The sermon 'Wait on the Lord' by Kyle Nickerson uses the story from 1 Samuel 24 to illustrate the principle of waiting on the Lord as opposed to taking matters into one's own hands. It focuses on David's choice to not harm Saul when he had the chance, demonstrating his patience and respect for God's anointed. The sermon emphasizes the challenges of practicing forgiveness and humility, and the importance of understanding our roles as 'waiters' or servants of God. By drawing parallels between the narratives of David and Goliath and David's restraint with Saul, the speaker underscores the faith and character of David as a model for Christian conduct. The speaker also highlights the concept of initiation, both in God's nature and in our call to initiate reconciliation and act in humility. Ultimately, these stories teach us to trust in God's timing and justice, seeking to serve His purposes rather than our own.

Let us stand for the scripture reading of God's word. 1 Samuel 24 to 15. When Samuel returned from following the Philistines, he was told behold David is in the wilderness of En Gedi then Saul took three thousand chosen men out of all Israel and went to seek David and his men in front of the wild goat rocks. And he came to the sheepfolds by the way, where there was a cave, and Saul went in to relieve himself. Now David and his men were sitting in the innermost parts of the cave, and the men of David said to him, Here is the day of which the Lord said to you, Behold, I will give your enemy into your hand, and you shall do with him as it shall seem good to you.

Then David rose and stealthily cut off a corner of Saul's robe. And afterward David's heart struck him, because he had cut off a corner of Saul's robe. He said to his men, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord, the Lord's anointed, to put out my hand against him, seeing he is the Lord's anointed. So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul, and Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way. Afterward David also arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, my Lord the King.

And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage. And David said to Saul, Why do you listen to the words of men who say, Behold, David seeks your harm? Behold this day your eyes have seen how the Lord gave you today into my hand in the cave, and some told me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, I will not put out my hand against the Lord, for he is the Lord's anointed. See, my Father, see the corner of your robe in my hand, for by the fact that I cut off the corner of your robe and did not kill you, you may know and see that there is no wrong or treason in my hands.

I have not sinned against you, though you hunt my life to take it. May the Lord judge between me and you. May the Lord avenge me against you, but my hand shall not be against you. As the proverb of ancients says, out of the wicked comes wickedness but my hand shall not be against you. After whom has the king of Israel come out?

After whom do you pursue? After a dead dog? After a flea? May the Lord therefore be judged and give sentence between me and you and see to it and Plead my cause and deliver me from your hand the word of God for the people of God And all God's people said, you may be seated. There we go.

Here we go. Excuse me. As one preacher once said, I've got too many papers. C.S. Lewis once wrote, everyone says forgiveness is a lovely idea, until they have something to forgive.

We love the idea of forgiveness until we actually have to forgive someone who has committed an offense against us. That's when the true weight of the principle bears down on us and reveals our lack and how much more Christ must be formed in us. For example, loving your enemies, trusting the Lord for justice and vindication, praying for those in authorities, looking out for the interests of others. That's a very mundane and simple thing. Nothing spectacular, no need of a degree.

Making disciples. Now, it doesn't sound like a spiritual command, but it certainly is. There's many children in this room. Making disciples is a work of Christ. And everybody likes the idea, but the doing, that's where the rubber meets the road.

So it's easier said than done to perform that which God has called us to do. Like Seinfeld says, if anybody's ever seen any Seinfeld, I never watched a single show of it until it was already done and then I saw a few episodes. I'm not much of a sitcom guy. Too many other things to do. But he said anybody can take a reservation but can you hold a reservation?

Like when you go to the car place and you had a reservation or the hotel but they didn't actually hold it. They were very good at taking it, not very good at holding it. We've all had that experience, but I had that reserved. Now I have no place to stay. Now I have no car.

So the idea of doing something, the superlatives are what we're called to do. The doing is another story. And that's what's great about the Old Testament and narratives. Because when we say to people, just love one another, Well, not just love one another, make disciples, do all these things. The next question is going to be, well, I hear you, but what does that look like?

That's what's great about narratives in the Old Testament. It gives us a chance to see what it looks like in action. And it gives us a chance to grapple with real people that God put in human history, his story, to teach us certain principles. So today we're looking at 1 Samuel 24 and the title of the sermon. I don't know if you guys do sermon titles, but a lot of people want sermon titles So I have a sermon title.

It's called waiting on the Lord Now that is a great idea Everybody loves that idea sort of But it's the best way to learn patience, right? Oh Lord, give me patience. He will. He'll make you wait. Oh Lord, give me patience and then He'll give you something that really aggravates you.

