Mike Bickle emphasizes David's remarkable confidence in God as he navigates the drastic changes in his life, from being celebrated after defeating Goliath to facing jealousy and adversity from King Saul. David's humility and unwavering trust in God are highlighted as he remains grounded despite the highs and lows of his circumstances. The sermon contrasts David's character with Saul's, illustrating the importance of maintaining a servant heart and gratitude in both promotion and demotion. Bickle encourages listeners to learn from David's example of responding to challenges with faith rather than fear, and to recognize the allies God places in our lives during difficult times.

Well, in 1 Samuel chapter 18, the theme that I want to highlight is the way in which David walked in such unusual confidence with the Lord. Here in chapter 18, and then in our next session after the break in chapter 19. Now, my desire in teaching this course is to help you get familiar with the story. Because once you get familiar with the story, it's such an attractive story. You'll read 1 and 2 Samuel over and over. You'll devour it, and it's the saturation of this story that has been a strength to my heart. But you've got to get familiar with the main players in the storyline. One of David's most defining characteristics in his life. I identified 10 in one of the sessions, but one of his primary identifying characteristics is his confidence. You get confident in God, the implications on your mind, your emotion, your prayer life, your relationships are staggering. I mean, they're vast. The implications are dynamic. The enemy wants you to have fear, not confidence in your relationship with God. The enemy wants you accused and condemned. The enemy wants you confused, perplexed. Lord, I don't know about your leadership, but the thing that's so striking about David in his youth, he's about 20 years old, early 20s here in 1 Samuel 18, was the confidence that he had because of even his early history with the Lord. Paragraph A, we get an insight into David's heart because his circumstances in this chapter change so radically from extreme positives to extreme negatives in a short amount of time. They go back and forth quite a few times in 1 Samuel 18, 19 and 20. Unusual blessing, but unusual adversity. But the thing that strikes me is the confidence that David had in both situations and the humility that he had when he was blessed and then when he was being attacked. Now the context, paragraph B, the chapter before, chapter 17, David just killed Goliath. He saved the nation from a military disaster that would have resulted in many people going into slavery, getting killed, I mean a military disaster and crisis to the land, and this thrust David into national prominence. And we'll find as we read the story that he had favor with the king himself. I mean the president, the king loved him. He had favor with the king's family. His family loved him, not just the king himself, the king's court, the royal court, the army, the nation in general, everywhere he turned he was being affirmed and celebrated. What a radical shift from the quiet life of the pastors of Bethlehem, where his family rejected him, his seven older brothers. I mean he was a bit of a loner in his own family. He's the youngest brother and clearly rejected by his family, which we've gone into that a little bit in other sessions. Now he's moved to Gibeah, the governmental headquarters. He's living in the king's court. He's living there and serving there. Paragraph C, I want you to get familiar with two of King Saul's six children. Jonathan, which is the oldest son, the heir to the throne, and Michael, the youngest daughter whom David married. Paragraph D, things were going great for David until he was praised and affirmed and celebrated at too big of a level. Then the king became jealous. The women and the nation were singing songs of celebrating David's military achievements and the power of God on his life. It didn't go to David's head, but it went to Saul's head. David was unmoved by it. Paragraph E, again we see that David has confidence as he walks, as he's tested with praise and affirmation and promotion, but at the same time he's tested with great adversity and pressure. I mean he's a young man in his early 20s, the age of many of you in this room right now, but here's the thing I want to introduce to you, and I'll say this several times over the course. When the Lord wants to raise up a king after his own heart, a leader after his own heart, which he wants to do with many of you, beware or be informed that the Holy Spirit enrolled David into the seminary of Saul, a demonized king, a demonized leader that would mistreat David so that David's humility and love and confidence would all come into fullness. So you want to be a leader after God's own heart like David. Understand the Holy Spirit enrolled him in the seminary of Saul. Are you aware that you might experience some of those pressures in your 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 year ministry? Paragraph F, reviewing from our, I think our second session, what I call the Gibeah years. Now remember Gibeah is the city where the governmental headquarters is located, where Saul's royal court was. In these years, David's about 18 to 23, we can't be sure, that's a guesstimation, but it's a fairly accurate one. Maybe it's a four or five year period. His identity is being tested. We went through this, so I won't spend time on this, and his identity was being strengthened. It was being tested and strengthened with promotion and blessing, tested and strengthened with pressure and adversity. The question, could David connect with God in the same humility and confidence when he was being celebrated and promoted? Could he connect with God in the same way