Mike Bickle emphasizes the importance of responding with meekness during times of mistreatment, using David as a prime example. He explains that everyone experiences mistreatment, and how we respond can either deepen our relationship with God or lead to bitterness. Bickle highlights that true ownership belongs to God, and we must trust Him with our reputations and circumstances, as demonstrated by David's commitment to not retaliate against Saul. The sermon encourages believers to invoke God's intervention rather than taking matters into their own hands, illustrating this through David's encounters with Saul. Ultimately, Bickle reassures that trusting God with our mistreatment leads to spiritual growth and divine justice.

Lord, we ask you just even now to release the light of your countenance upon us. We ask that you would inspire our spirit, you would illuminate our understanding. In the name of Jesus, amen. Paragraph A on the notes, one of the most important aspects of our spiritual life, excuse me, is how we respond when we are mistreated, that's obvious. Now, just to get it clear, and I know you know this, but it's just good to say it, everyone in the whole earth is mistreated many times their whole life. You are not being picked on in a special way. 6.5 billion people are being mistreated at some point throughout their whole life. I mean, not at some point, many times throughout their life in small ways and in large ways. The point is, some people are hoping in vain to finally get to that place in life where mistreatment just kind of becomes really rare. That day does not exist on this side of eternity. You will always be mistreated in small ways and sometimes big ways. So it's not that big a deal when you understand it, and that we respond to the Lord in a right way. Paragraph B, if we respond right, we go deep in God. Our heart expands its capacity to experience God. If we respond wrong, then a residue of bitterness builds up in us, and it ends up making our spirit dull. 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19 in paragraph C is the foundational principle in responding in a right way to mistreatment. Here's the key principle. The fact that Jesus owns us, and because He owns us, He takes responsibility for the times that we are mistreated. If we give Him that responsibility, He will take it. Let's read the verse, and I'll spend a minute on it. Paul said, 1 Corinthians 6, verse 19, you are not your own. Now, this seems obvious, but this is a dramatic revelation. You don't own yourself. The money you have, it isn't yours. The time you have, it isn't yours. Your ministry, your destiny, it's not really yours, it's His. You are not your own. Obvious point, but sometimes we lose track of that. Verse 20, you were bought. Jesus paid the full price for us. He owns us. Therefore, glorify God in your body and your spirit, which belong to the Lord. So here's the point. Because the Lord owns you, and He owns your money, He owns your reputation, if somebody steals your money, they're stealing from Him. If somebody attacks your reputation, they are attacking His interest. But this only works if we consciously live under that principle of His ownership, and we transfer our money and our reputation, the rights to it, over to Him, and we put it in His hands. Paragraph E, David was the premier example of the Old Testament, of a man who did this. He understood it really belonged to the Lord, because it was really the Lord's. And so when somebody would come against him, he said, Lord, they're coming against You, Your servant, Your cause, because I've given myself to You entirely. Now the classic Psalm is Psalm 31. I want to encourage you to read through Psalm 31, several times in the next couple days. It's the classic statement of how David navigated through all the mistreatment. He had more mistreatment than I think anybody in the Old Testament. I mean, over a sustained period of time, an entire lifetime. He was constantly being mistreated, even in the midst of his prosperity. Paragraph F, Psalm 31, verse 5. Psalm 31 is this classic Psalm, and we're just going to pick out two different phrases from this. I mean, the whole Psalm is loaded. He said the famous phrase in verse 5, Psalm 31, verse 5. Paragraph F, he says this, into your hands, I commit my spirit. Then he went on to say, my times are also in your hands. Now, when David said this famous statement, into your hands, I commit my spirit, that's the very statement that Jesus would quote on the cross. But David was the one that said it first in Scripture. When he said, into your hands, I commit my spirit, he meant the things that my spirit deeply cares about. He didn't just mean that when he dies, he'll go to heaven. He meant the things I care most deeply about, I commit to you. My money, my reputation, my ministry, my key relationships. I put them into your care, and I invoke your involvement in these areas of my life. Now, when we commit our spirit, or the things we care about in our spirit, if we commit the deep things of our life, to Jesus, we commit it to him, it means there's a transaction taking place. We consciously give them to him. It's a deal we're making. It's actually a transaction. It's a deal. We're saying, we will trust your leadership in this area, and we