratitude for God. And here's the phrase that you know David's gratitude, the most quoted phrase or idea in the Psalms, I praise you, O God. I praise the Lord. I bless the Lord. That's gratitude. I mean, it's the most quoted, repeated phrase in David's life. I praise you. I bless you. I trust you. That's all the same reality. In other words, thank you. Thank you. I'm really getting a much better deal than I deserved. And, beloved, when we know that we're forgiven much, our gratitude goes way up. The person that really has the revelation of how much they've been forgiven and how kind God is to them according to what they deserve, their hearts can be trusted. Their hearts become steady in humility and meekness. One of my favorite verses I quote all the time is the next one, Psalm 18, about David. I mean, one of my favorite David verses is that David says, God delivered me because he delighted in me. And this was after 16 months of compromise and ziklag. And then he says, God's gentleness is what's covering me right now. It's his gentleness. David understood God delighted in him, and David understood that God treated him with gentleness with the revelation of his own weakness. Psalm 13, verse 5, I trust your mercy. Well, the reason he trusted it is because he needed it. He needed the mercy. He trusted the mercy, and he understood he needed it. The more I understand that I need mercy, the more grateful I am, regardless of what else is happening in my life. Psalm 103, verse 8, the Lord's merciful, gracious. Verse 10, I love this. He's not dealt with us according to our sins. There it is in one sentence. King David wrote that. He goes, God is not dealing with me according to my sins. I can handle Saul because I'm getting such a good deal with God, I can handle Saul. And we lose our way with Saul, the Saul's in our life, because we don't have a revelation of the deal we're getting with God. The mistreatment that Saul gives us, and we all have a Saul in our life. If we don't now, we just had one recently or we got one coming. But God, when God wants to raise up a David, he always raises up a Saul to train David. People say, I want to be like King David. I said, well, get ready for Saul then. No, I don't want the Saul part. I just want the other part. There is no King David without being trained in the seminary of Saul. Yea, I shall raise you up, my daughter, my son. You shall be like unto David. Oh, thank you, God. Oh, duck. I'm telling you, when God raises up a David, he sends, he raises a Saul up, trains him, gets him ready, and just really ready to go with anger and bitterness and demons, and he puts him right next door to you. That's what he does when he raises up a David. But because, again, when our revelation of our own sin and our own need and God's kindness towards us is low, then the Saul's seem so big. And you can tell where your revelation of God's kindness to you in your life is by how big the Saul in your life is to you. Now, Saul's hurt, and Saul's are troublesome, but when the Saul becomes the sort of thing, you can hear, here's the sentence, and I'm sure a bunch of us have said this, or nearly said it, if not said it a number of times, God, it's so bad I can't take it. If something doesn't change, I just can't take it. And it's like kind of, I'm not really saying it's over, but it's getting close to me saying that, that's a person who doesn't have any revelation of what it is God's done and what the real score is. Saul looks real big, and God looks real small. To King David, God looked real big. I don't mean just God's power, God's kindness to David individually, and Saul looked real small to David. Psalm 27, I would have lost heart, but I knew, I knew I would see his goodness. This isn't just believing God's power, that's part of it, it's believing in God's kindness towards David. David had a revelation that he would see and experience God's goodness. Psalm 51, after David committed adultery with Bathsheba, and then killed her husband. Restore the joy of my salvation, Lord. Uphold me with your generous spirit. Give me a free spirit. Lord, uphold me, cause my spirit to be, I want a free spirit. In other words, I want a buoyant spirit with God. Then he called himself God's beloved and the apple of God's eye. This was the paradigm that David had of his relationship with God. Romans 2, David's season of sudden and unusual favor and promotion at Gibeah. It's the capital, it was the functional capital. It's where the headquarters was. I'm going to just kind of give a summary of the first part of 1 Samuel 18. David was invited to move to Gibeah. To live and to work in Saul's royal courts. The Washington D.C. of the day. David experienced great favor with Saul's family. He experienced great favor, and we'll read the verses real quick, but I'm just kind of laying it out to you so we read it. You just kind of, you got it all clear. And we just read right through it. David experienced great favor with the staff of the royal court. Now that's strange. Because here's a new guy, 20 years old. He's the main guy in the court. Everybody else in the court, you're kind of imagining is 30 or 40 or 50 or older. This new guy from the country comes in. He's a national hero, and he has more favor than anybody. More times than not, the royal court doesn't like him. I mean, it doesn't like a person like this. But for some reason, God's favor, they love him. They go, we love this kid. He has favor with the army. He has set over the army the men of war. He's not the top guy, but he's in the top leadership of the army as a 20-year-old. My point isn't that it's rare that he's in that position. My point is generals don't really treat 20-year-old equals very well. But he had favor with the army. The army liked him. The nation in general loved him. Now, this is all going to change in a minute, but for a few years, it was like everything he touched seemed to turn to gold. One day, and the next day, everything he touched seemed to break. B, David had great favor with two of Saul's six children. Saul had four sons and two daughters. In the middle of paragraph 1, David had favor with Saul's oldest son, Jonathan. Now, Jonathan, when he had favor with Jonathan, this was really big in the political and in the position of wealth and prominence because Jonathan was the number two person in the government. He was the number two man in the government of power and prominence and influence. And Jonathan loved