Mike Bickle discusses the life of David, emphasizing his unique relationship with God as a man after His own heart. He highlights David's journey from a humble shepherd to a king, illustrating the importance of intimacy with God, the necessity of studying Scripture, and the resilience required in leadership. Bickle encourages young people to pursue a deep understanding of God's word, using David's life as a model for faithfulness and repentance. He also contrasts David's heart with Saul's failures, showcasing the significance of obedience and divine calling in leadership.

Look at 1 Samuel chapter 16 is a good beginning place. I don't know exactly where we'll start, but for those that have the notes that are taking the course, go ahead and turn to page one. Before we do that, Justin Rizzo, I'm gonna embarrass you. You hate it when I talk to you. 19, are you 19? 19, he's been here a year, and he led worship tonight, and been here a year. 19 years old. But he is, as I was over there, just listening to him, and watching him. He's in the house of prayer. He is a true Anna, and I know he's here most mornings when I get here, and I just asked Misty, I go, when does he go? She goes, he leaves, cause I get here, you know, six o'clock in the morning. He's here most mornings early. I don't know exactly when, I don't pay that much attention, but I know it's early, right at that time. I said, when does he go home? He's always here when I leave, and she said, he's here normally until 11 or 12 every night. She goes, he is a true Anna, a 19 year old boy Anna in the house, and hours and hours a day, he intercedes and worships, intercedes and worships, and it's, and again, everyone's not called to that. Matter of fact, most people are not called to that, but a couple million are. You know, out of a billion in the body of Christ, a couple million are. It's a very small percent. We're not, our goal isn't to get everybody to do it, and just as he was leading worship, I was just saying, if there, if I've seen the heart of a young David, well, of course, there's several of them. I could name a number of young Davids, male and female, but Justin, that spirit's on you, and it is really, it's a powerful testimony of the grace of God that God has 19 year olds that live that kind of lifestyle in this culture. That's amazing. That's intense. Anyway, I just wanted to say that. He doesn't, he hates the attention, and doesn't like it, but I'm not really doing it for his sake. I'm doing it for other 19 year olds, because I'm just using you, Justin, to tell others that, you know, this is a way people can live. This is not like out of reach. This is doable for 19 year olds. I tell you what the key is, I don't want to get into a sermon. Some folks just sit for long hours, which, you know, I don't, you know, I'm not commenting on that, but if you fill your heart with the word, you take those long hours, and you study the word, and you meditate, you can go long, I can go X amount of time, just, you know, just roll me in God. But if I put fuel, if I put fuel into the engine called studying the word, and meditating on it, I can go to the full limit of my, till I fall asleep. I mean, your soul can stay active, because the word of God, it's like sparks entering your soul. And I see lots of folks around IHOP, and they try to go five or 10 hours to be an Anna with a closed Bible, or no Bible study plan. And they don't like, they're not reading. I've, something I've done for years and years, I want to challenge you to do this. I have had two basic approaches in the general sense, because I've done some in-depth studies as well, but I, different seasons in my life. I started this when I was 18 years old. Some guy told me to do this, and I did it. I read 10 chapters a day, every day. If you do, if you read 10 chapters a day, six days a week, you read the whole New Testament once a month. And I did that for a long time, because one of the biggest reasons people don't read the Bible, they go, I don't know where to start. Good, start where you left off yesterday. That's what the guy told me. And, and I would do 10 chapters a day. And if I came up short of 10, if I like, if something happened, I only read eight, I still marked off the 10. And the next day I started where the 10 was. You know, I just, I just charted it out and did it. And it was amazing how much more I read the Bible, because I knew where to start. Galatians three, because that's where I left off. And I didn't even have a clue what Galatians was about. It didn't even matter, because as I read it more and more, the pieces begin to get together. I mean, you don't have to understand it until you get all the start. It's my point. And you know, lots of the verses I didn't, couldn't make any sense of them. But I tell you about every fifth or 50th verse, I don't know, an arrow would strike me. And I'd go, whoa. And I didn't even know what the verses in between meant. But I just know the Holy Spirit is so jealous to give it to us. So beloved, when you're coming into IHOP, or you don't have to be in here to do it, read 10 chapters a day. I did that for years. I read the whole New Testament once a month for years. And for a year or two, I don't really remember how long, but for a good chunk of time in my 20s, I read it twice a month. I read 20 chapters a day, read 10 in the morning, 10 in the evening. It takes a while, but I locked them, I built my whole life around it and read the New Testament twice a month. Because I heard that somebody did that. And I didn't want to outdo them. That wasn't the point. I said, if it's doable, I want to do it. And I did it for a couple of years or a year or two or something. And I cultivated such a love in my heart for the word. So when you come in here, fill your engine with fuel. Don't just go just you as long as you and God can do, just one-on-one dialogue. You get his written word into your spirit and it creates a tremendous dialogue dimension. It is fantastic. The other way is that study books of the Bible. I take one book of the Bible. My goal was to study every book of the Bible, not in depth, but where I broke down every chapter and I've taught on it before. And I did every book of the Bible between the age 18 and 30, nearly. And I did a couple of them afterwards, but I did most all the books of the Bible as well. And I just got a couple of commentaries out. I said, okay, I'm gonna study Galatians, whatever it's about. And you know, just a little bit. And then I studied Philippians, the whole four chapters. Then I studied Ephesians, not very deep, but I had a little commentary. And I've got a series back there called The Power of a Focused Life, where I talk about a Bible study action plan, like how you can actually do it. I give about 10 points of what you do. You get a pen, you get a paper, you get this, you write down, you journal a little bit, and I give you a little action plan because there's more folks sitting around IHOP who are not at all maximizing the fullness of the time they put into here because their Bibles are closed and they don't know what to do. And if you pick one of the books of the Bible, go get that Bible study plan or get another one. I don't care which one you get, just get one and start doing it because the Holy Spirit will meet you. Or if you don't wanna do a book at a time, but I challenge you, young people. I said, I am not going to quit this till I've studied every single book of the Bible, including Leviticus, every single one. And this will be funny to you. You know what the one book I didn't study? The one I did not make? Psalms of Solomon. I did not. It was so weird. I read it, I went, this is so weird. I don't even wanna study it. I mean, how do you figure that out? And then the Lord sent that arrow. Hey, little