He'll let you get in a traffic jam. He'll let you be on the way to preach at someone's church and a blistering rainstorm hits you. I always say the Lord is a faithful troublemaker. He's faithful to give us trouble because we need it. We need trouble.

We pray for peace and we should pray for peace and harmony But I promise you God is faithful to give you trouble. In fact, it's a good thing You don't win the lottery because if you did God would have to raise the stakes on trouble. Because you'd be able to buy your way out of a lot of trouble. I've thought of that sometimes. It scares me to think, if I had too much money, what would the Lord have to do to get my attention?

That's a scary thought. Because there's only a few things he's got left to go after. Not that he's in some subjective position, because he certainly is not. So today we'll be talking about Waiting on the Lord as opposed to taking matters into your own hands Because that is the temptation at least it is for me We don't like to sit around and wait Because after a while it's time to get something happening here. We ought to get this going.

Well, that is a temptation some of us might have. I've had it a few times. And I'll bet you everyone here has too, because you're all human. So today, we're talking about waiting on the Lord instead of taking Madison to your own hands. But what does it mean to wait on the Lord?

So this is the neat part of this title, Right? You always want a cool title and a neat little thing. But really, it just came to me after I gave it a title. Because David is waiting on the Lord. David has been given, has been told that he's going to slay his enemies.

He's going to be the king, etc. Ad infinitum. But that ain't happening it's not looking that way right he's having to wait okay but waiting is something you do it's an Imperative but it has to come from a source It has to come from a source so What dawned on me in this this thought process is that we are waiting on the Lord because we are waiters. And that's a very different thing. That is an indicative, you see.

We always are, you know, I forget who I told a few weeks ago. I said if there is a few things I would like every Christian to understand in the Bible it's the indicative and the imperative and the other one is the true meaning of the word faith we won't get to that one but today we're sitting on the indicative I want us to understand who we are in Christ. We are waiters. You go to a restaurant. What happens when you want food?

You need a waiter. And what is a waiter? In essence, what is a waiter and what does he do? He waits on you. He serves.

Waiters wait. It's what they do. In fact, they can't wait to do it. The more people they get that day, the more rewarded they get for their waiting. Exciting.

See? And you thought this was going to be a boring message. God has called you all to wait. Just lay there and wait. But waiting is who you are and if you're not understanding that fact you will never wait.

You understand how that works? If you're not a natural born X, then you will never do the things that natural born X is made to do. I'll never sing at Carnegie Hall. I may deceive myself and get on a karaoke machine, but it ain't happening. Because I'm not a singer.

You know there's that guy in art class. We all have him growing up in school that he just comes along and zoom in and it's like well jeesh look at that guy I mean I'm sitting here doing stick figures my tongue sticking on my mouth you know this guy comes along and just draws the Michelangelo and you go what who is this always that kid in school right about two of them and then next thing you know they're doing like cartoon graphics and this. You know why? Because they're an artist. You know what artists do?

They draw art. And you know what waiters do? They wait. And this is an acquired taste. This isn't something that comes natural to us human beings.

You know, my dog never waits. If my dog wants to get out of the house and I'm going for the back door, he just about knocks you down. That's how dogs communicate. They're like, no, I'm just going to push my way through. That's what else would I do?

I was watching that lady the other day, hadn't seen her in 10 years. She's teaching people to train their dogs and she's teaching these people not to let the dog beg right in front of their face so she says when the dog does that you just stand up and you push him back and say no you just push him that's how we are Now our old man is like a dog. He just pushes around. He's not waiting for anything. He's not used to that indicative.

He's used to just you know and when he's not pushing it's because he knows it's smart not to push right now because you won't win. There's a smarter way to push. Push differently. We're not waiters. It doesn't come natural.

We don't like waiting But God has called us to be waiters This is so good. I don't know how far we're going to get through this message. I just have so much fun doing this. See, there's an indicative. There's a word here that needs to be spilled out.

That's why it's so fun. We're not here just to recitate. We're here to discover nuggets and trues and Indicatives that God has given us so that we can see how they spill out and what they're gonna look like when we act upon it We're here to spill out indicators in imperative that means the doing The indicative is who we are the imperative is what we do So I've heard it said that Saul was David's rival But I don't I don't see it that way at all. I don't really think David had I don't think so. It's always even remotely in the word of rivalry I think David was in a much different place and that's what I'd like to explore in the next few minutes where was David that caused him to be and do what he was doing in this text?