when he was being attacked and demoted? If he could, then his identity was strong and established, and that's the Lord's goal, and that's the Lord's agenda in our lives. Paragraph I, 1 Samuel 18 and 19, the two chapters we'll consider tonight, you know chapter 19 is our next session after the break. The Holy Spirit sets young David and old Saul, he sets them side by side. The record, the way the story's told, we see them contrasted, well through quite a few chapters, but particularly in chapter 18 and 19. And the reason the Holy Spirit set these two types of leaders, two types of leaders that are actually in the body of Christ, that are in the leading ministries and leading businesses, even in context of the kingdom. And as we see the record of these two types of leaders, the biblical record of them were to be instructed, what to be like David, what not to be. But a lot of folks aim to receive the instruction of what to be, in terms of modeling David, but were to also be equally instructed on what not to be, because see Saul started off humble. Saul started off very similar to David. He was little in his own eyes, he was humble, he was obedient, had a heart for God, and it was over time, and over the years of leadership and success and trials, he morphed, he turned into something else, little by little, not in one day, were to get a warning, were to receive encouragement as we see these lives set together. Both of them were chosen for leadership by God, and they were set apart prophetically by the great prophet in the land. They were both anointed with an unusual measure of power of the Holy Spirit. They had the same God, the same resources, but David grew continually in humility, he grew in grace, his obedience towards the Lord was confirmed and deepened over the years. He had failures, but he came back fiercely in his commitment to obey, where Saul, he continually increased in his compromise, and then the oppression, and then perversion that came along with his compromise. David ended up with a remarkable victory, the model in the Old Testament of walking with God, and Saul, his life is a tragedy, he's the picture of what not to do as a leader anointed by the Spirit and confirmed by prophetic ministry. Saul began so well, but we see what Saul could have been very similar to David, but he went the other direction. Paragraph J, and this is really the application of it I'm giving you before we get into the story, and stories are quite, I find the story fascinating, it moves along pretty fast, but here's the real takeaway is this on page one of the notes here, so that you can apply this to the story. Can David stay humble, and can he stay grateful in both seasons? Promotion and demotion, can he stay grateful, or will he get offended and start complaining about leaders and complaining to God? Which one will dominate David's inward conversation? Can he maintain a servant heart, or when he gets more power, will he begin to lay aside the servant attitude that he came in into his leadership position with? Well here's a spiritual lull of the kingdom. I mentioned this earlier, you will respond to praise the same way you respond to criticism. It's a spiritual lull. If criticism throws you off, I mean really throws you off, it's because you're valuing the opinion of man too much, then praise will throw you off. Now all of us usually get a lot more criticism before we get praise in our life, so we imagine that praise would move us. It'd be just a nice break to get some significant promotion in our life, but the Lord knows that if criticism, if you're defensive and offended by criticism, it means you're living by what the opinion of man is. Praise will throw you off if criticism does. I don't mean that there's a, you get to the place where you completely, you're immune to criticism, but it doesn't have the dominant, it's not a dominant voice in your heart. And when it is, we repent of it and we sign back up to make what God says about us the dominant voice, the strong voice that we hear in our heart, in our inner man. It's the same way with promotion and demotion. The way that you handle being demoted, and everyone's going to be demoted, almost everybody a time or two in their life. From their, you know, from the sports team, the music team, the marketplace, the ministry world, most people are going to have a demotion or two over the course of the decades of their life. The way that you respond to demotion, I tell you for sure, is the way you will respond to promotion. I'm talking about in the secret place of your heart. Because if demotion takes you out, it's because your identity is on how much authority and impact and position you have in the sight of men. Promotion will do the negative to you. So when we're stung by criticism and demotion, which is natural, then we realign our heart. Lord, I live by who you say I am. I live by how you think about me. And we realign our heart over and over. And that's what David did in the early days. Top of page two. Well, let's get right into the story. 