guy, you're gonna study that book. That was the one I didn't study. I might even did Job and Leviticus. I went through them. Job was pretty exciting, actually. But when you're first young and you look at Job, it looks like, ugh. But if you get in, it's like, whoa, Job is awesome. So is Leviticus. Leviticus is really good. Really is. I'm being serious, it is. It's very moving. I mean, it'll just rip your heart apart if you just get a little bit of understanding on it. But anyway, get going. I wanna encourage every one of you, every one of you in this room to get a vision. In the next five to seven, 10 years, you're gonna study all 66 books of the Bible, or you're gonna read the New Testament once a month for the next five years, something like that. Beloved, this is so doable. I just kinda preached a sermon, but because it's announcements, sort of, it didn't really count as a sermon. So I still got a whole one still ready. Anyway, I feel burdened about this. Anyway, Justin, good job. No, I was just picturing, because I see him long hours over there, praying and reading and doing it. I go, oh God, this is a prototype young man right here. Lord, we bless you for the word of God. And we ask you to set, not just us on fire, set the body of Christ all over the dull, distracted Western church. Stir us up, help us, Lord. Don't leave us like we are. Lord, I ask that you'd set the fires in the church. Lord, I ask that you'd set a fire in your church. All over Europe, all over North America, just all over the West, Lord, this pleasure-saturated, diminished, distracted, dull-spirited Christians, you would set them on fire. And you would get the rust out of the pipes and ignite their engines and show them their destiny. And I ask you to do that, in Jesus' name. And Lord, bless the word right now, in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay. Here we are, Life of David. It's the course, it's session number one. We're gonna look at some leadership lessons as well as the pursuit of intimacy. We're gonna do it for 10 weeks. And then maybe a little bit in the semester break, we'll probably go a little bit further in it because you can't get very far in the Life of David in 10 weeks because there's so much material. Okay, room number one, introducing this course, how we're gonna approach it. We got three different angles we're looking at. First of all, we're gonna be looking at just a little bit of the historical perspective of every now and then we'll go back and we'll do it in this session in a minute and look at what came before David in terms of the historical perspective. And we're also going to look at what comes after David. David was the first millennial theologian in the Bible, a major one. He was the first one that wrote chapters that described the messianic kingdom on the earth. And matter of fact, interestingly enough, it's called by God, the throne of David. I mean, how would you like, I mean, Vernon, how would you like the Bible to have the ministry of Vernon? You know, and everybody was gonna be doing it. I mean, David, his name, he's probably going, Lord, you know, he's probably like Justin. You know, David's like Justin is what I'm trying to say instead of the other way around. You know, I don't put my name on it, but I mean, the Lord actually not only gave David revelation about what's coming, but he named the throne and put his name on it, the throne of David, that your seed, the Messiah, the God-man would sit on David's throne. I mean, what an interesting way to say it. And so we're gonna look at a little historical perspective backwards, and we're gonna look at a little bit of, we're gonna go forward as well. Okay, second thing, we're gonna look at some leadership lessons in the life of David, and especially from various episodes in his life. Now, if you've read the life of David a little bit, you know these chapters, but if it's brand new, you're gonna find the life of David in 1 and 2 Samuel. It's the long version, 1 and 2 Samuel. It used to be one book, and then, you know, they broke it down and made it two books, but it was initially one scroll, one text, 1 and 2 Samuel, and the David part doesn't really take off until chapter 16 of 1 Samuel 1. So if you read 1 Samuel, I mean, 1 Samuel 16. So if you read 1 Samuel, you read one and two, you go, where's David? You read chapter three, chapter four, chapter five. Hey, I thought David was in 1 Samuel. You're not gonna really run into him heavy till chapter 16, and then he's clear to the end. So if you want the long version, read the 1 and 2 Samuel. If you want the Reader's Digest version, then read 1 Chronicles. 1 Chronicles tells the same story in an abbreviated way. And so it's 1 Chronicles tells the same story, just a short version of it. And so you can, but you wanna read both of it because you put them together and you get pieces of information that the other one doesn't have. So we're gonna look at leadership lessons. We're gonna look at David, the leader. Now, you don't have to be leading a nation to wanna understand leadership lessons. You can be leading a home group. You can be leading a business. You can be leading a family. You can be leading an outreach in the neighborhood. You can be leading a three-member Bible study. Leadership is all over life. We need leadership lessons. So don't think, well, I don't think I'm gonna be a king of a nation, so why do I need to know the leadership lessons of David? There's more leadership that you're involved in that you might not call leadership. Okay, and then C, the third angle. First, we're gonna look at historical perspective. I mean, not necessarily first. We're gonna interweave these things throughout all the sessions here. We're gonna look at leadership lessons from the various episodes of his life. We're gonna take a bunch of his episodes and go verse by verse right through them. And if we're not done at the 10 weeks and we got a semester break, we'll probably just go on for a little while because I'm sure we won't be done in 10 weeks because there's just too much rich material. And then C, we're gonna look at the lessons from David's heart. Now, you find the lessons of David's heart especially in the book of Psalms because in Chronicles, I mean, in Samuel and Chronicles, somebody else is telling the story. It's called 1 Samuel, but one of the popular ideas is that the prophet Gad wrote it and nobody knows for sure, but that's one, that's a, I think, a worthy theory. You don't know for sure if he did, but Gad was one of the young prophets under David that was younger than him. David had an old prophet when he was young, Samuel. And then David had, I said it wrong, Gad, who was a peer prophet with him. And then David had Nathan, who was a young man a few years later. So you get three main prophets. He had several more, but in the life of David, you got Samuel, he's the older prophet. Samuel, David's a young man. Gad, they're peers. They're, you know, the same 10 or 15, 20 year range. And then Nathan is a younger prophet that, and David's an older king. And so that was really tough. When younger prophet goes to this mighty king and says, you are the man, you've been in sin. That was a really tough order for Nathan to do because David was dear to Nathan and it was a whole difficult situation. But anyway, one of the common ideas is that Gad wrote this. I don't know if it's true, but that gives you a little idea of it. But anyway, 1 and 2 Samuel in Chronicles, it's another person talking about David. Psalms is David talking about David. Chronicles in Samuel is the story. Psalms is the heart response. And David wrote about two thirds of the Psalms. There's 150 Psalms. He didn't write quite a hundred, but that's just a good round number, nearly a hundred. And so we got, and we