Because there's always a backstory. These are little snippets, these are narratives, these are little stories. This is like jumping into the trilogy in book two and you're seeing something happen but there's the Hobbit that came before that story and you got to know the backstory you're not going to have any idea what's going on over here it's gonna be really cool a lot of CGI a lot of good fight scenes and you can just jump right into the trilogy and say man these spies spent some money on this movie this is a cool movie but it sure helps to know what happened in The Hobbit right? You get the backstory. So David His desire was not to rival a fight with Saul at all.

I Don't think he was fixated on so I think Saul was fixated on him But I don't think David was fixated on Saul at all In fact in this context David is just running for his life. I'm reading Samuel 21 there to y'all, and I'm just like, this is amazing. Can you just imagine yourself drooling and scratching at doorknobs? I mean, just Go home today and do it just for fun when no one's looking And then go out and do it to everybody else and make them think you're nuts. I mean David is quite a guy I'm looking at that story going David.

I'm telling you you got some what's but that's Yiddish I'm from Boston and we understand Yiddish every once in a while. So David, he's fixed on much bigger things than Saul. I don't think Saul's in the wheelhouse at all. He is certainly on a relational plane. Don't get me wrong.

He's not disregarding Saul at all. In fact, because David's head is in the right place, Saul is highly esteemed in his mind, yet he's trying to kill him. He calls him father? And he bows down before him? Who is this man that can do that to the guy that's trying to chase you around?

I mean if anybody has offended you in the congregation lately or the guy down the street while you're driving, I don't think your first response is, oh, please, sir, and bow down. I think your first response is to be impatient and a pusher and not a waiter. It's oftentimes mine. So let's go back to 1 Samuel 17. I just want to highlight some things about who David is and where he's coming from.

Now you'll have to forgive me, I was printing out on the computer and I accidentally printed it in the NIV to some people that is more heinous than it is to others But I did I usually typically use the ESV jump into the amplified Do some commentaries and I just went dink on the key and then I discovered my folly later on. But I just want to go to 1 Samuel 17 verse 13. It says, Jesse's three sons, this is the tale of David and Goliath. So this is going to give us an insight into who David is what his passions are what he really cares about Says Jesse's three oldest sons, you know, oh there's a clock excellent I'm gonna guess I have 45 minutes ish. So I'll try to keep that in mind.

Jesse's three oldest sons had followed Saul to the war. The firstborn was Eliab, the second Abinadab, and the third Shema. So these are the big brothers. They've all gone off to the front David was the youngest Three oldest followed Saul, but David went back and forth like a little messenger boy To tend his father's sheep at Bethlehem Now I'm sure David's curious about the battle, but I'm sure he's very interested in the sheep. I just think that's who David is.

We have clues to tell us who David is. I think David is wrapped up in the responsibilities that he has and he wants to be the best at what he's doing. And we know that because of his orientation the text is going to say it, but I call this the day of small things. This is where David gets to prove his faithfulness in small things. In the mundane.

The mundane is where it all happens guys changing diapers changing a tire That's we get to grow in Christ the most so This afternoon y'all gonna have some kind of opportunity to grow in Christ. I'm sure but if not give it a week It'll happen So we move forward a little. I'm just highlighting some things here. It says in verse 26, David asked the men, he comes up to the front Because he's delivering fig cakes or whatever rice cakes whatever they had there You know fig cakes most likely being in Israel to his brothers. You know, that's his hey go give him some food and So David's standing around and he says well What we've done the man who kills this Philistine and removes this disgrace from Israel.

Who is this? Uncircumcised Philistine that he should defy the armies of the Living God Now do you think he cares if the guy's six five or seven feet two? Do you think he cares any wit about this guy what's what is bothering David here because everybody else is standing around afraid of Goliath what does David think David's not even thinking fear And I'm not trying to dress up David like he's this amazing guy. I'm just saying God has his heart right so that we can see what a good heart looks like when it's tuned in properly. David's attitude, who is this guy to defy the armies of the living God?

Who is this clown? Can you imagine? He says, so here's David being David. He's just being David. And here's his big brothers.

They say, why have you come down here? And with whom did you leave those few sheep in the wilderness, you little sheep herder brat? If you think I'm emphasizing wrongly, you'll see. I know how conceited you are and how wicked your heart is. You came down only to watch the battle.

You wicked hearted little conceited little brat. His brothers have a jealousy issue. His brothers are fixated on David, kind of the way Saul is. David's not. David's like, And then David's response is, now what have I done?

Can't I even speak? Okay? I put next to that, holier than thou. That's what they're doing to David. They're saying he's holier than thou.

You have a good attitude, and what do you get for it? See, God's teaching him to wait. How do we wait? Well, in the active Voice, we wait by being patient. We wait by putting up with stuff.