give it to you. And then the Lord says, okay, in that case, I will take the issue into my hands, and I will settle the mistreatment in my own way, in my own timing. Now, the issue of trusting the Lord with it, we have to trust his will, his way, and his timing. Now, the problem is, when we get mistreated, we sometimes have a different agenda about that mistreatment than the Lord does. So we give it to the Lord, and he's not doing exactly our agenda, so we take it back. And he says, no, you've given it to me. You're breaking the deal here. We say, okay, we want your agenda, but would you hurry up and answer? He says, no, you got to give it to me, and that means trust my timing. And we have to trust his way, because the Lord's way, he has a different approach to things. He'll end up blessing our enemies in ways we wouldn't vote on. So if we committed to his hand, we are saying, we are trusting your leadership, however you determine to work it out, at whatever timing you determine, we won't take it back. We won't take matters into our own hands. We will leave them in your hands. And if we make that transaction for real, and we really give ourself to him, he says, if you give yourself to me, then I commit to intervene and to take ownership of your life. If you really give me your money, when somebody steals it, and you trust me with somebody mistreating you, I will really go after and get it back for you. Now, he doesn't always bring it back in our timing. And some of the times he won't answer till even the age to come. But beloved, we live for billions and billions and billions of years. That's the beginning of it. So the payback, that's a little time delayed, a deferred payback, it's still real. And David said, I buy into that. I will literally put my times into your hands. He said in verse 15. In other words, the timing of the breakthrough, I will give to you. If it's in a month, a decade, or even the age to come, my times are in your hand. That's part of the bargain. That's part of a deal of trusting you with these issues that are so deeply weighing on my spirit. Now, when David did this in paragraph F, I'm still there. When David did this, he actually brought God into the battle, into the conflict. If you entrust your spirit, you entrust an issue to the Lord and you really give it to his leadership and you won't take it back and manage it in your own way, but you really give it to him, you are invoking God in the battle on your behalf. Now, the problem I've seen for many years of ministry, two believers are in a conflict. Neither of them are invoking God. They're both taking matters in their own hands and attacking each other and counterattacking and telling the story of how they're mistreated and getting back and getting even. And the Lord says, if one of you would call me in on the scene on my terms, I would really help you. But I've seen many times two believers, neither of them are invoking the Lord's involvement, but he will only get involved on his terms. And his terms are, we really trust it to his leadership and we take our hands off of it. Now, talking about areas of conflict, talking about when we're mistreated. Okay, let's go top of page two. Paragraph J, Luke 23, verse 46. Luke 23, verse 46. Jesus, in the most dramatic hour of his life, the most dramatic crisis, he quotes David's, one of David's main verses. One of David's main life verses, Jesus said, David, I'm gonna borrow it in the crisis. And the way that Jesus used it, obviously gives us insight into Jesus, but also insight into how David used it. Now, when Jesus said into your hands, I commit my spirit, he didn't only mean when I die, my spirit goes to heaven. That's, he meant that, but far more than that. He said, I'm on the cross under the understanding that everything I'm letting go of and trusting you with, everything that's important to my spirit, to my heart, I am trusting you that you're gonna return it to me, Father. My kingdom on earth forever, I'm trusting that with you. That's what he meant when he said into your hands, I commit my spirit. Far more than when I die, I'm coming to you. Certainly that, but more than that. He meant what David meant in Psalm 31. Paragraph K, 1 Peter 2, verse 23. Peter comments on Jesus committing his spirit to God under crisis. And Peter develops the idea to give us more insight. Now we have insight from 1 Peter 2, 23 into what Jesus felt, but it also gives us insight into how David did it. And that's what we're talking about tonight, how David handled mistreatment. Because Peter is commenting on Jesus' use of that famous passage that David quoted, into your hands, I commit my spirit. And Peter said, well, let me give you, break it down for you what Jesus meant when he committed his spirit to the Lord. It says, when Jesus was reviled, he wouldn't revile in return. When he suffered, he wouldn't threaten the people in return, but he committed himself or he committed his spirit. He committed his cause to him, the father, who judges righteously. Now, paragraph one, when Peter says Jesus committed himself to God's judgment, he meant to God's intervention. The idea of judgment means intervention. It means making wrong things right. Now, when we commit our spirit to the Lord, when we commit our money, our reputation, our ministry