can't be sure of that a hundred percent because not all of them are named, but they seem so Davidic in its language that most people agree that he did actually write them. And so nearly a hundred of them. So we have a hundred windows into the man that God called the man after my own heart. Beloved, we want to read the Psalms. We want to read, here's what's interesting about the Psalms is how weak the man after God's own heart and how frail the man after God's own heart was. Yet was the man for God's own heart. We get this Hollywood version of David having this sterling life of total victory and no setbacks. And the glory of David is not that he never stumbled, is that when he stumbled, he had, I'm sure I'm exaggerating a little bit, but he had almost no probation time. That was the glory of David's life. When David hit the wall and his two major strongholds that he stumbled in, when you find it, is fear and lust, sexual lust. There's lots of lust. He stumbled in the lust area, that's magnified in the Bathsheba. That's not like it was his whole life story. And he struggled with the fear, particularly in his cave of Adullam years. And it's picked up in the Psalms a bunch of times. And so not that he had those issues in every season of his life, but those are the two that are most magnified in terms of the story of them. But the power of David is that when he stumbled, he rose up, he pushed to lead, he meant it. And he didn't spend an hour in probation. More people spend more time trying to negotiate with God to jumpstart their fiery zeal. I'd say it's very, very common for all of us. But David had this resiliency to get right back. I love you and going hard. I mean, you know, he's the kind of guy, he's on his 21 day fast, it's day four, he eats a pizza. He says, you know what? I blew it, I'm back on the fast starting right now. I'm back hard. And he just said, forget it, I'm just going hard. I mean, he just, you know, not that that would be a sin. That's not my point is thinking of sins, but my point is he wouldn't even miss a beat. He just went hard. And that's an amazing ability. We wanna catch that. But when you read the book of Psalms, you find out, I mean, if you really read them careful, really read them careful, I know some of you have, it is almost shocking what David says about how low he went a few times. You go, no, you know, no way. I remember the time when I did this, and I remember it was a September 85. I just remember it. I mean, May five, not that it matters, but I just remember doing it. I took the 10 different sins in David's life that are in 1 Samuel and laid them out. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. And I laid, told, you know, three minutes on each one of them. And there's a few I skipped and because of the short of time and it was shocking. People just could not imagine a guy that celebrated, made that many mistakes and had that much failure in his life. I mean, it was so bad. They were thinking about censoring his material in the children's church curriculum. You know, they said, get him out of here. You know, we don't want David's stuff in here, but we held him at bay and we kept David in. And I said, he repented, he's clean, he's straight. You know, I mean, it's serious what some of the stuff David got into when he, mostly when he got into despair, when he got into depression. Okay, so we're gonna, the book of Psalms, you can't get the life of David just from Samuel and Chronicles because that's another man telling the story, Psalms. Wow, but you can't get it all from Psalms because when you read Psalms, he doesn't give all the details. You read Samuel and you get the storyline, you go, wow, and it really magnifies what's going on. Okay, what do we wanna look at in terms of David's heart? And the reason I'm giving you this little tip off here as a grid as you're reading it, I want you to look for these things as you're reading it. Because a course like this, the best we can do is familiarize you with the details of the story. Because when you get familiar with the details of the story, then you wanna read it. And then when you wanna read it, the Holy Spirit touches you. I can't really take you very far, no teacher can. If I can get you a little bit familiar to where you are not afraid to read the Old Testament, 1 Samuel, never read it. Oh, that's Old Testament, that's by Leviticus. You know, Leviticus might get on it. You know, I'm not gonna read it. I mean, many people have never read it ever, never. It's Old Testament, it's like those long books. I'm not gonna read those, those are hard, aren't they? No, no, they're very interesting stories. I mean, it's the greatest stories you could imagine. I mean, the storyline twist and turns and surprises and wow. So my desire is to give you a familiarity that gives you a little bit of confidence and these notes to provide you a little roadmap to where you will read the life of David over and over and over. I mean, if you read the life of David, let's just say this 10 chapters a day, Dale, you could read the life of David, first and second Samuel, every single week for 10 weeks. And it would just absolutely, you know, instead of the 10 chapters, like I said a few minutes ago, right through the New Testament once a month, but just say you just take the next 10 weeks, you're gonna read the life of David all the way through. You can easily do it in a week. It will do so much to your spirit. There are two books that I'm going on a little bunny trail here, the life of David and the book of Revelation for 30 years. The first time I taught the life of David straight through was 1976. You know why I taught it through? Because I was 20 years old and I heard a guy teach on it for about 10 sessions, just like some of you 20. When I was 21, I was pastoring a church and I only had three sermons. I mean, I didn't have any sermons. And so they wanted me to preach every single week, a couple of times. I thought, guys, I don't have any sermons. You don't know, this is not gonna work. And I had like 20 page notes for every sermon. I mean, I had a 30 minute sermon. A 30 minute sermon was hard. Now it's hard to keep it 30 minutes, but then I couldn't do it because I didn't know enough Bible verses and I have a 20 pages of notes. And, but the only thing I needed to do was to do the life of David because I heard a 10 session series on it. So when I was 20, so I got the guy's tapes out, took them word for word and preached the whole life of David when I was 21 years old. But what it did to me, to this church, this church loved it. And, or so they told me they did, but it's such an interesting story. But what it did, it changed me because teaching it, a little 50 member, 100 member church out in the country, but I got lost in it. I got so enamored with it. I got so connected with it that I just been teaching it since, that's almost 30 years ago, just right, just for the years. And what I would do, I've been on a lot of overseas trips and this is something I've done for, I don't know how many, maybe 25 of them or whatever, I don't know the exact number. But almost every time when I go on an overseas trip, I read the whole life of David, first and second Samuel in entirety, both ways. I read it over and I read the whole thing coming back. And you can get it all done on a transatlantic flight. If you're going to New Zealand, you can throw in Revelation as well. Cause that's the other book I would do it. And I would read all the book of Revelation at one setting. I did it hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of times. I'd read David and Revelation. And so, and then I got so jazzed by doing that. And I thought, I don't have an overseas trip for a year. So I would take a Saturday or a Friday and I would talk to Diane about