18, chapter 18, verse 1. Now when David had just finished speaking to Saul, now the sentence before this was back in chapter 17 when they're talking about Goliath. So this chapter 18, more, I mean, it's right connected to chapter 17. They're having this conversation about David defeating Goliath and the great threat to the nation being answered. The crisis being over. Now they introduce Jonathan and David. Jonathan, you know, is Saul's oldest son. He's the heir to the throne in the natural. The heart of Jonathan was knit to the heart of David. Jonathan loved him as his own soul. Now what's the Jonathan David story is going to be developed more next week in chapter 20. We see the story developed far more than we do here, although we get quite a bit of information here. But here's one of the messages. God went ahead of David and God set Jonathan and had Jonathan in place. And when David came into the into the royal court, the Lord had a ally for him. Now what's so interesting is that Jonathan should have seen David as his rival, because this is the new kid, several years younger. I don't know how many years, but a bit younger. And Jonathan's been waiting to be the king after his father at the end of his life. But this new kid is clearly in line. And Jonathan, here's the story that God has anointed this other man to take his place. And Jonathan has this remarkable response of, Lord, if that's what you want, I like him. I'm gonna do what you want. And if it's that he has a higher place than I do, that's good. I mean, this is remarkable. But their relationship and their kinship is introduced into the story. And what, and there's many points to it. But one of them is the Lord's telling David, David, I set things up ahead of time, because you're gonna have a hard time in the royal court. But I, I have evidences that I was working even before you got there on your behalf. Verse 2, Saul took David that day. Now, what it means, when Saul the king took David, it means he asked David to move from Bethlehem to Gibeah and to become a permanent part of his staff, his inner team, his, live there in the royal court and serve there. And he wouldn't let him go back to Bethlehem. He says, no, because he's been going back and forth the last couple years. But he goes, no, no, I need you full-time. I want you to be done with being a shepherd in Bethlehem. And David, this is it. His life radically changed. It wasn't a going back and forth like he had been in the last couple of years from Bethlehem to Gibeah, you know, from the tending the sheep to playing music for the king when he felt oppressed. Verse 3, Jonathan and David made a covenant. Now, this covenant has political, very significant political ramifications as well as relational ramifications. And Jonathan, he loved him as he loved his own soul. He goes, I have as much energy and zeal for your prosperity, David, as I do my own. I have as much zeal for your calling in God as my calling in God. I have as much interest in seeing your promotion as I do my own promotion. And verse 4, David took, I mean, Jonathan took off his royal robe. Remember, he's the prince. He's the heir to the throne. So his royal garment, he takes them off and he does the unthinkable. He gives David the princely robe. That's pretty intense. And he took off his armor, his sword, his bow, his belt, and he submitted it to David and laid it down at David's feet. Verse 5, going back now to David and Saul, as the narrative gives us the context of David and Jonathan's friendship. Now we're going back to the king and David. David went out wherever Saul sent him. Because up until that time, David would only visit Gibeah, the royal court, to play music for the king and just refresh him. And the anointing of the spirit would touch the king when David would play, young David. But now he says, David, since I know the Lord's with you in military things, you've had this tremendous success, I'm going to send you on military assignments. And it says that David behaved wisely. And it's interesting that in the Hebrew, the word wisely is often translated the word prospered. Because to act wise and to prosper are nearly synonymous in the Old Testament from the Hebrew point of view. So if a man or woman was called wise, almost always it meant they prospered. And if they prospered, it usually meant they were wise. It's not a hundred percent, but nearly synonymous. So therefore, some Bible translations say, and David prospered instead of David behaved wisely because they're so intricately connected. So David went out wherever Saul went. It meant on military excursions and military assignments is what it means. It wasn't running errands for Saul. It was a military context. And he succeeded. And then even as a young man, remember he's 21, 22, 23, Saul the king sat him over the men of war. Wow. Because a lot of the men of war have been in the army for a decade or two. And here's this young guy, brand new on the scene, and now he's their boss. Well, it's more complicated than that. Three of David's brothers are in the army. Now David is one of the top leaders. He's not the absolute top. A man named Abner was the top general, but David sits in the inner court with Abner. He's over the men of war. He's in the kind of the top cabinet of the military leadership as a young man. I mean, the guys are probably all 50, 60, 70 years old, who knows. And there's this guy, 21, 22, big smile, carries his guitar with him, got the anointing of God on his life. But instead of the army being jealous and despising this, instead of the royal court thinking, who's the new guy, the new favorite to the king, because when a new guy comes in and he's the king's favorite, that makes everybody else not like the new guy. But he was accepted in the sight of the people, even with Saul's servants, even within the royal court and the staff. They were not threatened by him. What is David doing that they're not threatened by him? Because it's very natural for them to be threatened by him. The only man that ends up threatened by David is the king himself. Goes on down to verse 16. All of Israel loved David. I mean, his popularity was remarkable. Well, let's look at paragraph D. Let's look at now, we're going to tease this apart a little bit. Jonathan gives his robe, the royal robe. Now, the robe spoke of his position of authority, his political position, his military influence. He gave his position of authority, particularly political as the heir to the father's throne. He gave it to David. Now, that's a political application that he was saying, I know who you are. You're