David and made a covenant. This 20-year-old young man had so much favor with the number two man in the nation. Well, Saul loved him, too, until Saul recognized God's hand of favor on him and then Saul turned on him. But in 1 Samuel 16, it says even Saul loved David. Then he had favor with another one of Saul's children, his daughter, Michael, whom he married. It was a tenuous marriage, but at this point in time, there was a lot of favor. She was crazy about him. So at Saul's family gatherings, Dad, let's have David over for dinner. Jonathan, he's my best friend. And Michael, I really like him. And Saul's going, I can't get rid of this David guy. Everywhere I go, I'm running into him. He's bigger than life. See, now let's just read the passage. Now, when David had finished speaking to Saul, Saul's son, the soul of Jonathan, was knit. It was like a knot. It was like two big ropes tied in a big knot. They were knotted together, the soul of Jonathan and the soul of Saul. And Jonathan loved him as his own soul, the second most powerful man in the nation. Now, we kind of forget the implications of this. This isn't just a good friendship. This is the most powerful man in the nation under King Saul. Verse 2, Saul took him that day, David. It would not let him go back home to the rule house in Bethlehem. Because David was kind of visiting back and forth. And Saul goes, you know what, we're going to make it permanent. You're moving in. I got a house for you right here in the royal complex. And you're joining my staff. This was a big day. He moves to Gibeah. National hero moves into the White House. This is big. I mean, everything's going good so far. The number two guy in the nation loves you. And then the number one guy in the nation invites you to be on his staff and to move into the White House. Wow, good day. Verse 3, it's more than Jonathan loved him. Jonathan committed his resources and his life to David. Beloved, this goes up a whole notch. It's not just that Jonathan says, I really love you. I want to spend time with you. And I like hanging out with you. I vow before God. And Jonathan was a godly young man. I vow before God that my strength and my power will be at your service to help you and protect you and make your life stronger. What a covenant. People have often read this passage through the years. I've heard folks comment many times over the years. And people, they kind of get excited. And you get a teaching on covenant relationships. And by the end of the week, 30 people are in covenant. And by the end of the year, they don't even like each other. And so I wouldn't read this. This is like one time this happened in David's life. And it was a real one. It was by two godly people. And they actually fulfilled their covenant. They walked it out. It was a holy thing. And so I'm not talking the only point I'm making about it. It was very rare. And it was for real. It wasn't some kind of romantic thing they read a verse on and said, hey, let's do it. It was sacred. But, again, it's the most powerful man in the nation, besides Saul, who says, I promise all of my resources are going to protect you and to strengthen you and to bless your life. And then David made the covenant back to Jonathan. Verse 4, Jonathan took off his robe, and he gave it to David, and his armor. And then in his armor, that included the sword, the bow, and the belt. So he's taking off his robe, and he's taking off his armor, and he gives the robe and the armor to David. David went out wherever Saul sent him. He's talking about in military assignments. That's what that means. Or in political assignments, like as a representative of the government. He's on official state business, military or official state business, for the government. I mean, this is heady stuff to be sent out by the president on assignments that really matter in the life of the nation. And David behaved wisely. The word behaved wisely in most translations, although it is the word behaved wisely. All the commentators recognize that, but they said it's the same word as prosper, because in the Hebrew, to obey, I mean, to walk in wisdom is to prosper, and to prosper implies you walked in wisdom, so it's the same idea. That's why many of the translations put that David is doing the official business of the king, and he prospered is what it says, and another says behaved wisely, and someone says, what is it? In the Hebrew mindset, those are synonymous concepts. Anyone that's prospering, it's because they've walked in wisdom. Now, we know that's not always true, but that's the rule of Scripture, that prosperity is linked to walking in wisdom. It's linked to other things as well. David, no Saul, then set David over the men of war. Again, we're talking a 20-year-old, a 21, a 22-year-old. He's over the men of war. Can you imagine what the 50-year-old warriors are thinking about this assignment when they go to the battle plans, they go to the war room with him, and David is talking, or I don't know if he talked much in that setting, but it says that he behaved wisely, and they loved him. There's some serious humility going on in this young man. I mean, how many guys could keep their heads steady with this kind of promotion? And so much is happening so quick. And, beloved, God gave us this passage so that we could be inspired by it, because God is going to give, he's going to release the suddenly of God in many people's lives of great increase and great, the suddenly comes and the prominence and the honor, but God doesn't want an honor that ends up wrecking and hurting our lives. Saul set him over the men of war. He was accepted in the sight of all the people and in the sight of Saul's servants, or you might put the word Saul's staff, his senior staff, his leaders. Now it had happened as they were coming home. That's the key phrase of David's life. Now it had happened. There it is. It all happens in verse 6, although we're not going to finish the thought of verse 6 here. We are in a few minutes. But now what had happened as they were coming home, David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistines, a great military victory. And it's not just that the people in the nation and Saul's staff liked him. The women had came out of all the cities of Israel, dancing and singing, going, Praise God for David, praise God for David. Now what's going on in this, it's not that they all have a crush on him. It's not like they're saying, Oh David, would