this. And I would read the whole life of David, first and second Samuel from eight o'clock Saturday morning to eight o'clock Saturday night and take a few breaks. Beloved, it is doable. I did this in my twenties and thirties and it would just jazz me. I mean, I would be so excited. I was just out of control at church on Sunday. You know, they would, I just threw my caution to the wind, forgot my sermon for the next day. Just read the life of David all day. And of course I preached on it the next day. Undoubtedly, I'm sure I did. But my point is, is that get energetic about this. Don't like come to a thing, take three notes, go back and next week, the first time you hear about David is next Friday. Read the whole thing. I mean, read it every day for seven days. You could literally read the life of David every day for seven days, but let me just downgrade it, say once a week. But you really could. You got plenty of time. Many of you do. And you got, you won't be able to do this, that and the other, but you can do it. I mean, everyone's got 24 hours a day. And lock into it, lock into it. It changed my life. I cannot get this book to change you. I can get you familiar with it and get you intrigued by it. And I can use my little story here to some of you go, well, if he can, I can. If he can do it, I can do it. And it's not a one-upsmanship. It's like, if a guy can do it, well, then a guy can do it. I can do it then. And beloved, it will rock your world if you do it. And at first you won't know the names. You'll think, you know, who's Abimelech? You know, who's that guy? You know, who's, who's Abathar? You know, you might not know him. Get the AW Pink, $1. Get up to the side and he'll tell you who everybody is and just read it right through. And you'll absolutely love it. Okay, so now I'm giving you this roadmap of what to look for. C, in the lessons from David's heart. First rule, historical perspective, lessons of leadership, and then number C, letter C is lessons from his heart. I'm gonna point you at four things. These are the four things I look for all the time whenever I read the life of David straight through. And I always have a notebook. You gotta journal. You gotta, I mean, I don't journal forever, but I write little one-sentence things here and there because I wanna read the whole thing. Number one, I wanna know what David saw about God's heart. I wanna, you know, like David would say something like, in your presence is the fullness of joy. He'd write, David thought, and rightfully so, God was happy. I thought, wow. I would, you'll get more from Psalms about the revelation of God's heart. So note anything that talks about the range of the full range in the scripture of the personality of God. David was a theologian of the beauty of God. And you wanna, and the affections of God. You wanna be, you know, I'll say it strong. You wanna be an expert on the affections of God. You really do. You wanna turn this off, turn that off, and downsize this and downsize that and make time for the word. And be, I mean, experts on the affections of God from the scripture. You want to be, why not? You got one human spirit. You got one time on the earth. There's one Bible, one Holy Spirit. He likes you, go for it. Just get rid of so much of the playing around and this and that and the other, and just shut some things down, turn some things off, sell some things, and start filling your spirit with the word of God. It will make you so full of fire in your spirit. And a number of you are doing that right now. But some of the others, and I'm not saying that as a rebuke. I'm saying it as a, there is a goldmine waiting. There is a gigantic surprise waiting for you if you'll go with it, if you'll go with it, but you gotta go with it because no one can do it for you and no one's gonna, it's not just gonna make it, it's not gonna just fall from heaven. Why not you be a theologian of the beauty of God? Why not you? Why somebody else? Why not you? Well, the second thing is what David saw about himself. Because when you see God different, you see yourself different. David saw the beauty that he possessed before God. Like when David, like one example, and there's so many examples that I can't, I don't wanna go on bunny trails on each one of them, but in Psalm 60, verse five, for instance, David refers to himself when he's talking to the Lord and he calls himself your beloved. He's talking about himself. He says, Lord, when your beloved prays, instead of saying, Lord, when I pray, I mean, David saw himself as the beloved of God. He's very similar, very similar to John the Apostle in the New Testament. Very, very similar. And so you wanna note that. You wanna see who you are. I mean, David's the one that said that, I mean, I just couldn't deal with it years ago. I mean, David so threw me off in the, you know, I studied it because it was such an interesting story when I was 20 and I didn't have any of the sermons, so I started teaching on it. But I got, I was so confused at first because there were these paradoxes that I could not reconcile because David did these wild sins and then had this confidence that God liked him. And I went, wait a second, something's messed up here. And how, you know, David's off or God wasn't looking or someone recorded it wrong. I mean, this can't be true. It didn't dawn on me, maybe I was wrong. You know, it finally, I connected the dots and found that I was the one that was wrong. But I, you know, it was like the, one of the heaviest ones that I struggled with was Psalm 18, verse 19, Psalm 18, verse 19 on that. And we're going to really look at it in depth when we get there. But in Psalm 18, verse 19, David had just sinned for 16 months in compromise and ziklag. And you, everyone, you want to learn ziklag. You don't want to live in ziklag, but you want to know the story because God will always burn your ziklag. Anyway, David's in compromise. First Samuel 27 to 30, it's a real key section. He's in ziklag, he's 16 months, he's in compromise. And God, God burns it. It gets burned. It's under judgment and the enemy attacks it. And David's about wiped out. I mean, it's incredibly interesting story. And the day that David, the day it happens, he writes Psalm 18, it says. He says, he wrote this on that day. And it says, God delivered me. And then the question of the hour is, why did God deliver you, David? I picture some, you know, USA Today reporters saying, David, you just escaped, your city got burned. You've been out of the country for 16 months. And you know, rumor is you've been in sin out of the country because ziklag is not in Israel. It's on the enemy territory. You've been in compromise for 16 months and your city burned. Boy, aren't you glad that you escaped with your life? Yeah, why did you? And David says, he goes, why did God do this? I mean, why did he save your life? You know, you've been in sin and your city got burned. And David says, God saved me because he delivered me from that situation because he delights in me so much. And when I first read that, I went, nah, David, you're totally missing it. I know the ziklag story, David. You were there. I wasn't exactly there, but I've read it a bunch of times. I preached it a couple of times. And there is no way you should be saying this, David. It's not good for the young people to hear this. Of course, I was 21 at the time, but I said, I couldn't make any sense of that. I said, how could you have the audacity to say, why not say God delivered me because God's kind and has mercy? Why could, how could you dare say he delivered me because he delights in me? And David's answer is, I really repented. See, we repent and want to go on probation, but when for six months or a year, when we repent, it's like the electricity, it's plugged in and