the rightful heir to this robe and the throne. I mean, this is remarkable. Because remember this, Jonathan, when he was 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, he's been groomed all of his life to be the king. Now, the taking off his robe relationally, because this is a famous passage where Saul, I mean, Jonathan and David made a covenant, but it's a political covenant as well as a relational one. But typically, we look at it relationally. And sometimes, if you don't understand, there's a bigger story than just two men or two believers making a covenant to love one another. I've seen people make this covenant. It's been a blessing. I've seen many people get really burned out, and they misuse it, and they don't understand it, and it ends up becoming a very controlling, negative thing. For 40 years, I've watched people make covenants with one another based on this passage. And a lot of them don't understand the larger ramifications. These are the two men that are heirs to the throne, arguably. It's political as well as relational. But the taking off the robe in the relational sense, he's telling David, I'm not going to hide my heart from you. I'm going to uncover myself to you. I'm going to be honest. I'm going to be vulnerable. I'm not going to conceal my feelings, my emotions. I'm going to be straightforward. That's what that would mean relationally as people interpret that. And that's a beautiful thing. His armor, his sword, his bow, arrow, his belt, they were weapons of war. What Jonathan was saying politically and relationally, both and, he was saying, David, I'll fight your battles with you. You're not alone. Even if I die in the process, I will use my sword to fight with you and never against you. And I will use my shield to defend you. I will do this. And we see in the next chapter, he does it relationally for David. He goes, I'll go on the line. You'll never see me against you. I will only be for you. Out there in the larger world. I mean, it doesn't mean they won't have a disagreement in their personal relationship, but he means in the development of your life and your career and your ministry, I am always fighting for your increase. Paragraph F, well, it was a mutual commitment. They were using their, they were committing to use their position, their status, their resources to support one another, both in their ministry, their political careers, the relational, uh, the relationship together. Now this was big because to David, David was a poor shepherd boy, Jonathan. He was probably one of the wealthiest young men in the nation. I mean, being the heir to the throne, certainly one of the most powerful men in the nation. So he was bringing a whole lot to the table, but Jonathan saw things in David from God. It would have been so natural for Jonathan again to really, he should have been the one attacking David from the natural point of view, not the father, the rival, the natural rival would have been, but they were not rivals. This is a remarkable reality. Paragraph H, now this depth of relationship is so precious. It's a gift of God. Friendship in the kingdom is abs, deep friendship is necessary, but don't wait for someone to make you their friend. Go be their friend and let them respond in the, just as they do. I know a lot of folks, they just wait around forever. Say, well, I'm in the kingdom. I'm in the church. Where's my friends? And they're waiting for somebody to befriend them. And that's, that's the guaranteed way to end up with no friends. Sit on row 10 in the church for 20 years, waiting for someone to become your friend. You'll sit there alone for 20 years, more times than not rather go be a friend, go be a friend, go give yourself and then let the others respond as they respond. Some will, some won't respond. But here's the point I want to make. Friendships are very necessary. Deep friendships. They're necessary to realize who we are in God. They're necessary to become who God created us to be. Part of my inheritance in the Lord, part of my growth in the Lord is in the hands and the heart of other believers. No man is an island. Nobody's by themselves, self-contained. Much of my increase, much of my insight, much of my security, much of my joy in the kingdom is connected and put into the hands and hearts of others. I'm talking about the relational dynamics. And I need, part of what I need to grow in God is in their hands. And so you don't want to isolate yourself. Some folks go completely the other way. They're so engaged in so many things, they don't ever go deep in God. But I'm talking about the other direction now. But lest you approach this very glorious reality of this covenant relationship in a naive way. Again, I've got 40 years of watching people do this and in unbiblical and naive ways approaching this holy thing. And they end up using the covenant relationship to try to control and restrict people. Hey, we're under covenant brother. That means you need to do what I asked you. We're under covenant. I've seen that happen so many times, but not always. I've seen some glorious examples of the right way as well. Paragraph J, as I said already, the one of the messages is the Lord went ahead of David, set up this ally in the king's court, because the king's court is going to be a hostile court to David. He didn't know that at first. He had a couple years where everything he touched turned to gold, it seemed like, for a while. But it was going to be a very hostile, dangerous place, the king's court. And even in your life, as you touch blessing, there will be a downside often to a promotion. The enemy is raging at every angle. But the Lord has allies. He has people already in place. He's putting them in place, setting it up years ahead of time to be a blessing to you in different seasons of promotion and