you give me your autograph? It's not exactly that. But what's really going on is the women, it's not just the young women, it's the women whose husbands and sons, and it's the women whose brothers have been spared dying in war because there's been good leadership. And they're really going, Thank you! Like, David, thank you! My husband is coming back from war. Blessing is on these battles. And we know you have something to do with it. My son is coming home from war. Because many times they didn't come home when they went to battle. And they're singing. I mean, they're really excited. And they see David as having a unique contribution to the return of their families and the welfare of their towns. That's a lot for a 20-year-old to handle. That's a lot for an 80-year-old to handle. It says in verse 16, All of Israel and all of Judah love David. Wow! Well, that's not going to stay very long just in that position. But again, God's using this season in David's life to train him. Paragraph D. The covenant relationship between Jonathan and David was confirmed by Jonathan giving him, if you remember, the robe and the armor. Jonathan's robe, when he said, David, take my robe, it was his royal robe. It was his presidential garments, so to speak. It spoke of his position and authority in the government. And his sword spoke of his weapons of war. I mean, his armor. In other words, Jonathan's wealth, influence, and honor he was putting at the disposal of David. Jonathan was saying when he gave him his armor, I will fight your battles even to the death. Everything that is mine is yours, and every battle you have is my battle, and I covenant before God. If you die, if you're in peril, I will risk my life, and I will spend my last dime to come to your rescue. And my last point of influence, I will do. And Jonathan did this. He risked great things in his relationship with his father. He made his father very, very angry at him when Jonathan spoke up for David, and the father even threw the spear at Jonathan to kill his son. He got so angry at his son because his son stayed true to David when his father Saul was under the influence of the demon and wanted to kill David. Paragraph E. Jonathan's covenant with David. Now we're just pausing for a minute, not just thinking of the glory of that kind of relationship between two people, but this was a part of God's provision. For David, God thought the plan through for David's life so clearly. God had the right man in a high place in the palace, so to speak. In the royal court, the right man was there to protect David at the right hour. Beloved, even in this hour, God is preparing for many of you an ally in your future. You won't even know them for 10 years, but they will be at the right place at the right time, and they will be standing with the zeal of God for the purpose that God's put in your heart, and they will be fighting, and they will be an ally and taking a stand with you. And you don't even know they exist right now, but God already is setting those things in motion. Jonathan was set in place before Jonathan ever met David. I've had a few times in my life where things were real tough, and a person was touched by the Lord through my life, and I didn't even know them, and they just took a stand, and they made a provision, or more than that, took a stand, but all kinds of things. At the strangest time, in the most marvelous way, I thought, Lord, where did this come from? And this is the passage I think about. And the Lord has this for all of our lives, different measures and different ways, and He's setting things in motion now for years later in your life. I love this. I love this passage that when Jonathan made a covenant with David, that spoke of God's preemptive strike. God went ahead of David and set things up for him because God knew David would need them. Okay, let's go to Romans 3. David's temporary promotion, I mean, the temporary promotion of David was to train him for the future. Because those of you that have studied the life of David, we know this is a four or five-year season of promotion. The promotion is tense, although the promotion has a paradox because though it's the most intense promotion, I mean, again, we're a 20-year-old over men of war living in the White House, the president's, one of his top aides and loved by the nation, the ladies of the nation come out and thank, praise God for what you've done to help their family and like, whoa, he's a national hero, killed Goliath. Amazing. At the same time, all the negative that I'm going to talk about in a minute is about to break out on David all at the same time. So it's great honor and great injustice and the contrast is so intense. And that contrast will sometimes be in your life. There will be seasons in your life, there'll be some more negatives, it seems like, than positives. It's never really true, but there's other seasons where there's so many positives, but not very often are there real extremes going on exactly the same way on both ends. And that just kind of, in this kind of setup, again, it really brought David's heart to the surface. Well, in this temporary season of training, A, paragraph A, David's identity, his meekness, his obedience to God was tested. Beloved God tests our meekness. He gives us a little bit of promotion in whatever way in our world. He gives us a little bit of promotion, and people normally assume, let me tell you, it's just a big fantasy. Most, I don't know about most, but many people assume that life, if it really works right, is one promotion, hard work with blood, sweat, and tears. You work hard, you get a little promoted, you stay steady a few years later, you get a little more promoted, you stay steady, you get another promotion, and it just keeps growing. And that's not the biblical pattern. The biblical pattern is, you know, Joseph is on the throne, then he's in the pit. He's on the throne with his father, Jacob, then he's in the pit. Then he's on the throne again, he's one of the leaders at Potiphar's jail, a leadership team. Then he's in the pit again, then he's on the throne with Pharaoh. It's throne, pit, throne, pit, throne, pit. And you think, now what's coming next? And we have this idea, this kind of American culture, it's a media-driven thing, that it's one unending string of promotions to the top. And then if it's less than that, it's warfare. And what I would encourage people to do is read their Bible. Paul the Apostle