it's flowing. I don't mean your soul is renewed fully, but the connect is there. You're there. You don't wait, you know, three months to get the connect. You're connected that second if you want to be. And David knew that. He said, I was unplugged. I plugged that thing in and I said, I pushed delete. I am on fire for God at four o'clock in the afternoon. I repented at 3.50. I am on fire and me and God are going hard and he delights in me. He's crazy about me and I'm anointed. And here I go, man, that guy, anyway, I was leery of that, but I, you know, I was teaching it through. And anyway, the way David saw himself is just incredible. But when you know the story in which that Psalm was written in. Okay, the next thing you want to study is how David saw others, how David saw others. Oh, it's fantastic. The enlightened paradigm of David towards others. And David didn't only see people good. Cause you know, the natural thing is, well, David saw people good. You know, it's in Psalm 16, verse three, when he says, tells the Lord, he goes, the saints are the most excellent ones of the earth. He did have this. He had the reason he saw weak people in a favorable light because he saw himself as a weak man in a favorable light in God. And when you love yourself, you can actually love other people. You know, I've said this a hundred times but it's so appropriate. I'm going to say it again. I heard somebody say, a preacher, I forgot who, but the lady was saying, Lord, I want to love my neighbor as I love myself. And the Lord spoke to the lady and says, that's the problem. You do. You hate yourself. That's why you hate your neighbor. You do love your neighbor, just like you love you. It's exactly the way you love yourself. That's how you're treating them. That's why you're screaming at them all the time. And it is impossible to look at another person with a exuberant goodness and a benevolent enthusiasm, seeing their weakness, unless you can do it with yourself. You can't do that until you see God different. And you can hear every be patient sermons that you can imagine. You can hear them 50 weeks in a row and you will not be patient. You will not have a benevolent enthusiasm that's resilient in the presence of a man's weakness or a woman's weakness until you have the paradigm in your own soul that in your weakness, God's enthusiastic towards you. When it connects with you and God, you feel very different about the weakness of other people. I don't just mean you're patient with them, not to get heavy with them. You actually can have genuine enthusiasm about them being dynamic in God and real and deep, even though their sin was just yesterday. They can get out of it and go hard. Now here's the deal. Lots of folks kind of take this and they kind of edit it down to where they want the no probation, but they don't want to fully repent. David really repented when he repented. It doesn't mean he never fell back into it, but when he fell back into it, he really repented. So I'm not offering you the David confidence, but with a half-hearted approach to sin. I'm talking about the David confidence. You blew it yesterday. I mean, you're on fire back. I mean, within 10 minutes. I don't even mean wait a day, but I'm talking about real repentance, the real David thing. You can't take half of David and leave the other half behind. They have to go together. They have to go together. And when, anyway, the way David saw others, but David didn't just see others in that positive way. He saw the wicked in whom God's soul hates, it says. David says this. It says it every time. God's soul hates the violent man. So that's in the Bible. And God's not apologizing for it. God knows something about the violent man. When he calls a violent man, he's talking about something very specifically. And his soul hates that. Not just the sin. He says he hates the violent man. The reprobate man who goes in his ways and hates God. There is a war and God is not ashamed to hold his line in the war. Now that we don't have any theology for that because we don't understand. Because we don't understand the intensity of the love. We can't understand the intensity of the negative as well. But David had a revelation of both sides. I mean, you look at him, he goes to two extremes, but there's no contradiction in his soul. He's clear. He's bold about what he understands. Okay, and the fourth thing that I love about David, or I study, I look for it. It's these four things. I mean, I bring this grid to every Bible study. I mean, maybe I'll skip one, but almost always, I read the whole life of David, but I got four things on my mind. And then a couple other little side things. But these four things, I wanna know God's heart, what David saw about his own heart, what David saw about God's heart, what David saw about other people, good and bad. And I wanna see about how David viewed circumstances. David viewed circumstances entirely different than most people do. What you think would have excited him, he seemingly had no interest. And what do you think he might not have been interested in, he was interested in. It's like, where is this guy coming from? The way he handled pressure and prosperity was exemplary. He had a different paradigm of prosperity and a different paradigm of pressure than most believers I know. And prosperity, he wanted it, but it's not something that tripped him. There's no record of prosperity changing him. David was the same man in the royal robes as when he did not have the royal robes. He was the exact same man in the cave of Adullam as he was with the royal robes on the throne. He had this, he wanted, he lived before the audience of one, the audience of God. So when he had all the wells, it did not move him because he was dancing before the audience of one. That's the music he was dancing to. And it's amazing the way he viewed circumstances. But when we lock in to God and the view of God's heart and the way God views us, we then look at circumstances very differently. And of course, then the key is, is to make an application of them. Okay, now the next thing, we're gonna give a real brief historical context here. When is the life of David? When is it? Well, let's do the whole picture and we're gonna do it in broad strokes. But I have to know where things fit or I get confused by it. Like way back when, when I first started teaching the life of David, I mean, literally 29 years ago. And I had to know, now is it David before or after he liked? And is Elijah before or after Moses? I never could figure it out. So I always wanted to know that stuff. And so, typically on handouts, I do it every now and then, I just give a whole overview. First, there's Adam, 4,000 years BC. Then there's Abraham, 2,000 years later. Then there's Jesus, 2,000 years later. So there's Adam, skip 2,000 years. Abraham, skip 2,000 years, Jesus. Now, right between Abraham and Jesus, go right in the middle, 1,000 years, that's David. And so, I mean, it's just nice that the Lord ordered history in a way that's easy to remember. I appreciate that. And I have a couple of other key dates, the fall of the Northern Kingdom and the fall of the Jerusalem Temple, Nebuchadnezzar. And anyway, these dates here that I have on that are really important dates for you to know. Really, they are. They're just standard Bible dates. But here you got David. David's 1,000 years before Christ and 1,000 years after Abraham. And Moses is right in the middle between David and Abraham, right at the 500 mark. And so, I mean, it really lines up. If you don't have the notes, you're not maybe following me if you're new at this. But if you do have the notes there, you can read it. Okay, let's go to the next one. Roman numeral three. It's important to understand Saul's rejection. Saul's rejection. And