seasons of attack. So you don't have to get focused on the attack or the promotion, but you're focused on loving God and loving people and doing the will of God. Top of page three. Well, Saul went out. David went out. He had this high-ranking position. He went out wherever Saul sent him. He was accepted in the sight of all the people. He had this tremendous affirmation on the front end. Paragraph C, here's the, where I developed the idea of prospering and being wise being nearly synonymous. But what the Holy Spirit is emphasizing here, David acted wisely in the context of being promoted. A lot of folks are, they can act wise, but when they get promoted, I mean when they have a lot of influence, access to finance, and access to powerful people, often men and women of God, they will begin to change the way they relate to people. And the prominence and the access to wealth and prominent people and influence, they become, they use it to manipulate and do things to other people. But in opposite of that, David is portrayed in context to his promotion, is acting wisely. He stayed in humility. He stayed a servant heart. He stayed lowly in his heart. He stayed trusting the Lord instead of, well, I'm so busy now being famous and popular. Lord, I love you. And kind of blow the Lord a few kisses on the way of to being famous. This is a really important thing because as young people, you set your heart and you say, Lord, if my ministry, if my marketplace, if my sphere that you've given me, assigned me to over the years, if it does create a tremendous influence or notoriety, I'm not going to get too busy for you and I'm not going to change the way I'll still mow the lawn. I'll still do the lowly work. I'll still take correction from somebody lower than me without being defensive. I'll still have my heart open. Like, how dare you tell me that I am wrong? Do you know who I am? David was opposite of that. It's the setting of the heart in your youth that is, makes this story so important. Roman numeral four. Well, Saul becomes jealous. This is the turning point right here. Verse six to eight. When David was returning from the slaughter of the sheep, God commissioned him on these military excursions, these assignments. So he would go out as a, as a military man, as a captain. Now he'd come back with tremendous victories. Again, this young man in his early twenties are going, well, how are you doing this? I mean, how are you, uh, motivating and deploying soldiers far more experienced than you? You understand the landscape of war and how are you getting this? Of course the Lord was helping him, but he would come back and the women would be so excited by a military victory because that means their husbands were not killed. Their brothers, their sons were not killed in war. They go, David, whatever you're doing this, thank you. I mean, yes, yes. Our husbands came back. Our sons came back. Our brothers came back. The economy isn't being destroyed by an invading army like they did in those early days. Well, the women would come out of all the cities to meet King Saul. That's as the military is marching back, you know, to, uh, Gibeah, because Saul would go on a number of the military campaigns, not all of them, but they would pass through the city and the villages just on their way back to, uh, to Gibeah. The women came out, tambourines and musical instruments. Verse 7, they sang, they danced. Saul has slain his thousands. David has slain his 10,000. The song was spreading everywhere. I mean, it was the top 10 week after week after week. I can imagine how this goes. Saul has slain his thousands, you know, pause a little musical say law. Saul is so excited because he actually didn't. That was a little exaggerated. The numbers were not that big. Usually saying, well, I mean, what is a effective if they've been in the military as long as I, I guess I tend to be Saul. You're amazing. And they're kind of exaggerating. He's not very troubled by it. He's pretty happy. This is my, how I picture it. Then the musical say law is over. David is 10 times more effective than you. Saul's in his sixties. David's in his early twenties. The young guy is 10 times more effective than you are of bringing deliverance and bringing security to our nation. Verse eight, Saul was very angry. I mean, he loved David chapter 16 and 17. He loved David. I mean, David would come periodically to the King's court and gave you from Bethlehem and play the music when Saul would have the spirit of depression and oppression come on him. And he, he grew to love David. His love turned to anger very quickly. And the song, the saying displeased him. He said, they are ascribing to David 10 times more effectiveness, 10 times more ability, 10 times more impact than I have. And the real answer is so the nation got saved. The nation's got blessed. So what? Who cares who has the biggest number of the kingdom is getting built and people are getting touched by God and they're loving God and they're getting delivered. Who cares who has the biggest meeting? If it's happening, David, I mean, King Saul, he takes a step back and very suspicious. He goes, what more can he have now, but the kingdom. In other words, to be the king, to be, to sit on the throne. That's what he means by he can have the kingdom. He can have the senior role as the top authority in the kingdom and replace me. And verse nine, from that day forward, Saul eyed David, looked at him with suspicion is the idea. Now, this is a critical moment in Saul's life. Verse eight, and it's a critical moment in your life and my life. When the angry, the anger or the David, I mean, Saul eyed him, that's jealousy, suspicion. When that touched him, what Saul does with that, his future is in the balance of what he does with that emotion. If you have that motion and you call