impact, we commit those areas to the Lord. We are committing them to God's judgment, meaning to God's intervention. He will intervene at the right way, at the right time to do the right thing. And he will intervene in the mistreatment. He will bring judgment. He will bring an intervention that makes wrong things right. Now, even in the area of being reviled, paragraph two, Jesus said when he was reviled, Peter said about Jesus, he wouldn't revile back. Now, to be reviled means to be insulted. To be reviled means you're spoken to in a demeaning way, in a sarcastic way, with a negative overtone. Now, all of us are spoken to in insulting, demeaning ways with negative, sarcastic overtones. But when that happened, our natural way when that happens is to answer in the same spirit. But Jesus understood the spiritual law. When he was demeaned, when he was insulted, he said, I'm not returning that. I'm not gonna operate in that spirit, but the opposite spirit. I'm gonna get God involved in this. So I'm gonna bless my enemies. And when I bless them, then I invoke God's involvement in this minor mistreatment. Because to be reviled or insulted, it is a mistreatment, it's a minor one. But even in these little issues, Peter is telling us when Jesus committed his spirit to the Lord, it was even the little issues of being insulted in conversation. The reason I say that is that some people, they will trust the Lord on the big issues, the big crisis, but on the little ones, they will take matters into their own hands. And if we don't take them into our own hands, but we literally trust the Lord's judgment or intervention, it will change our spirit and the Lord will bring honor and he will set the record straight, but in his own timing. So I wanna encourage you that even in the little areas of being insulted verbally by somebody, call the Lord's presence in, invoke his leadership by blessing the one that insults you. Paragraph L, Romans 12. Here's the spiritual law that Peter is referring to. Paul develops the spiritual law and then we're gonna apply it in David's life in just a moment. Paul lays out the spiritual law of trusting God's judgments to break in. And what the spiritual law is here in Romans 12, verse 19 to 21. In essence, here's what else I'll sum it up and then we'll read the passage. Paul was saying, here's how the spiritual law or the law of the spirit realm operates this way. If you take your own vengeance, God will draw back and let you take matters in your own hands. And if you're successful, you're successful. If you're not, you're not. But God will not intervene if you take it into your own hands. However, if you draw back and put it in his hands, he'll intervene. The Lord says you get one or the other. Either you take it and I draw back, says the Lord on this issue, or you give it to me and you draw back, then I will answer it for you in my timing. So the spiritual law says this, only one will intervene. Most believers, they're the first one to intervene on their own cause. And the Lord says, I really would, I really would, but not while you are. So we say, Lord, I'll make you deal. Why don't I intervene? And then you come behind me and just double my efforts. You back me up. The Lord says, no, no, it's not gonna work that way. You committed it to my hands. You back up. You trust my timing and my way. Yeah, but Lord, you may take more time than I would. He goes, well, your only other option is for you to intervene and for me to draw back and watch. So he says here in Romans 12, verse 19, don't take vengeance. Now vengeance means don't set the record straight. Don't make the wrong things right in your own hands. This is talking about in a time of conflict in relationship. He says, don't take vengeance, or you could use the word justice, establish your own justice, but rather give place to God's wrath. We'll give place for God to break in and intervene on your behalf. Because if you don't give place to it, then God won't, won't do it. And the way we give place to wrath for God's anger to break in or for God's judgment against the mistreatment is by us trusting God. We're trusting him without taking it into our own hands. So Paul said, you get to choose. If you want to give place for God to break in, then you got to draw back. If you don't draw back, God will. It's one way or the other. That's a spiritual law. Because Paul said vengeance or payback is the domain of vengeance belongs totally to God. God said, I want control over the domain of the payback vengeance. He goes, and I will pay back. I will intervene instead of pay repay, put the word intervene. I will intervene. I will set things in order. I will set the record straight about you, but you have to put it in my hands, which means you have to let go of it. And trust me, Lord, are you sure we can't work together where I set the record straight that you come back me up? The Lord says, I'll tell you again. No, that's not an option. The law in the spirit, it's only one will intervene and we get to choose which one it is. Most believers, they're just so accustomed to taking matters in their own hands. When somebody insults them, when somebody mars their reputation, when somebody mistreats them, they instantly go into war mode and the Lord instantly backs up and lets them do what