leads revival in one city, goes to the next, and gets nearly stoned to death and beat with rods. Boo! I thought he was going to be, you know, on 700 Club after that revival. You know, and then maybe have coffee at the White House and tell them how neat God is, you know. He led a revival, then he went to prison. Then he led a revival, then he got beat up. He led a revival, and then many believers turned on him. Paul had more trouble from believers than he had unbelievers on some seasons of his life. And we have this American dream that life is one continuum of just kind of, if we stay steady, it ought to be getting better, kind of upwardly mobile promotions, better, better, better. That is not a biblical concept. It's an American concept. And many of us, I'm talking about myself as well, we're more American than we are Christian, and we don't know it. We get this book out, and we read it. We read it with, we throw away the lens of our culture the best we can, it's hard to do that. We read it with painstaking attentiveness. Lord, I want to hear what you're saying. And the Lord begins to give us hints. He goes, I'm trying to build something in you for yet another day. It's called character meekness and obedience. Well, in Proverbs chapter 27, it says the crucible is for silver, but man is tested by the praise he receives. God gives you seasons of promotion to bless you, but also to test you. God raises up a man or a woman into a place of a prominence relative to their life. It may not be that prominent compared to Billy Graham's life, but it's prominent compared to what you're used to. And God says, I'm raising you up not because you've arrived, I've raised you up because I want to test you with what you will do if I give you a few extra options of blessing and opportunity. What are you going to do with the extra money, influence, and time? What are you going to do with it? And more times than not, people turn that influence and blessing right upon themselves to multiply their own life. The Lord says, that's not exactly what I had in mind. I was really thinking I was going to promote you. No, the Lord wasn't thinking. It's like the Lord missed it. That's not what I mean. What the Lord wanted to do, the reason the Lord gave us a promotion so we could get into that place, we could fill the extra pressures that come from promotion, and we would lean into humility and godliness and greater resolve to go after God in the times of promotion, and we pass the test that comes our way with praise. Because I assure you, if you're in a season of praise now, that season will come to an end. And then people will be mad at you. And I assure you that season will come to an end, and they'll get happy with you again. I love what Julie Meyer calls it, the fairest will of, what does she call it? Who knows? Oh, anyway, she says it all the time. Anybody? Yeah, the fairest will of, something like that. It's real clever. Oh, the fairest will of favor. Anyway, I'm messing it up. I always tell her, I like that fairest will thing. I never just quote it directly. The fairest will of favor, something like that. Anyway, it goes up and down, up and down. One season, you're on top. Yeah, I'm at the top. Whoa, I'm going down. Oh, I'm at the bottom. Whoa, I'm coming back up again. The fairest will of favor. I think that's it, Paula. It's not. It ought to be. How's that? Paragraph B. Leadership lessons, early successes can be deceptive. Early successes can be deceptive if they're misinterpreted as the time to really make your name, to establish your name. Beloved, God gives us promotions so we can have a different angle of our heart is exposed, a different part of our heart is exposed to exercise meekness. Some, when they get a little bit of favor, just whatever area it is, whether ministry or marketplace or just favor and influence, they sell out so quickly at the first sign of success, they leave their focus to go hard after God, and they over-busy themselves making sure that they get more money and more favor coming their way. They sell out. I've seen many, many guys do this in my 30 years of ministry. They have that one year where, I mean, they get a little bit of popular, and they just may milk it for all it's worth, and three years later, they're a burnout, and they're near backslid. And I go, wow, I guess that's what you will do with a little bit of open doors, a few opportunities. Don't you ever know how to say no? Well, if the door opened, it must be yes. No, the door opened to test you. You're supposed to say no to half of the doors that open, or maybe more than that, and you keep your heart focused on meekness and intimacy, become a servant, pick the lowest place, have all the open doors, but stay steady in righteousness and meekness. Well, if a door opens, I must go through it. I go, if a door opens, more times than not, it's a test. Not always. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't. But it's the idea that it's the automatic pilot of our culture. If a door opens, I must go through it and seize the opportunity to give myself more and to establish my name. And David was at Gibeah with an open door. He had no idea he was going to go to the Adullam years for seven years of testing, and then he's going to have a few more seasons after that, and God was getting him ready for years down the road in this age, and God was really getting him ready for the age to come, when he would be on the earth with Jesus in the age to come reigning with him. That's what was really on the Lord's mind the whole 70 years David was on the earth. And actually, David understood that. Psalm 37, he talked about it the time afterwards, after he came back with the Lord, with the Lord later on in his next assignment where he would reign and rule and inherit the earth. He understood that. David was a, I call him a millennial theologian, Psalm 37. It's massive, his revelation of what would happen in the age to come on the earth. D, God's purpose for this season was to train David's heart for future days. Some stumble in the season of promotion by misinterpreting it. They're distracted. And when they get distracted, they lose their gratitude. They lose their sense of God's goodness. They lose connection with it because they are swallowed up in their own bigness and their own opportunity, and they get disconnected from the life source of connecting with God because their gratitude, David's gratitude is what saved him