that's in 1 Samuel 13. For those who don't have the notes, because we have the text here for the students, there's two key episodes in Saul's rejection. The reason we need to know Saul's rejection, because David is meant to be a contrast to Saul. David and Saul are dynamic contrasts as the prototypes of what to be and not to be as leaders of God's people. And they're back to back and they're meant to be in contrast. It's interesting that God used this demonized king as the seminary to train David in. When God's raising up a David, he always raises up a Saul to train David. And everybody, not everybody, but most people wanna be a David, but they don't wanna be trained by Saul. They wanna be David, but they want all the rights. And if you're a David, then I assure you there's a demonized Saul in your future somewhere in your journey, in your journey. Absolutely, absolutely. You will be trained under the tutelage of the pattern of the man after God's own heart. And so God, anyway, the story of Saul is so dynamic, but let's stay on the David one. But after you get the David one familiar with it, you wanna go ahead and go back a few chapters and get the Saul one in too, because it is a really interesting story. And there's two basic episodes in Saul's life where he blows it. He fails in a way that disqualifies him. It disqualifies him as the leader of Israel. And those two episodes is Saul's sin at Gilgal in 1 Samuel 13. And in 1 Samuel 13, what's happening is that the Philistines are coming and they have 30,000, or the enemy has 30,000, and Israel only has 3,000. So it's 10 to one odds. Now, here's the problem. I mean, here's the point of this. If you only read 1 Samuel 13, you won't get this. You gotta put down in the notes, because I don't have it, 1 Samuel 10, verse eight. The prophet Samuel, the prophet Samuel in chapter 10, verse eight says to Saul, when you go to that battle, wait for me to come and offer the sacrifice. That's a critical command, because it's a few chapters later. He says, wait for me. And I gotta offer that sacrifice. So then what happens, Saul gets there and it's 10 to one odds. You gotta get, you know, you think, well, Saul's against, you know, against the odds here, 30,000 to 3,000. And here's what's happening. The enemy is gathering and the people are scattering. And what you do as a leader when the enemy gathers and your people scatter is the measure of who you are as a leader. And it's an absolute test. Everybody, every leader in this room knows what it's like. And the enemy comes in a dozen different, sometimes economically, sometimes, there's all kinds of ways. But when the enemy mounts up and starts coming around and all the people say, you know, bro, I feel the release to go down the road to somewhere else. I mean, the Lord's just been leading me and my family. I've heard that many times and everybody has. The measure of who you are in God is never more apparent than that moment right there. And so what happens is that Saul acts in expediency. He, you might not grasp the seriousness of it. I don't wanna take a lot of time to paint it, but I'm just telling you, it's very serious. And those of you that have studied this for a while, you know, Saul offers the sacrifice. A king cannot function like a priest. It is a disaster when a king steps across the boundary lines of God's economy, and that's a giant point. And if it's new to you, again, I'm not gonna take time to explain it, but it's a big one. And Saul knew it. And you might not catch that when you're reading it, but Saul knew it, it was a big one. And Samuel came to him and he says, what have you done? He goes, you offered the sacrifice. He goes, you're a king, you're not a priest. When Uzziah did it, a king who offered the sacrifice, his arm got struck with leprosy on the spot. God struck him right there. When Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire in Leviticus 9, they were struck dead. And my point is God is zealous about the priesthood, really zealous. And so you don't have to understand all the points. Saul knows he stepped over the line in a serious act of disobedience. And here's what Saul's answer was. In essence, it was expedient. The enemy was gathering and the people were scattering and the people and I and what, and Saul looked and the prophet Samuel looked him right in the eyes and says, so that's the kind of king you are. When the chips are down, you change the rules. You only need God to help your popularity and momentum. And he goes, oh no, don't do that. What was I supposed to do? Have a little mercy on me. He goes, basically your role before God is nothing more than some three ring circus act to keep people following you and thinking you're awesome. He goes, that is not why you're appointed to be king. And so many people in ministry, they think their ministry is about them getting honor and building and getting a little support and a little, you know, I built this church and I got a retirement. It has nothing to do with that. And that's the spirit of Saul. It's very, very common. And the Lord allows opportunities for the enemy to gather and the people to scatter. And do we do the expedient? And Saul did it. And it was a serious one more than might meet the eye. Well, then a few years later, he does the same thing with the Amalekites in 1 Samuel 15. And God told him in 1 Samuel 15, in verse two, he says, you have to punish the Amalekites because the Malekites ambushed Israel. The Malekites crossed over a line in my economy some years ago. And you are my appointed vessel, Saul, to exterminate them. And he says, you know, you blew the other one, but you are my vessel. He says, trust me, thus says the Lord, the Amalekites have stepped over a line you know nothing about, Saul. It's serious and it's important to me. You must execute judgment. Saul got there. He says, you're to exterminate the best of everything. You are not to keep anything. Saul got there, defeated them by the blessing of God. Then he kept all the good stuff. He kept the money, and then the prophet, Samuel goes, what are you doing here? You're keeping all the good things. He goes, well, I didn't want to really like burn it. I mean, it's so good. Well, Saul, God said you had to. Well, you know, boys will be boys. You know, what's the big deal? You know, it's gold. I mean, what does God, God doesn't need gold. I mean, it's that spirit of expediency and it's called partial obedience. Partial obedience. It's this, he had no zeal for that which God called sacred. It was minimized in his thinking, and David is the opposite. David has this heightened zeal for what God cared about, and it didn't matter to David how much it cost him. He went to the nth degree to pay double and triple to make sure God was happy, and Saul went the other way. They are meant to be understood in contrast with each other. Okay, Roman numeral four. I have just a bunch of verses here. We're just starting off here, and we'll get right into it next week, but I just wanted to launch off and out on it and have you, you know, get the roadmap and have the areas that you're gonna be looking at. Let's look at just some areas. I mean, let's look at what the Bible says, the biblical profile of David, what the Bible says that God thinks about him. I mean, what a fantastic passages. I mean, the Bible gives us this insight about what God thinks, because if God thinks this about David, the point of it is, I don't care that God just thinks about David. I'm sure when I meet David, I'll be real happy God thinks it about him, but I'm happy God thinks this about weak people. That's the point, because if he thinks it about David and he doesn't change, then it's really likely he thinks this about you if you're living with the same kind of abandonment that David is even