they want to do without intervening. And the Lord would have intervened if we would have given room for him to do it, but he would not necessarily intervene in the same way or the same timing that we would have. Paragraph four is that when we take vengeance ourself, I call it a cruel taskmaster because when we're in the take vengeance ourself mode, which is our natural mode, somebody mistreats us. They don't give us what is rightly ours. We get into the attack mode and we go tell people and we circulate the story about how we're mistreated and how we're being, it's bad, it's bad, it's bad. And the Lord's saying, don't do it that way. Bring me into the battle. Invoke my involvement. But the way that you're talking, you're not invoking me because you're gonna do it yourself. Now, I call that taking vengeance mode is a cruel taskmaster because when you get in that mode, when I get in that mode, any of us, we get so preoccupied with the anxiety and the anger and the stirred up spirit of being mistreated that we can't connect with the Lord in a sustained way. So there can be people totally committed to intimacy with God, but because they take their own vengeance and they don't give place to the Lord's vengeance by putting it in his hand, they have a firestorm of emotional activity on the inside. So when they sit down in the prayer room, for example, to connect with the Lord, they can't connect because they're so busy with all the machinery churning on the inside. So there's really a big price we pay when we take vengeance into our own hands. It's a mode, it's a mode of operation. It's a mindset. It's an internal quality in our life. The vengeance mode. Most believers never get free of operating and to take their own vengeance mode of setting the record straight, making sure they get the honor they deserve, et cetera, et cetera. And they don't really do the math that that mindset is a cruel taskmaster. They put hours in the prayer room and never ever connect with God. Just caught in a tornado on the inside of preoccupation with who did it and how they're gonna answer it and they're debating and figuring out. And the Lord says, I so would love to connect with you right now. Paragraph eight, yeah. Every time we are mistreated, it is an opportunity for promotion in the Lord. It really is. The small mistreatments and the large ones. Every mistreatment is an opportunity to go forward. We will go forward at the heart level and we will also go forward even in our circumstances. If we do this right, we respond right, the Lord will increase His blessing on our circumstances. Now again, maybe not in our timing. He may have a delayed payment, but He will increase even our external circumstances, but He will definitely in the short term increase our internal experience of Him. Anytime somebody comes against you, I mean just insults, just undermining you and you answer right, it is an opportunity in that immediate time frame for you internally to go forward. Set your heart never to waste a good trial because it is truly an opportunity to go forward and that is something that David truly understood in a profound way. Top of page three. Now we're gonna look at two examples and we'll just take a few minutes on each one. I just wanna just point them out to you so you can read them on your own and read them with Psalm 31. The two classic chapters and what I call David's training in the seminary of Saul. Lou calls it the SOS, the seminary of Saul. Now, most of you know Saul was a jealous king. He was the king of Israel. He was the old king and David was the young anointed one. David was in his 20s, Saul is in his 60s and Saul is insanely jealous of David, but Saul has the power, he's the king and David's just on Saul's staff. So Saul could do anything he wants to David and Saul determines that he's going to get it. He'll kill David. So in these two classic chapters, 1 Samuel 24, David encounters Saul in the wilderness of Engedi. Then a few months later in 1 Samuel 26, two chapters later in the wilderness of Sif, they're close to each other in the land of Israel and these two wilderness encounters because Saul is chasing David who's a fugitive. He's out in the wilderness running from Saul. Saul's got an army of 3,000 men coming after him to kill him. So that's why they're out in the wilderness because David's a fugitive of the law. He is literally, no joke, he is number one public enemy in Saul's world. He's number one most wanted criminal in Israel. 3,000 full-time choice soldiers under Saul have one main objective to chase down the fugitive David and kill him. Pretty intense, pretty intense reality. Paragraph E, Saul was the king of Israel. He had an intense love-hate relationship with David as I just mentioned. Now Saul, it's complicated because Saul is David's father-in-law. Because David married Saul's daughter. So he's a family member, he's dad. He's David's boss because David's in the military. He's one of the captains in the army but Saul's the head of the army so he's his boss. Saul's the law enforcement. He is head of the police force so to speak. So he has the power to establish laws against David to make him a criminal to society. And Saul is the president of the nation, he's king. So he's the head of state, the head of the law enforcement. He's David's boss and he's dad all in one package. I mean, talking about complicated. Whatever your conflict is with anybody, it fits in one of these and you can even get a few more categories if you want to. Okay, let's look at Roman number three. David and Saul in the wilderness of Engeti. 