because he stayed, he didn't lose his way with reality, with God. Paragraph E. There's one more point on this, and we're going to move on to another dimension of David's testing in this story. We naturally seek the positive side of promotion. I mean, we all do. I do, you do. We don't really fully understand the downside of it, the fairest will of favor, as I always say. God sends promotion that is packaged together with problems, but it's a secret packaging. And it's meant to, because God wants my heart laid open. I don't mean just in pain. He wants my heart laid open in ways where I can see my heart and say yes and grow in meekness. That's what my life is about in God. It's not just about meeting cool people and meeting presidents and meeting famous people and talking to big crowds. And I'm just taking kind of the Western paradigm of ministries. The idea is to meet kings and presidents and famous leaders and preachers and preach on their platform, and that's what life is about. That's not what it's about at all. The goal of working hard isn't so we can shake hands with somebody famous and get on their team. It's so that we can grow in meekness in our few moments we have on the earth. It's really true. God sends promotion, but he packages it together with problems. And these problems are going to protect our heart from pride. We've got to adjust our vain imagination about promotion in this life. We've got to get out of the Western mindset. It damages us because we seek promotion without seeking to develop in meekness, and it results in devastating disappointment, and that's what so many talk about when they say I'm burnt out. What they mean is I'm just disappointed that I'm not as rich and famous and happy and comfortable as I thought I would be by now. I thought by now I would have more money and more honor and more comfort and I have less, and the Lord might say, I never told you that. Where did you get that? Well, those TV shows that always, you know, within an hour, the guy always drives out in the sun, you know, with everything happy, and, you know, I'd watch 10,000 hours of that. I kind of took, you know. That's kind of what I'm dreaming. I guess I didn't realize I was. I'm not a pessimist, but I want to be focused on intimacy and meekness and revelation. I want to be focused on it. It's all called love. I want to be focused on that and not on the opportunities. I'll take some and pass some up, and I want to stay steady in that right pathway. That's where David was going. That's where many of you were going. That's what's in your heart. Romans 4. Changing, now we're looking at the next part of David's, of the chapter, 1 Samuel 18. This is some of the negative. The changing service says we saw the positive a minute ago. He's over the army or parts of the army and over the, you know, he's got favor with the staff and Saul's family and he's living in the White House, and wow. I'll just give a summary of the next verses here. Saul's jealousy and anger was stirred up when the women welcomed David home after the military conquest. He got really stirred up by that. His initial jealousy turned to serious hostility. Saul employs three different means to try to kill David in one chapter. I mean, David's 21, 22, 23 years old in this season. First, inspired by a demon or energized by a demon, might be a better way to say it, Saul tried to murder David with a spear two times in one day. David, Saul threw the spear. David ducked. He stayed in the room. David stayed in the room. He goes, well, Saul, chill out. Man, I'm on your team. I like you. Saul goes, okay, okay, and he kind of calms down. David's playing the instrument for that demon to get off of him. Saul goes, okay, I don't know, David, settle down. An hour later, he throws the spear again. David goes, I'm getting out of here. I mean, David, why did you stay there for the extra hour? Well, I thought, I've never seen this side of Saul. A few people told me this side of him, but I've never actually. He actually tried to run a spear through David's body two times that day. David said, hmm, this isn't good. He's the most powerful, the most wealthy man in the nation. He's got all the army at his disposal. David said, this is not good. I'm 22 years old. What's going on here? It's really confusing when an authority figure, the one that promoted you is the one that's trying to take you out. Beloved, that really happens in real life, and that's how God trains David. So you want to be a David. Secondly, later on, Saul wants to kill David indirectly this time by demoting him from his royal court position to a military position. He goes, I'm going to make you a captain over 1,000 men. You know, one of the wise men in the president's cabinet says, I know what that means. It means you're leaving the White House. You're going to the battlefield, and more times than not, you die if you go to the battlefield. That was a death assignment. To kill David, we're getting him out of the White House, onto the battlefield, in front in the battlefield, and sorry, David, if I lose you. That was a really bad assignment for a person that was supposed to take over the government. That was a demotion for David. Saul wanted to kill him. And third, then Saul wanted to kill him again indirectly by offering his daughters. He offered two daughters in one day. And the idea was that David would go and pay the dowry, the bride price for the daughters, and the bride price was he was going to have to go kill a hundred Philistines to pay the dowry. In other words, Saul wanted the Philistines to kill him. And David understands, David's very wise. It says it like four times in this chapter. David's very wise. He's very perceptive. He does know what's going on. But he has this humility. Where does this humility come in this kind of changing climate of sudden abuses and injustice? I mean, extreme ones. We're not talking about he lost his pension, or he lost his job, or they burned his house down. They're trying to murder him, and it's deliberate, and he's under the king's authority. When the king says, I want you to go kill a hundred Philistines tomorrow, because I want you to marry my daughter, and that's what you have to do, and you have to do it in a very short amount of time. He had a limited amount of time, and David had to get out and do it. And he came back, and he killed the hundred Philistines. No, he came back, he killed 200. He went out, he came back, and he