in your weakness, because the idea that we're either mature enough, we're abandoned, every area is conquered. We've defeated every area that we're struggling in. So we got this idea. We're either totally victorious or we're totally hypocritical. And more times than not, we're not hypocritical. We're going hard, but we still stumble. And so it's not, there's not two options, there's three. It's not, are you totally victorious? Therefore you're real. Or are you a hypocrite and you're false? No, you're real, but you're still stumbling. And that's what David gives us is the courage to understand what God thinks. And knowing what God thinks gives us great courage what God thinks about David, because then we have the idea he might think this about us. And then you have the idea he might think about the person you're ministering to as well. See, I can have an X amount of zeal to tell somebody else this because I've applied it to myself in my failure and weakness, because I read it from David and understood his life. And so David saw it and I stood back in unbelief when I first taught his life and went, no, I don't think so. And then, you know, I had my own problems and said, I think I'm gonna borrow that verse. I think, I hope that verse is true now. And all of a sudden I needed that verse now. And then some time goes by and then I run into so-and-so. Now they need that verse, but I have feeling about that verse. I know it's true. And I can minister it with strength to them. And the people go, wow, Bickle, it seems like you really believe that I got another chance. I go, brother, you got a really good other chance. I mean, it's over if you want it to be over. You're plugged in, it's ready to go if you're ready to walk with it. Like, wow, are you kidding? Yes, push delete and let's move on. Let's move on, forget it. So anyway, I love these verses about David's life. The first one, the first description. The first description comes from Saul, from the prophet Samuel. Sometimes I mix those up. I say them, I don't mean to, but if I do just understand. The prophet Samuel comes to Saul after he sinned at Gilgal in 1 Samuel 13. He comes up to him and he says this horrifying thing to Saul. He goes, the Lord has sought for himself a man after his own heart. And the Lord has commanded this guy to be commander. And Saul's eyes get real big. He says, I thought I was commander. He goes, you are. But God has commanded this man to have your role. Saul. But this is a big verse because, because see this verse made Saul mad. But this verse, David no more wanted Saul's job. They were both in a jam because David was under command. And Saul goes to God, how dare that whippersnapper come in and take my throne? And he says, he's under command from me to do it. And then David's going, I don't want your throne. And then the prophet speaks, you have to, you're under divine command. David, you don't get an option. You're commanded to lead. That word command. See there's the self-appointed, the guy that puts himself in the role. There's those that are appointed by man. You know, there's a big need and everybody votes you into office. And you go, oh, well, what the heck? And then there's the God appointed. And David's a God appointed man. And David's, he's not under some ambition to establish himself. He's under a divine mandate to stand in that role. And David's going to make it hard on God to get him there. He goes, I am not going to lift a finger to get in that role. And God says, you don't have to, David. You're under my command. I will move every obstacle. Beloved, no Saul can stop David ever. A Saul can train David. A Saul can discourage David, which is all part of his training, but a Saul, know this, there is no group of leaders, political, spiritual, economic, at the bank, at the church, at the home group, at the office, at the club. There's no group of the old boys club that can stop you from the will of God when they had joined themselves in alignment and just write you off. It doesn't matter because you are under command to the sphere God's told you to do. I don't mean you got to go make it happen. You don't have to make it happen. You show up and be faithful with the servant's heart. And all of a sudden there's an energy from heaven that moves things out of the way because you're under command. Command doesn't mean you go knock the door down. Command means you have a servant spirit. You see God and all of a sudden things change. And you go, what is going on? One of my favorite verses is in 2 Samuel of this, of the David life, 2 Samuel 5, 12. When he became king, it says, and David knew that God made him king because all those 20 years, because it's 20 years between when he gets the prophecy and when he becomes king. He's 17 about, you can't know for sure, but that's a real good guesstimation. 17 years old when he gets the prophecy, could be 16. And he's 37 when he becomes king over Israel. It's 20 years later, he's under seminary training. But I tell you, he did not lift a finger in terms of touching anybody in any manipulation at all. God opened every door in front of him. He served hard and he sought God and God opened doors. It's not this kind of a detached passivity. He was a servant. He went after this. He's under command. But Dave, I mean, Saul is, what do you mean? You've commanded him to be a commander. That's me. I can imagine. Well, let's read the next one here. It's the next time Saul stumbles in chapter 15 with the Amalekites. I told you there was two of them, one chapter 13, one chapter 15. Saul comes in the second time. He says, the Lord now has torn the kingdom from you. And the Lord has already given it. Now here's interesting. It's been given to another, though David doesn't become king of all Israel. You know, it's a couple of years. I mean, maybe it's 15 more years. When God gives you, when God gives it to you, it doesn't mean it all lands tomorrow. Doesn't mean it all lands tomorrow. It says, Saul, the kingdom has been torn from you. Oh, what violent language. It's been given to a neighbor of yours because he's from the tribe of Benjamin and David's from the tribe of Judah and they're next door neighbors, you know, and he was a neighbor of mine. He has no idea. David's a 15 year old guitar player in a town of 300. He's looking for, you know, Abner. He's looking for one of his military guys. He goes, I'll give you a hint. Here's a couple of hints. Number one, he's a neighbor. Huh? He's looking around. He doesn't know it means Benjamin next door is Judah because David's from the tribe of Judah. And he goes, number two hint, number two hint, he's none of the guys you're hanging out with because he's better than you. And all the guys you hang out with are like you. So there's none of the guys you hang with, none of them because they're of your spirit. He's better than you and he's close to you. He's a neighbor. That's it, Saul. And so Saul, this sets Saul on a tirade. I mean, he is like, he's better and he's close. Bah humbug, plus some. You know, he's going, I am good, whoever he is. I mean, God set this dynamic into motion on purpose. I remember the first time in my life, I used my famous words. I mean, not my famous, my regular words I say all the time to God. I go, you did it on purpose. I remember the first time I said it, it was like a stroke of revelation. I go, you let that happen on purpose. And it's like, well, little guy, you need training. There's so much more I want to give you, but you're so slow about getting with it. So I'm speeding up the pressure. I want to get you. And that sounds cute, but that's real. There's so much God wants you and I to be ready for. And we're so slow in and of ourselves. So he picks the pace up by adding pressure. And in David's case, it was a demonized King directly, his reporting relationship directly over him, a demonized man with all of the authority of the military and the banking system at his disposal and to his direct report on the org chart. So you think you've had it tough? You've never had the guy that owns the army and the banking system as your direct report. I mean, that you go to that's demonized. I mean, David, he had 3000 men. Saul took the army, 3000 men chased David for years. 