it what it is, you say, Lord, I have jealousy in my heart. The Lord says, that's okay. Let's talk about it. Let's move forward. Let's renounce it. Let's move in the opposite spirit. This thing will, uh, if it doesn't, that seed doesn't get dealt with, it will grow and dominate, will dominate the Saul's life. You know, I remember when I was a young pastor, the Lord was, I was teaching the life of David and I was in St. Louis. I, me and my wife, Diane, we were there for about seven years pastoring. It's in my early twenties. I got right down the road, started a church and like in a year, it was a thousand people or two. I mean, it was, it's exploded. It was the fastest growing church in the city. And it just, and a number of the people from my little church out of several hundred, three, 400 people in my church at that time, I was about 22 or 23 years old, something like that. Teaching the life of David, had a little church plant, a young adult church, and they were going and joining his church. And so, you know, I thought, wow, that's kind of, you know, uh, interesting. A number of young couples went and joined it. And so I went and, uh, just to sit there, just see what was going on. And I had negative emotions. I had jealousies and fears and one of my whole congregation just comes to nothing. So I went there and heard the guy, heard some things in the congregation that were just clearly not right. Not biblical. Some of the things being said, but the church was growing and people were getting healed and saved. And so I thought, well, you know, some things are not right, but I'm teaching the life of David every week. I mean, what a bummer in the natural. I mean, so I'm facing every one of these. So the Lord says, you need to act in the opposite spirit. And I said, Lord, I'll do anything as long as it's easy. The Lord whispered in my heart. I want you to go there every week and take notes and learn from him. I'm real busy and I got a lot going on and go do it, go learn from. So I go down there and so all, you know, the people from my church, they're all excited. Mike, you're finally getting it. You're getting it. It's like torturing my flesh because I see clearly some things. I mean, some key things are being said that are wrong. And even later on that church acknowledged them and just disavowed them. But the Lord, he just wanted it that way. And so I went there for a number of weeks, just, I mean, for months, I mean, maybe for nearly a year, it seems like, I mean, I think it nearly was six, eight, nine months, something like that. I don't know. And then, I mean, this was the double death, double death. The Lord says, tithe to this church. No, the second tithe. Give your first tithe to your church, which I did as the pastor. Give another tithe. I didn't have any money. Give it to him. No, Lord, he's saying wrong things. Just do it. I hated it. We became dear friends and it's phenomenal things happen. We're dear friends to this day. This is almost 40 years, 35 years later. Glorious things happen. And I look back and I'm so grateful for this, this chapter right here. And, you know, chapter 19 or 20 as well, because the Lord, that's the, what the Lord was saying. He goes, I don't want you to go that direction. If you don't deal with this right now, not that it was over forever, that was it. But boy, that was a, I mean, a flesh tearing, operating the opposite spirit. And others, many pastors in the city were criticizing him because he said some things that were not biblical. And a lot of people were joining his church. And the Lord says, you only bless him in the pastor circles in the city. They'd say, well, you know, he didn't say this. And I'd go, it was worse than what they said, you know, or whatever. I don't really remember, but I know, I mean the details of it, but I know this, that he said, bless only bless, give him your money, go to his meetings and bless him. And your heart will get liberated. We ended up with a tremendous friendship. And again, it's a story for another day, but I want you to look at this chapter and go, okay, this is real. I'm not just going to be a David. I'm going to not be a soul. There's two ways to read this story, top of page four. Well, it happened the very next day, Roman number five, verse 10, the distressing spirit from the Lord came upon Saul. We found this first in chapter 16. Now it appears again in chapter 18. It appears again in chapter 19, this oppression, this dark cloud of demonic activity mixed with Saul's bad choices at the heart level would come into a connection. I mean, not, uh, uh, I mean, yielding to jealousy, walking it out and then demons helping you with it. That combination is deadly and it's really real, even in the lives of believers. And that jealousy, that negativity gets entrenched and it grows the next day, a distressing spirit from God came upon Saul. Now David's in the, in the King's court. He plays a music with his hand and there's a spear in David's hand. I mean, Saul's hand, and this thing overtakes him. This is the very first act of violence right here. So far, Saul's had, he's been fearful and he's had this dark emotion of jealousy and all this fantasy and a mad vain imagination about it, but he's never acted out in an act of violence. Here it is. Boom. And I tell you, if he doesn't move in the opposite of the spirit of this, now he's going to get totally captured by it. And we don't throw fit physical spares. Cause you go to jail. If you do that, what we do is we throw verbal spheres. They're just as dangerous to our heart as the physical spheres. We speak things to undermine the person that's troubling us. Verse 11, he cast the spirit. He said, I'll pin him to the wall. You know how you pin a man to a wall with a spirit toast through them, pin him to the wall. I mean, that means