1 Samuel 24, this is the first example. Not many of you know this story but it's just worth going through. I read it over and over. I've read this story so many times through the years. I love it because it encourages my heart to respond right in mistreatment. 1 Samuel 24 verse one, when Saul had returned from following the Philistines, that was the, he was just in a military conflict with the neighboring nation, the Philistines. So that military conflict's over. So then the spy network throughout the land tells Saul, hey, we found David, the fugitive. He's over in the wilderness of Engeti. It's actually about 30 miles from where Saul is. David's in that wilderness. Verse two, so Saul took 3,000 choice men from all of Israel to seek after David. I mean, could you imagine the intensity Saul has? Do you know how expensive it is to pay the salary of 3,000 men? Saul means business. Now, just so you're not tempted to be melodramatic in your own life sometimes, I have been a few times. Sometimes we talk about when three of our friends are agreeing in a gossip report against us, we think we're in a Saul-David encounter. David had 3,000 soldiers trying to kill him, not three friends saying that we have a bad motive. So it's not really a Saul-David thing. Just to put it in perspective, a few times through the year I go, this is a Saul-David thing. And I can just hear the Lord imagine him whispering, not exactly that. You and your three friends, you'll sort it out. The Saul-David thing was far more serious. Okay, verse three. Now, Saul is up in the wilderness of Gedi with 3,000 men. He goes into a cave. And he goes into the cave and he ends up taking a nap and falling asleep in the cave. He's exhausted. They've just come from battle and had a 30-mile march. So he goes to the cave. It just so happens, it's a big cave, just coincidence seemingly, but obviously the Lord is leading it. David is in the back recesses of the cave. Can you imagine this? David doesn't even know Saul's coming. The last word David has is Saul's fighting the Philistines. So they're back there. They've got their setup deep in the cave. And they hear some noise at the front of the cave. And they think, what's going on? A couple of guys come around the cave and there's this big figure in the doorway of the cave because it said Saul was a head and shoulders taller than all the others in Israel. So he's this big warrior with all the royal garments on. And David kind of in the cave looks and goes, oh my goodness, it's Saul coming into our cave. He found us. Oh no. Of course, Saul doesn't know David's back there. Now I'm adding a little of my own part to the story here. So Saul lays down and falls asleep. And David goes, I guess he doesn't know we're here. He goes, imagine this. It's clearly an orchestration of the Lord that this has happened. 1 Samuel 24, verse four, the next verse. David said, no, no, the men of David said, hey David, this is the day of which the Lord has said to you, behold, I will deliver your enemies into your hands that you may do with him what seems good to you. So David's guys go, you know the prophecy David that you've heard over the years that God was gonna one day get rid of Saul and take care of it, it would be over because David's been a fugitive for some years now. It ends up he's a fugitive about seven years. He's chased in the wilderness. I mean, that's a long time, six or seven years. You can't be exactly sure, but it's more than a few months. And there was a prophetic word that was established that one day God would take care of Saul and the problem would be over. So one of David's guys go, this is the day. All we gotta do is kill him because later on it makes it clear that they wanted to harm him. They want to kill him because he's sound asleep. He's only a few steps away. God put Saul in our hands. Let's get rid of him. It says that David arose and secretly cut off the corner of Saul's robe. So, I mean, David, I mean, imagine there's Saul sound asleep. David says he's gonna walk over there and the guy's going like, what are you doing? You're gonna kill him? No, no, shh, shh, shh. He goes there, he cuts Saul's robe, kind of walks back. How dangerous is that? Saul just wakes up just by some way. The whole army's there. David's in big trouble. So he's got the robe. And then he tells the man, the men go, hey, let's go finish him off. And he says at verse six to the man, no, no, no, the Lord forbid. No, you can't touch the Lord's anointed. Stretch out your hand. Now, here's the problem in this case. David's the Lord's anointed too. So many conflicts in the body of Christ is the Lord's anointed against the Lord's anointed. So you can't do the Lord's anointed argument. There's millions of the Lord's anointed. And besides, these principles work in just everyday relationships, whether people in the kingdom or not in the kingdom. But the fact that he was God's anointed brought another dimension of seriousness to it. And David said, I can't touch him. I am not