We wait by not letting offenses move us from our spot. And our spot is in Christ. Our spot is in our sanctification, in our process moments. That's our spot. We all know when we get moved off of our spot.

My famous moments are in traffic. Nobody knows it but it happens all the time. I don't waived anybody, I don't let anybody know it, but I have my spots believe me I'm not telling anybody they're number one no fear everything's good, but I'm just telling you the things that move me or when you're at the supermarket and Things are just not as fun, and it's at that moment. We you say I don't have the right to do that. I have to represent.

But really, you don't want to. So David's just being David doing the right thing. And he's being accused, being brat and conceded. I Would translate nowadays to people calling you holier than now because you're just doing right maybe that happens at the office Or at the HVAC store Wherever it is. I'm not sure what the piano player does.

Maybe he sells pianos. Maybe it happens at the piano store. So I move down to verse 34, and this is David saying, Saul's like, hey, I mean, you know, I appreciate your thought and all, but really, little guy. David says, Well, your servant has been keeping his father's sheep. When a lion or a bear came and carried off a sheep from the flock, I went after it, struck it, and rescued the sheep from its mouth.

Which, by the way, is a pretty amazing thing to do. I've never done it, but I would imagine it's not your average day at the office. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear. This uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them because he has... Okay, so he says, hey look, I've taken on a bear and a lion dude I'm good at this by God's grace now I got I got to imagine that the reason why David did well there is because he felt Like those were God's sheep under His stewardship, and He had to put it on the line.

This is a shepherd dying for the sheep. They lay down their life. They're not like those false teachers in Jude. They're waterless clouds. And He says, now, okay, so why did he do that?

He says, this Philistine will be like the lion and the bear. Why? Because he has defied the armies of the living God. That's what's really got David juiced. What's got him upset?

Not that he's taking his land, not that he's hurting people, but that he's defying the armies of the living God. This is what bothers David. I mean I would imagine if you're in this scene you're looking at David and going, you know that's kinda right. I wonder why nobody else is feeling that way. I wonder why nobody else is incensed to the point where they don't care if the guy's 15 feet tall.

How dare he? If your child was being assaulted by a 7 foot 5 man, would it really matter how tall he is? You'd go at it with everything in you. You'd say, who is this man to go after my child? I'm going to kill this guy.

No, no, we would never kill anybody. I'm just saying. I might be tempted to do a few blows if someone went after my child. That's all I'm saying. I'd be tempted.

Down here in verse 46 of chapter 7, this day the Lord will deliver you into my hands. He's speaking to Goliath now. You can tell he's very scared at this moment. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hands and I'll strike you down and cut off your head. This very day I will give you the carcasses of the Philistine army.

I will give the carcasses of the Philistine army to the birds and wild animals and the whole world will know that there is a God in Israel. All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves the battle is the Lord's and he will give all of you into our hands very Christ centered this is the Lord's battle it's not by might It's not because I'm bigger than you, Goliath. This isn't even my fight. I'm just a waiter. I'm just a servant.

See, that's what a waiter is. It's a servant. You go to the restaurant, you're paying this guy a tip to serve you And he doesn't get to tell you what you want you get those waiters sometimes They have a little bit too It's time for them to tell you what you want when you want it how you want it sometime it happens sometimes you know we still tip them good though but that's what they are there's they're literally servants there to serve you King patron and that's what we are in Christ we're literally here to serve to wait on the Lord while we're waiting because if we're not waiting on the Lord we'll never be patient enough to wait. Now I love the next verse here in verse 48 it says as the Philistine moved closer to attack David ran away. Oh no David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him.

I mean, that is chutzpah right there. He says, oh, OK. I can't wait. He's got stones ready. He just cannot wait to get in there and zip one right into Saul's forehead.

He can't wait. That's who David is. You think David's really concerned about being king? Do you really think That he wakes up every day going man can't wait to be king. That's gonna be something I'm gonna have a nice big house and stuff.

I'll be able to tell everybody what to do I'm sick of this running around getting chased by this dude I'm always looking out for him. I kill people for him. I make his name great. What do I get for my trouble? He's my rival.

Come on. That word rival is very small all of a sudden. He's no rival. David could care less. I don't think David really cares about being the king.

I don't think David went into that battle thinking good I'm gonna win a prize. He asked he goes. Well, what do you get for killing this guy? And they say well, you know you get this out in the other and he goes good No, he didn't He was upset that this man was defying the armies of the Lord and that God's glory was being defamed. He was more concerned about God's glory and what God looked like than what he looked like or everybody in the room looked like or what Israel looked like or what...oh, if I lose the battle we could lose the land land is everything back then you know land you have nothing you might as well be slave labor no maddish that means walking around with nothing Hoping you find a place to live every few months or whatever.