you're impaled. I mean, that's, that's Saul. That's bad. But David escaped happened two times. And the reason it's happening, because whenever David gets promoted, Saul's fear and jealousy gets stirred up. Then the demonic activity that combines with that fear and jealousy, they get combined together and then acts of violence. And then the demonic activity, it multiplies. If you give expression to it, it multiplies. But if you act in the opposite spirit with repentance, it diminishes. Paragraph C, verse 12, David was, Saul was afraid of, of David because he knew that the Lord was with him. Verse 13, and then Saul removed David out of the royal court. He fired him. David, you're fired. Not just from playing music, but your military response. I mean, you're sitting at the table at the court, the same position. He goes, I'm going to make you a captain a thousand, meaning this is a different role. Sounds like it's the same thing as being over the army. No, he goes, I'm going to put you out on to where you have to go on excursions. You have to go on battles, expose yourself to harm all the time. In other words, Saul wants the Philistines to kill him. So he kicked him out. He fired him from his job at the royal court and gave him an assignment that was nearly guaranteed to one day have David get killed in his youth. Now this is interesting because when Saul threw the spear, David should have been the one that became afraid, but Saul was the one that became afraid. It was opposite. Saul threw the spear and Saul got afraid and David had confidence because Saul understood when he threw that spear, he did it on two different occasions that for David to avoid this, he knew that God was with him. So actually Saul became afraid instead of David becoming afraid. That's and he gave him a job in the military that would expose him to far more risky, dangerous military situations. Let's go top of page five. Well, Saul, he can't, he doesn't see David. I mean, he didn't kill him. So he kicks into a different strategy, a deceptive strategy. He goes, I know what I'll do. I'll give him my daughter. And when a king gives his daughter the dowry for a daughter, the bride price, the groom's family would give a lot of money. But for a king's daughter, I mean, you'd have to give like a, you know, a million dollars. Not really, but I mean a big number. David's a poor shepherd boy. He didn't have money for that. But the other context is remember when David was, before he fought Goliath back in chapter 17, the chapter before the offer was made by the king, whoever kills the giant, I'll give him my daughter. And there won't be any dowry is the idea. As a matter of fact, you will be exempt from taxes. I mean, you'll join the royal family. The idea of marrying the king's daughter means you're in the royal family, which means David has a far greater claim on the throne as a member of the royal family. Now that's, that's not good if you're a jealous king, because now David's not just a servant in the court, he's in the family and he's in line somewhat. I mean, not exactly, but he has a, at least an argument. Verse 17. So Saul says to David, he goes, okay, here's my older daughter. Merib is her name. He goes, you can have Merib, my older daughter, the one, you know, I said that whoever defeated Goliath could, I'll give her to you as my wife. But here's the deal. And there is going to be a dowry. And what you're going to do is you're going to have to go kill some Philistines, because I know you have no money, David. I am a king and it costs you a lot of money to pay the dowry. So tell you what, instead of money, do some service for the Lord. Go kill some Philistines. David could have said, no, wait a second. Your daughter was promised to me without this. And you're risking my life and you just fired me from my job. Saul goes, yeah, that's right. Verse 18. David says, not anger, not offense. He got fired. Saul lied about his daughter because he said she's yours and now she's not unless you pay a deal. And Saul is now risking David's life. David's answer is, who am I? A lonely man like me to have this privilege. Like, David, let me read you your rights. This guy's lying to you, putting you in a dangerous position and take, I mean, he's taking advantage of you and he just fired you. David responded with such humility. And we get a little bit more on that in the notes. Verse 19, it happens the same day. After David says, yes, yes, I'll go kill the Philistines. I'll risk my life. Yes. I see the, the, the, the beauty and the honor of being in the royal family of the nation that is in covenant with God. Or who could, could a guy like me be in the royal family of the covenant nation with God? Oh my goodness. Yes. Yes. Lord, you're giving me such a better deal than I deserve because mostly we think we're getting a bad deal and that's where offense comes in. David goes, no, it goes, I know what's going on. The God of Israel. Wow. I don't deserve this. So Saul took that daughter Mirab and gave him to Adriel says, oh, by the way, David, I, I'm just changing my mind. I'm giving my daughter to another man today. And he's trying to incite David. This is one of the things he's doing to get David offended and get David stirred up and get mutiny in his heart and say, wait, this is too much. You lied about on the front end. You sent me out to the, to the military risk that I could die. You fired me from my job. Now you take the woman. You've insulted me nationally because everybody knows it. And now you're, you're setting me up and taking it away. Didn't respond like that at all. Roman rule seven. We'll just read through this real quick and bring this to an end here. Verse 20, the younger daughter, Michael, she goes, Hey David. Hey dad, I like David. And Saul's really thinking, he goes, yeah, but I'm