3000 men to assassinate David. The guy's 20 years old. You know, he's running around going, what did I do? And the Lord says, you got my attention. That's what you did. I found you. Cause it says, I have found a man after my own heart. I found you. Cause 2 Chronicles 6, 9 says, the eyes of the Lord go to and fro across the earth. The eyes of God are going everywhere. He goes, I found you, David. That's what you did. And I need to pick the pace up to get you ready. Cause my people, you are my gift to my people. And see, that's what David understands. And that verse I quoted a minute ago in 2 Samuel 5, verse 12, it says, and then David knew, he knew God made him King. Meaning he looked back over the 20 years. He goes, I didn't do this. You made me King. And the Lord goes, I commanded it. And then David said the most brilliant statement afterwards. He says, and you did it for the sake of your people. Not for my sake. You raised me up to bless them. You didn't raise me up for them to bless me. David had it by revelation. I mean, it was brilliant. I mean, the Lord might've told David 20 years. David, 20 years, you got the A on the test. That was the point. I raised you up. So guess what? For the next 40 years, David, or 33 years that he's going to be King in Jerusalem, you don't have to fight anybody because I made you King. So when the rivals come, go Psalm 27 forward to the house of prayer and worship. And I'll take care of your rivals. Cause you know, I made you King. It took me 20 years to get that in you. You know that I made you King. So when the strife comes, just go worship and cry. Don't worry. I will take care of your enemies. And when the money and the honor come, don't take it because I raised you up for the sake of my people, not for you. And 20 years later, David, verse 12, 2 Samuel 5, 12. You got it. You got it. It took 20 years. You have it as living understanding as to why you're anointed and in power. Beloved, if we had, if that was the rule of the ministry today, that the men and women of God understood that God put them in power, they wouldn't have to every little thing that hurts them and wounds them in the bad remarks. And not even the snide ones. I mean, the blatant brother, you're just off the wall. Wouldn't move them at all. Cause they know God put them there. And the reason it moves them, cause they're not sure God put them there. They put it in their newsletter. God put me there. But the minute there's somebody resists, ah, if God put you there, go take a nap, go to IHOP. Well, I don't really mean God put me there. And if you know God put you there and then you know why he put you there for the sake of people, not for your sake, not so that it could be your little niche. And then you have a servant spirit. When God raises up men and women like that, that is a gift to his people. So he lets this demonized king put David under a 20 year seminary course to give the nation a gift of 33 more years. 33 years, they would be king with the spirit different than any king ever in history. And God says, that's my gift to my people. And that's what God's doing to you. He's raising you up as a gift. But he wants to speed the process up because you want to be like David. And the Lord says, we agree. I want you to like David. But I'm gonna use the same means, maybe a little softer. Now, I like to think of this, the three sides to this story. I picture 1 Samuel 16, there's a couple of chapters later when Samuel, we'll look at it real soon. I mean, in the week or two to come, Samuel comes walking over to Bethlehem. Bethlehem's 300 members, little town, maybe 200, it's real dinky and very small little, the city of David is Bethlehem where Jesus was born. And Jesus was born there for that reason. And so David's there and now the Saul, I mean, Saul, I keep saying Saul, Samuel, the prophet comes in and he comes up to the house and he's the most famous man in the land. The prophet is and the rebellious king. I mean, these guys are the big guys. And so Samuel comes walking into town and they're all kind of nervous and going, oh my goodness, why would the most famous prophet on the planet walk into a 300 member town? You look like you're on a mission. And Samuel goes, I am. And Samuel's finding the king's replacement. Nobody knows it. So Samuel gets them all together and I'll go into a lot more detail later. So David finally gets to the table. He goes, David, you know who Saul is? Oh my goodness, he's Michael Jordan. Everybody knows who Saul is. I mean, Saul's the most famous warrior hero of the day. I mean, surpassed only by the man standing in front of him and the aged prophet. Because this Nazarite prophet, the long hair fasting aged prophet, those fiery eyes, David. Yes. He goes, you know who Saul is? Yeah, oh man. God is giving you his job and position. Get the 15 year old, maybe 17 year old guitar player. You know, he's going, I'm a following you. He goes, the Lord's eyes are looking to and fro across the earth. And the Lord's got the most up to date, the most up to date database. You know, we folks, you know, the prophet comes in town and the people going from the prophet, hi, hi prophet is look at me. You know, wave banners, flags, you know, someone will even fall over the chair. Just everybody look at him. Ah, look at the word, you know. And we've had all manner of diseases among us, believe me. And David's just out, you know, just doing the old Justin thing. Justin, I hate to pick on you again, but just lost. He's out there on the side, just playing. He doesn't even have an agenda. He likes God and he likes the sheep and he likes God. And his life vision is to own 10 sheep of his own and just, and be great worshiper. That's all. He's not gonna get in the Bible. He's not gonna ever meet a prophet. He has no thought of nothing. He wants to own the 10 sheep instead of to work for free. And he wants to have his own guitar and play all day. And God says, I've, and so Samuel comes in and says, God found you. I like that word. He says, he looked, he found you. The word found is used about three key times in the whole story. He found you. That means he's looking. Second Chronicles 16, nine, I'll say it again. The eyes of the Lord are searching, looking, looking. You don't have to give any hint faith to get God's attention, you know. Hint, God, God sees the movements of the heart and he can't be tricked. He says, that kid, that guitar player, nobody's ever heard of him, but I have. His sounds, his sounds ascend into heaven and they bring joy to us up in heaven. We know that kid. That's who that kid is. So David, he's not getting any of it. He goes, David, let me tell you. The day when the anointing came on me, the Holy Spirit came on me and told me that he was a young man, or it was a man in Bethlehem and he's gonna be king. He goes, oh my goodness. I was so excited, da-da-da-da-da. Of course, then David, he has a side of the story. He goes, you know, I'll tell you what I've been doing the last couple of years when God's eyes fell on me. And anyway, we'll get on that at another time. But there's, God has a version of what's going on that day. Samuel has a version and so does David, but that's for the next time. We'll develop that a little bit more. But I think we've gone far enough today. Okay. Oh, we didn't even do the 12 characteristics, did we? Okay, that's.