going to get rid of my enemy with my own hands. Verse seven, David restrained his servants. They did not allow them to rise against Saul. They wanted to kill him. Now, I mean, these servants were saying, now wait, the day has come, it's clear. Dave, open your eyes, David. God put him here of all the caves of Israel. He sleeps in our cave. He doesn't even know we're here. What's the chances? Now, Dave says, okay, okay, got it. It was the Lord. But I have a totally entirely different interpretation than you. And David was right. His friends thought it was the Lord so they could kill Saul. And David thought it was the Lord so David knew his heart was being tested by God. Same event, same prophecy, two totally different interpretations. And David was the right one. Okay, let's go to the top of page four. Verse Samuel 24, verse eight. So a few hours pass. Saul wakes up from his nap and he goes out, goes on the other side, you know, down in the valley. David's up on the mountain in the cave. David arose, verse eight, went out of the cave. He called, Saul, Saul. Who's calling my name? Saul. He looks up there and there's David up on the mountain top. David, what are you doing up there? But David was far enough away where Saul couldn't get to him just real easy. Verse 10. This day your eyes have seen that the Lord delivered you into my hand in the cave. Saul's going, what are you talking about? What cave? What do you mean delivered me in your hands? He goes, I did not stretch out my hand against you. I didn't hurt you. I'm not trying to hurt you. Let it go. I'm on your team. Verse 11, see the corner of your robe. It's in my hand. Saul goes, what do you mean? Saul looks down to his robe and there's a little part cut off. He goes, David, you were in the cave. Oh my goodness, you could have killed me. David said, I cut off the corner of your robe. I didn't kill you. I have no malice in my heart towards you. Know that I won't hurt you. See, there's no evil or rebellion in my hand. Why are you hunting me down to kill me? Stop it. You're my father-in-law. You're my boss. You're my president. And you're the chief of police. Come on, give me a break. Verse 24, verse 12. Now verse 12 and verse 15, you, this is these two verses. I have used so many times over the years. And I want to encourage you, write your name. These verses have your name on them. Use them over and over for little things, little insults. Somebody that reviles you to big issues where a soul chases you. And by the way, if you have a calling like David, I guarantee you, you are enrolled in the seminary of Saul, whether you know it or not. If you want to have a heart like David, you will have a Saul that will train you. Because every David must be trained by a Saul. There might be a company of Sauls. It might not just be one person, but there will be a Saul factor in your life testing your heart. So a lot of people say, I want to be a man after God's own heart. I want to be a woman after God's own heart. I want to have a ministry like David. Just know if it's true and the Lord takes you up on it, he will enroll you in the seminary of Saul, even without your permission. So verse 12, let's get back to the point. Here's what David says. Now, David is in essence speaking Psalm 31, verse 5. The principle, I commit my spirit into your hands. I commit my spirit into your hands. It's what David's saying here in verse 12. He's just saying a different language. He says, Saul, here's the way that we're going to do this. David's up far away on the mountain. I'm going to let the Lord judge. I am not going to cut, kill you or hurt you. I am not taking judgment in my hands. I'm going to let the Lord judge. Now put the word intervene. I'm going to let the Lord intervene. I'm not intervening on this issue of conflict. I will let the Lord avenge. That's the word, that's the same idea of justice. I will let the Lord set the record straight. That's what avenge or justice, set the record straight and make wrong things right. My hand shall not be against you. I won't speak against you. I won't do harm against you physically. I won't use my money against you. I will not touch you. I will truly entrust you to God. Verse 15, therefore, in verse 15, he says it again, same thing, just a little bit different. Let the Lord be the judge. He goes, I'm happy for the Lord to judge anyway. Even if he lets you win, that's fine. I just want the Lord to intervene and have his way. My heart is with the Lord. Let him judge, let him decide. He may bless you greatly. That's his business. I'm on the Lord's team. If he blesses you, I bless you. Well, David would bless him anyway. And let the Lord plead my case. That's the same thing. If I commit my spirit into your hands, Lord. So that situation ends. Let's go to Roman numeral four. It's some months later. It's the same scenario happens again. Couple of slight different points. This time it's in the wilderness of Ziph. Now the reason it's happening again, because the Lord, if we blow it, if we're tempted and we sin, the Lord gives us many chances again. To have victory over that sin. That's great. That's he gives us a new beginning every day if we want it. But if we pass a test and we do righteous and we choose righteousness, the Lord will often have us go through it again. So