said, I got 200 dead. Oh, no. And Saul just freaked. He said, God is with you. I can't kill you. Everything is going bad. And David goes, well, things are going pretty bad for me, too, Saul. I'm sorry I'm anointed and causing you trouble, but you're really causing me trouble, too. I'm sure it didn't happen just that way. B, Saul had already agreed to give his daughter to the man who killed Goliath. Remember, it was some months ago, back when Goliath was in the valley, the valley of Elah, and they're going to have this big battle, and David steps up, and here's what they tell David before the battle. The man, 1 Samuel 17 and 25, the man who kills Goliath, the king, King Saul, will give him great riches, number one. The king will give him his daughter, number two. He had two daughters. And the king would give his father's house, the champion's house, the man who killed Goliath, free tax, I mean, freedom from, exemption from taxes for the rest of their life, is the idea. Now, this is a significant false promise. These are three promises. Now, I want to ask you, have you ever been promised something by a leader, and they didn't give it to you? What did you do? Well, I went and just told everybody, or I went and did something. I'm not going to tell you what I did. You know, I don't know. I mean, these are really heavy-duty things. I'm going to give you hundreds of thousands of dollars, great riches. You're going to marry my daughter, because to marry the king's daughter is a big thing, because now you're a part of the royal family, and it's not just, marrying the daughter was a lot more than just the relationship of David and the daughter. He would, the man that married the king's daughter entered into a position of prestige in the nation that was second to none. They were now a part of the royal family, and they had instant prestige and authority in the nation. It was a great position of privilege in the social dimension, and then no taxes for the rest of your life, and your father didn't have to pay them either. The father really liked it. He said, David, this is good. Paragraph C. Marriage to the king's daughter would free a man from paying taxes for life. It would allow him to become part of the royal family. I guess I said all that, didn't I? Normally, only a wealthy man with social status could, only a wealthy man could pay the dowry to marry a king's daughter. I mean, when somebody said, well, this is going to happen in a few moments, that's why I'm pointing it out. When Saul says to David, I want you to marry my daughter, the unspoken idea is, because I guess David is assuming Saul's not going to keep his word. Saul didn't keep his word of giving his daughter free. He goes, oh, of course there's a dowry. I am the king, and she's the daughter. David could have said, now, what about that agreement we had some months ago back on the battlefield that was never brought up again? Well, you're going to have to pay for my daughter. And, I mean, to pay the dowry of a king's daughter, you have to be a very wealthy man, and you have to have a social status. And David said, I don't have the money or the status. I'm a 20-year-old. I have no money. I'm from Hooterville, Bethlehem High. That's where I graduated. I have nothing to offer you. I don't have money or status. I can't play in your league, Saul. I'm not worthy of this kind of status. We're talking about marrying the king's daughter. It has a major social economic dimension to it. Saul then, in this dialogue, and we'll read it in a moment, but I'm just going to explain it to you. Saul then ignores the promise to give his older daughter Merib to David. He gets there, and he goes, you know what, I'm not going to give Merib to you. She gives Merib to another guy, because another guy comes who can pay the price for her. And, of course, Saul knows he's got another daughter. He goes, you know, I'm going to offer my daughter Merib to David. Now, the deal is that David didn't have to pay anything, but he goes, David, it's going to cost you a little bit. And this guy Ariel comes. He goes, hey, I got a couple hundred grand. She likes me, I like her, I'm wealthy. Do I fit? And Saul goes, you fit. He takes it, and the very day that they're supposed to get married, Saul goes, sorry, David. You know, another guy came along. He's going, what? Another guy came along. What's that supposed to mean? Oh, I got another daughter. Don't worry. And Saul said, ooh, this other daughter, Michael, she's a real troublesome gal. She will cause trouble for David. He goes, this is better. He goes, she'll be a snare to him. She will get him in trouble, and she will conspire with me to kill David. I know my daughter, Michael. She's a heavy-duty gal here. She will be a snare, and she will be trouble to him all of his days. And this is exactly what I want. So Merib, I'm going to sell you for the guy who's going to pay the bigger dowry price. That's the implication of the passage. He didn't say it just like that, but that's how most of the commentators understand it. Another guy comes along and takes her away. And the idea, it's an economic deal that's going on, because the reason David said, I can't marry your daughter, was because of economic reasons. He couldn't come up with the money to pay for it. So Saul changes his mind. I'm still in paragraph C. At the last moment, when this man from a wealthy family came forth and paid the higher dowry, Saul offered his younger daughter, Michael. And now, well, first David's supposed to get the daughter free, and Saul goes, Well, you know what? I know you don't have any money. You just made a big point about you don't have money. I tell you what, what if you do an act of service for me instead of money? An act of service like what? Well, just, if you don't have the money, I could have you do a favor for me. What? I'd like you to kill 100 Philistines. Of course, for the glory of God. Kill 100 men? Huh. Okay. Now a guy whispers in David's ear, David, number one, you don't have to do this. You get the daughter free and the status in the government. And number two, you could die. These 100 Philistines are real warriors. I'm not worried about it. Let's go. And he comes back with 200 that he killed. Oh, does that totally throw Saul off? He goes, Oh no, I'm in trouble. This guy is like actually anointed. He's connected with God. D, in this season of David's life, the enemy is attacking David through Saul's jealousy. This is