trying to insult him by the whole nation knows that he's supposed to be married to my oldest daughter and then take it away. And I'm trying to incite him to get him stirred up. So I have a reason to be against him. She goes, but I really like him. Saul goes, that's good. Cause verse 21, Saul goes, I know this girl. She is trouble. No, really this is, he goes, she will be a snare. She will cause him trouble. He goes, that's the one. And since David's so humble and enthusiastic, I'm going to have the Philistines. I'm going to have him kill a hundred Philistines as his dowry. He's got to kill a hundred. So he calls David and says it's a hundred. Well, father Saul, a couple hours ago, that number wasn't quite so big. That's pretty extreme number. One man, I'm gonna kill a hundred people for your daughter. Yeah. He goes, yeah, David went out and killed 200. He doubled it, came back right away and says, here you go. Saul's very upset. But in verse 23, David says the same thing about the younger daughter, Michael, as he did about me, rubbed the older daughter. He says in verse 23, he goes, it's not a small thing to me that I could be in the Royal family. I'm a poor peasant boy from Bethlehem. I know I got fired, just got insulted by you taking your oldest daughter. You've been trying to incite me. You're trying to get me killed with the Philistines. You fired me from my job. I get all that, but you know what? God is God and he loves me. I love him. I'm in his hands. I'll give you double what you want. What an amazing heart. Top of page six. I have here in paragraph D, gratitude. David refused to be offended. Paragraph E, I talk about humility. This is a couple of sentences here. Paul, the apostle said, don't think of yourself more highly than you want. Now who we are in God, you can't think high enough. I mean, you're heirs, co-heirs with Christ. I mean, you're heirs. You're part of the family. Who you are in Christ, you can't think high enough. It's higher than what you think, but the way that you interact and interface with people, we are to not assume we should have more honor. We should, we deserve more than them because we're more gifted. We've been more loyal and that might be always true, but God says, I'm already giving you a lot better deal than you deserve. You've got eternal life. You'll have a resurrected body. You're part of the eternal family. You got the Holy Spirit. You're already way better, fully forgiven of everything. You got a way better deal than you ever deserve. No matter if they give you promotion or not. And that's how David viewed it. And we're not to think more highly of ourselves than in terms of our relationships to others. Like I should have that role instead of you. It's like, you know what? God, I am so grateful for who I am with you. I'm just, thank you. Whatever you give me, it's more than I deserve in terms of natural promotion and honor. It's more than any of us deserve whatever place we have. We say, I don't have any place. Beloved, you have breath and life and you're in the kingdom. That's more than you deserve. You're already way ahead of the game. If nobody ever gives you anything, you're way ahead of the game of what you deserve. And I'm way ahead of the game from what I deserve. Paragraph F, verse 28. We'll just read this and I'll pray over you. Saul saw what happened. How David came back with 200 lives. Oh no! The Lord is with that kid. Everything he does goes good. He's generous. He's humble. He's got gratitude. He won't get offended. He won't strike back. He won't throw a spear back verbally even. Verse 28. The king was far more afraid now. He said, this is, I can't conquer a guy like this. I can't, I don't know what to do with a guy that can't be bought or sold. Because you're not moved by the privilege and you're not offended by the lack of it. You just, I can't, don't know what to do with a guy that can't be bought or sold by advantages or promotions. And Saul became David's enemy continually. This thing establishing him, he would not, Saul would not operate in the opposite spirit of jealousy. And the jealousy grew. And his most beneficial associate, David, becomes his number one enemy. And he's the one that blessed Saul the most. He brought blessing and finances, security and wealth to the kingdom by the military victories, etc. Verse 30. Now the Philistines, they got all stirred up. You know why they got stirred up in verse 30? Because David just raided and killed 2,200 of their people because Saul was being mean to David. Philistines said, hey, we're coming back after that kid. We're coming back after, we're going to make you pay for those lives. So it creates a war. Because the war was off and on all the time, but it stirred it back up. But whenever David went out to fight him, he behaved even more wisely than all of Saul's other workers. Meaning he prospered and he made wise choices. The way he responded to people. He didn't bully people. He didn't manipulate people. He was still a servant. He had a gracious heart. He didn't pay people back. He behaved wisely in promotion. His name was highly esteemed. Amen. Let's stand. Lord, we want to be like David. Lord, at age 20, age 60, age 80, we want to be like David. We want to see this chapter and we want to go in that direction, Lord. And just for a moment, just talk to him. Say, Lord, I'm going to do this. This is where I'm going. Now, you're not going to get it here in this story one time, and most of you have read this story a few times, but getting familiar with the story, just now read it over and over and put yourself in the story. Lord, we just thank you for this glorious portrait of what it means to be a leader after your own heart. In Jesus' name, amen and amen. Okay, we're taking a 10-minute break instead of 15. We're going a little bit shorter.