that our choice for righteousness is confirmed and it's deeply established in our hearts. Meaning it isn't like we held our breath for a few minutes, passed a test and then we just forgot about the reality. He wants it deeply confirmed in our character and our spiritual history. That this is a reality of how we relate to the Lord. And if we fail the test, this, I call these the Lord's pop quizzes. The Lord's always giving us pop quizzes. He's giving us a test like this with David. He didn't know Saul was going to be in the cave and he doesn't know he's going to catch Saul again here in a few minutes. But he, David is the one being tested actually. If he would respond in a right way. It's actually a test on David. Now, the good thing about when the Lord gives you a pop quiz and he gives us lots of, we never know when they're coming. It might happen today. He lets you take the test. It's an open book test. You're going to have the book open and you're going to search for the answers. And the Lord's pop quizzes, you're going to lean over the aisle and look at your neighbor's test. Whatever answer they put on the test, you can use the answer. The Lord doesn't mind. You can get anybody to help you. And the good news is if you fail the test, he'll give it to you again and again and again and again. So isn't that nice? We're going to pass these tests. Well, David's getting the same test twice in a short period of time. Not because he failed it because the Lord wanted to confirm it in him. Not just he kind of barely got through this by the skin of his teeth. He wants this to be a profound reality deeply established to David's character. Not something David barely made it by one day. So it happens again. 1 Samuel 26. Saul went down to the wilderness of Ziph. The same 3,000 men, they're still with him. They're still employed by Saul. They're still seeking David. The same old, same old David, the fugitive. Verse 7, now Saul was down in the valley sleeping in the camp. And David came up on the hillside and goes, oh, the whole camp's down there. Look, it's late one night. The fires are going. And they could tell where Saul is because he's in the middle of the camp with the king's, you know, standard there and all the regal kind of things that go along with the king's tent. And the, you know, he's in the center of all the bodyguards around. His spear is stuck in the ground right there. It was a unique spear that everybody recognized. It was a spear that made it known it was the king's spear. Abishai, one of David's mighty men, says to him, they're up on the hillside looking down the valley, hey, God delivered your enemy into your hands. Let me go kill him. David says, are we having that conversation again? Didn't I make it clear some months ago when I had the team meeting and the other guys were mad that we didn't kill Saul in the cave? I'm not gonna touch Saul ever, never, ever will I touch Saul. Yeah, but David, you don't have to. Give us the nod and we'll do it for you. See, in most people, most people that are mistreated, often there's a hit man that will emerge. There's this one guy or one gal says, okay, you be godly, but I'm your friend. I'll go slander your enemy for you. You just stay out of the way. You go, well, the Lord's will be done. I mean, what am I gonna do? David didn't go for that. He said, because David believed it was a true spiritual interaction with God. He goes, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You guys don't get it. God's eyes are watching. You don't get it. The resources of heaven are behind this. If I mess up on this, I only delay it. Don't, seriously, do not. He goes, oh, come on. This is God. Two times in a row, you missed the first opportunity of the cave. This is obviously the will of God. You missed it. You're a great guy, but you're a little naive, David. This guy is a monster down there trying to kill you. And David says, you don't get it. I passed the test and I'm being confirmed on it because my calling is mighty and the Lord's eyes are on me. Verse nine, David said to Abishai, don't destroy him, no. He says, let me give it to you straight. Who can stretch out his hand against the Lord's anointed and be guiltless? You will get in trouble with God and I will get in trouble with God. No, you cannot touch him. David had a profound sense of the Lord's eyes watching over him. So this kind of, you know, got Abishai a little bit nervous. Go, wow, I don't want to be guilty. I'm trying to be loyal. Beloved, you don't want to be loyal to a David that God's testing and you go empower or you go complicate the situation by attacking the Saul. Let God attack the Saul. David doesn't need a hit man to go take care of business. David said, no, the Lord will strike him. He said, the Lord's already, I have clarity. He is going to take care of the matter. I don't know when, maybe years from now, I don't know. The Lord will take care of Saul because Saul was demonized. And Saul refused to repent. He said, maybe he'll die in battle. He says, I don't know, but the Lord has made it clear to me. He will take care of him in his own timing. But verse 11, he says, Abishai, here's what you can do. You could go with me, sneak through the cave of three. I mean, the down in the camp of 3000 men. Can you imagine 3000? I mean, this sanctuary holds about 1500 people. So double it all mighty soldiers. It's at night, there's guys on watch. David says, Abishai, go with me. We're gonna walk to the middle of the camp and we're gonna take the spear and we're gonna run back. And Abishai goes, why don't we just kill him while we're there? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. I'm not gonna do that. Will you have the boldness to go in the middle of that camp? David, where's your brain at? He said, the Lord's with me. Verse 12, for the camp of Israel, we're all asleep. The 3000, it was a deep sleep. The Lord put on him just like the Lord directed Saul to the cave. The Lord put a deep sleep. So in both occasions, there was a supernatural activity. The Holy Spirit leading Saul to the cave back in chapter 24 and asleep falling on 3000 soldiers in chapter 26. But in both occasions, it was not so that David could kill Saul as his men thought. And both occasions is so David could prove that he committed it into God's hands by not killing Saul. That was the issue. God gave him every opportunity to get away with it and to be justified. And David says, I'm not taking the opportunity. And the Lord say, David, this is good. You are qualifying to be the king of Israel. Verse 13, next paragraph, 1 Samuel 26, 13. Now David takes, goes back with a spear. Gets onto the, up on the, you know, the mountain side again. They're down in the valley, stood up on the top of the hill. He said, verse 15, David said, Abner. Now Abner was, was the head of the army under Saul. I mean, the main guy of the whole army. Now, the reason David knows him, because David was one of the captains. They were all friends for years until Saul became so jealous. Abner, verse 15, they wake up. Abner, who's yelling Abner? Why have you not guarded the king? Saul looks at him and goes, king, I've always guarded you. With my life, I would go to death for you. What is he talking about? I've always guarded you. Where is the king's spear? King, where's your spear? I don't know. I fell asleep, it was right there. Did you take it? No, did you take it? Who took the king's spear? David goes, I have the king's spear. Saul looks at Abner. Abner turns red. I don't know how he got the spear. I was just sleeping. Sleeping? You're supposed to be on guard protecting me. Anyway, on and on and on. David had a little element of drama in him. You know, David cut that robe, got the spear, got back. Hello, Abner, my friend. I mean, he had that little element. Verse 17, Saul said, wait, that's David. That's my son-in-law. That's my old friend. He goes, that's my son, my son-in-law to David. That's you. Oh no, not again. Did you do this twice? Verse 21, Saul said, oh, this is two times in a row. You know, at the cave, I said I would never chase you. I guess that spirit got on me again, and I changed my mind, and I came after you again with 3,000 men. You know what? Verse 21, I've sinned. This is really it. I'm never coming after you again. I promise, I promise. And David's like, we're not going there. Don't ever trust the sincere promises of a demonized man. I mean, crying tears, promise, but he's got a demon. Don't trust him. Don't kill him, but don't trust him. He says, return my son, my daughter, the grandkids, Christmas, family reunions, for I will harm you no more. Don't go there. David says, I'm not, don't worry. Verse 22, David said, I'm going to say again what I said some months ago at the cave. May the Lord repay every man. He goes, I don't even mean may the Lord take you out. May the Lord decide in his perfect wisdom what is best. I don't care how he answers it. Let the Lord answer this dilemma. I am not answering it with my own hands. For the Lord delivered you into my hand today, but I wouldn't kill you. Verse 24, so let the Lord deliver. Let the Lord deliver me. I am not going to do it myself. He's invoking the Lord's involvement into the process. Verse 25, this is the last conversation Saul and David ever have. These are the last words that Saul ever tells David in the scripture. Saul said to David with, you know, tears, he's all emotional and stirred up. May you be blessed, my son. He speaks blessing. Here's the anointed of God speaking blessing on David, the fugitive. You shall do great things. I know it. Because Saul didn't have that bad spirit on him like he has so often. That bad spirit came on him a bunch of times later. But he said, you'll do great things. And I know that at the end of this conflict, you are going to prevail over me. I know that you will prevail. Several years pass. Chapter, paragraph eight. And Saul dies in battle. And here's what the report is in Chronicles. It says they're giving the record years later. Saul and first Chronicles 10, verse 13, Saul died for his unfaithfulness. Therefore, he, the Lord killed him. And the Lord turned the kingdom over to Saul, over to David. At the end of the day, God promised David, I'll take care of the matters in my own time. I'm not telling you how I'll do it. But the scripture says not just that David Saul died in battle, but the Lord himself killed Saul and removed him out of the way. And the Lord himself put David in place. But it was God's will. God's way in God's time, because David entrusted his spirit to the Lord. Amen. Let's stand.