God's seminary. This is God's school to train David in the love of God and to train David in meekness. It was more than just training. It's actually God's safety net around David. This trouble is part of the safety net that's going to train David and protect him in meekness. God has control of the devil. He can stop him any time he wants. God killed Saul a few years later. It says in Chronicles, God killed Saul. Now, when you read the story in 1 Samuel 31, it says that the Philistines killed Saul, but 1 Chronicles 10 says God killed Saul. It says, David, it's over. I want Saul dead. I can kill Saul anytime I want to. The reason Saul's alive, David, is because you need more training. Beloved, the reason that Saul is alive in your life, because you're a David and you need more training. We all do. We get trained from now to the end. Paragraph E. Saul's initial anger grows to jealousy and suspicion. We'll read the passage. I just described the whole thing to you, but we'll just read it now. As they were coming home from the slaughter of the Philistines, verse 6 of 1 Samuel 18, the women had came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing to meet David. The women sang. Saul had slain his thousands. David his ten thousands. Saul was very angry, and the saying displeased him. And they said, we've ascribed to David, they have ascribed to David ten thousand, and they've only ascribed to me thousands. He has ten times more honor than I do. What more can he have but the kingdom? And Saul eyed him or looked on him with suspicion, with envy and suspicions. What that means, he eyed him from that day forward. Because back in 1 Samuel 15, verse 28, the prophet, just a couple chapters ago, the prophet Samuel came and said, Saul, God has torn the kingdom from you, and he's going to give the kingdom to another man, a neighbor of yours who's better than you. And for these couple years, Saul's been looking around, who is this other man who is better than me? And he hasn't seen any rival on the horizon, and surely this 20-year-old isn't the rival. And when the women say, David has killed his ten thousand, he ascribing ten times the honor and the skill and the anointing and the impact. He has ten times the anointing you do, Saul. Saul said, what more can he have but the kingdom? And he looks at him and he goes, oh no, you're the guy they prophesied way back when. And David could have done the math and says, hey Lord, why are you tipping guys off about me? Why did you prophesy to an angry demonized king he was going to have a guy taking his kingdom? I could have made my life a lot easier because you have need of training, David, and I need you under Saul. I can take care of Saul. Israel needs a righteous king with humility in his heart, and this is the means I am using to train that righteous king. I have need of Saul, that's why he's not dead. Paragraph F, Saul was attacked by a demonic spirit. It's his first act of hostility towards David. Verse 10, it says, it came the next day that a distressing spirit from God came upon Saul. God allowed this spirit, by God's permission, to have access and to stir up Saul's spirit. And David's playing the music, and there the spear was in his hand, and Saul cast the spirit. He goes, I'll pin David to the wall. How do you pin a man to the wall with a spear? That's an ugly, that's not a good picture. That has to go through the man. But David escaped his presence twice. We're talking about that day. Two times. David doesn't leave. Saul calms down a couple hours later or whatever. We don't know how much time. He throws the spear again. David says, I'm out of here. Fear set in on Saul. He felt so threatened. Now he fires David. He moves him from the royal court. He demotes him. It says in verse 12 that Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him and he departed from him. Therefore Saul removed David from his presence and made him captain over a thousand. Again, to move him from the royal court, to put him over a thousand, is to put him back on the battle lines, on the very front of the battle. In other words, so he would die. That was a demotion that he would die, that he would be killed. It says in H here. Why does one person act under demonic influence while another person walks in wisdom? Under the same pressures of promotion and mistreatment. You know, promotion is a pressure like mistreatment is. Both of them are pressures. And here's what James said. James described Saul. He goes, if you've got bitter envy and self-seeking, don't lie in your heart. Don't boast and lie against the truth of your heart. If you've got bitter envy and self-seeking, don't lie about it. Admit it because this wisdom doesn't come from heaven. This wisdom is demonic. And that's where Saul was. Saul looked at the same situation of what God was doing in David's life and because he had envy in his heart, he could only see negative and James says that's demonic. But David looked at the very same situation, verse 17, and it was the peaceable wisdom of God. It's like when we have envy and ambition in our heart, there's like a cloud over our eyes. We can't see clear and we make the stupidest mistakes and we make the craziest decision because we're under a cloud of this demonic cloud of envy and ambition. We can't think and make good decisions. And the reason David, it says four to five times in this chapter, he acted in wisdom is because his eyes were clear. He didn't have an agenda. It was easy to see the picture because he didn't want nothing from it. And when you don't want anything in the story, you're removed from it. You're connecting with God and you don't have an agenda. You can see so much clearer. The smoke is gone from your eyes. It says in paragraph I, just verse 14, David behaved wisely. The smoke was out of his eyes. The Lord was with him. Therefore, when Saul saw that he behaved wisely, Saul was more afraid of him than ever because he says he keeps making the right choices. His perspective is clear. His eyes are clear, which means his spirit is. So paragraph J, Saul offers David marriage to his oldest daughter. And the part I want to see is this. And now again, he owes David. He owes David his oldest daughter by the promise he made back at the battlefield at the Valley of Elah where he killed Goliath. So Saul goes to David, hey, here's my older daughter. You remember, it's been a while. I guess I forgot to bring it up. You've moved into the royal court here. Here, I want to give it to you as your wife. Only one small thing for her is the idea. I'd like you to fight a few battles for me. Wait, I already fought Goliath. She's mine. I have the right to this. Again, it was more of a position is what they're negotiating about. I mean, it's kind of a negative view. You know, this Merib is going, hey, what about me here? You know, I appreciate you egomaniac guys, but hey, I'm here. Hello. He says, only be valued. Fight a few battles. In other words, you know, she is my oldest daughter and it's going to cost, I am a king. What if you go to battle? In other words, I want you to die in trying this. Saul thought, why should I kill him and get everybody mad at me because everybody loves this kid. Let the hand of the Philistines kill him. You know what David says? David understand what's going on. He says his humility. He should have said bah humbug or something. He said this. So who am I? What is my life? He goes, I don't deserve to be in the royal family. How can I be the son-in-law of a king? Number one, I can't afford it. And number two, I don't come from a high family. I don't deserve to be this. I know I killed Goliath and you owe me this position, but forget it. You know what? Forget all that. I don't deserve it. It's not right. And the guys are around David going, this is amazing. David, he owes you his daughter and he's making you kill more men for it. No, forget it. I don't even, even if I kill the soldiers, I'll go kill the Philistines. I don't deserve her. This humility. Where is David getting this? Where is he connected at where he has this perspective? Most guys would be so angry. They would look at Saul and say, number one, you owe her to me for free. And number two, you're trying to kill me. And no, it's not going to happen. But David's humility comes out. Look at paragraph K. It's going to finish here in just the next two or three minutes. Paragraph K. He goes, okay. He goes, how about my other daughter, Michael? Verse 22. Saul commands his servants. He goes, go whisper in David's ear. I know, you know, he could be a little sore about the situation earlier today when I offered her a Marib and then some other guy paid the price and I called the wedding off. He goes, go whisper and say, hey, the king really likes you, Dave. Come on, marry the younger daughter. Because I skipped the verse reading it, but Saul said to himself, oh, my younger daughter's going to be a real headache, a snare to David. In other words, it's not just we'll trip him up. She will work together with me to kill David. I know her. She's a manipulator. She's the type that would give in and help me. And now the second time is some hours later. Verse 23. The Saul servants spoke to all these words. Hey, Saul likes you. And he goes, well, you know, that's a couple spears that they threw. That was kind of unnerving and getting fired from the staff. That was a little unnerving. And being asked to kill more soldiers to get Marib and then canceled out. That's a little insulting. Hmm, what's wrong with this picture? So he likes me. Yes. And he says this. David's answer. This is under the anointing of the spirit, meaning this record of his heart. David says, does it seem to you a light thing that I could be the king son-in-law? David only sees God's goodness in it instead of the rip off. This is amazing. He goes, who am I to be in the king of Israel? Wasn't so much Saul. He goes, it's the station as the king of Israel, even though it's my prophecy to be the king of Israel. But forget all that. Who am I? I don't deserve to be in the king's family, even though I know I'm going to be the king one day. But it's not right. I don't deserve it. He has this outrageous understanding of what the truth is about God's goodness in his life. And then Saul says, well, you've got to go kill 100 guys, and he kills 200. Let's go to Roman numeral five. I talk a little bit. I'll skip it, but I just wanted to point it out to you, those that have the notes. And you can get the notes on the internet if you want them. Just talking about the dilemma of when circumstances change. I don't mean they change once. It goes from good to bad. We can deal with that. If it goes from bad to good, we can really deal with that. So it's changing every other day. It's the person, I mean, the dilemma. I don't know what to expect, and that's the exact dilemma. That's the exact dilemma that God wanted David in. The only way David could live with stability was to hang on to God, not look at the circumstances. And we want to know what we can expect. I've got to know, am I in or am I out? And the Lord tells David, I don't want you to know that. I want you to get your stability from me. Ah! We would much rather get our stability from the circumstances to know if it's good or bad, and not have to have something powerful happening on the inside. And that's what that page is about. Let's go to the last page, page 7. I'm just going to point it out to you. You can read it on your own. I talk about the free spirit that David has. I define that in the top of page 7, paragraph C. A free spirit and a guarded spirit. You can read it on your own. A lot of people are happy to live with a guarded spirit. Most people live with a guarded spirit. An anxious, self-absorbed, weighed down with fear of loss and rejection, calculating everything. David had a free spirit, C1. He had this cheerful freedom, this generosity towards enemies and friends because he was connected with God and he knew God was involved with him. And he didn't feel poor because he was connected to a God who was smiling on him. Beloved, there's nothing more powerful than a free spirit. Again, you can read more of that if that interests you. And then at the end of the page, I talk about four of the reasons, which I won't go into, why David had the four foundations. He had this grateful spirit. And in one sentence, he believed he was getting a better deal than he deserved. Through all this dilemma, at the end of the day, his friend might have said, David, how are you doing with all this? David says, I'm so far ahead of the game from what I deserve. I don't have to be the king's daughter, son-in-law. I don't have to be in the king's house. I don't care what my position is. I am connected to God, and God is so nice to me, I don't care if I live in the field. Me and him are connected, and it's working. That's right, man. I'm a happy camper. Amen. Let's stand.