I don't think David cares a whit that there's a kingship. So let's look at some of the things that David has demonstrated that I think is a good thing for us to understand and demonstrate. So David is there in the cave. Saul comes in. And David's desire is not to kill Saul.

His desire is not for the kingship, but he's got friends. He's got counselors. He's got all his men around him and they're all going, now David, now's the time. You remember, God says he's going to put to the sword all your enemies. Come on David, that's what we call peer pressure.

I've had peer pressure a time or two, I don't know. It's something you have to get learned to get a spine. But if you're just getting a spine just to get a spine because I'm not going to let anybody tell me what to do. Well that may work in some circumstances. I'll tell you that will stick out like a sore thumb in the communion of the saints That's why especially in church you really got to keep that on the down low because you'll get spotted in a minute, right?

We'll have secret meetings by the way when you say things like that in a visiting church, I'm not targeting anything. I don't know what's going on in your church. This is a message I preached. You know, I did this like, I'm on a three year survey through the Bible deal, and this was just a week, whatever. So I liked it.

So I preached in Ohio a few weeks ago at Mark's church and here I am and there you go Because that's where it's all you know in the Communion of Saints. That's where it all gets tested the best Out in the world. They don't know you're a Christian, so they let it fly. They're like touche good job But you do that kind of stuff in the church, and they go, I don't think so. Can we talk to you about that?

That's where you've got to be even slicker if you're going to try and be a sinner. So David's counselors are all part of the circumstance. So God, this is why I said a few minutes ago, God is a faithful troublemaker. Because without circumstances, how can we be tested and proved to show us what we're not so that we can learn and repent and grow and become what we're not well that's just not who I am exactly that's exactly right because God's going to make you who you're not. Isn't that nice?

I hate being a miserable sinner. Good, God's going to make you a saint. Well He's made you a saint. He's going to make you one that doesn't listen to the old man and that crucifies the old man and mortifies the flesh and cuts that gangrenous old man off. In the name of Jesus, you're going to be like David.

You're going to say, who is this uncircumcised fellow living in my members? I'm going to slay him. So David's mighty men, the peer pressure, sometimes the council of many wisdom is found in the council of many. You know why it says wisdom is found in the council of many. You know why it says wisdom is found in the council of many?

Because there's a bunch you've got to throw away. Seven people told you something, and you had to erase Maybe six of it. Then you had to go find seven more, get rid of six more. Now you got two. So you got to get the counsel of many before you find the nuggets.

And you know how you know that the nuggets are? They're the ones that tend to agree with the word of God, Because that's our that's our guiding light. That is the light onto our path. So David has a circumstance and counselors and what does he do with the counselors? They kind of nudge him in a direction that he doesn't want to go.

And David has to call upon things he understands from the Word of God. It says in verse 4, This is after. No, I'm sorry. I'm losing my place here. David cuts off his robe.

And what does the scripture say? His conscience smote him. His conscience struck him. He went and he did not walk away from that circumstance going. Got him, got him.

Got that little son of a gun. He's going to know I could have killed him. I got him. He felt bad about it. His conscience struck him.

So his men are like kill him kill him kill him and David's in his mind He knows that's the wrong thing to do and he's like well, okay I won't do that, but I'll do a little you know we'll do a little white lie Paul says and I think it's Ephesians or don't lie to each other You know what that means? It means we lie to each other or he wouldn't have to say don't do it. I Mean I've never told the wife since I got saved so I don't know about y'all but So we we we we'll do You know, But David wouldn't have cut off his robe if his men weren't going, now, Dave, now, come on. I mean, he's got these guys. It's like having employees.

You've got to give them something or they'll quit right I'm sorry I'm self-employed it's just part of my life you got to give them some work keep them busy or else they'll go find somebody else well that's what it's like with David here he's got his mighty men I mean come on they're all in they're getting chased through the wilderness Saul's got three thousand men just itching to kill this guy and his buddies and they're like now David come on what you doing crazy And David's having to go shh shh shh shh, quiet, quiet. He goes, okay fine. And he goes and cuts off the corner of his robe. And he does it and he feels bad. He goes, you stupid idiot, why did you listen to those fools?

Now I'm not saying he actually called them fools, but you know, this is a narrative. We can do that. He says, why did I listen to these men? Why? It says, so David in verse seven persuaded his men with these words, he says, verse six, the Lord forbid that I should do this thing to my Lord after he cut his robe off.

To my Lord, the Lord's anointed. So it's not just his Lord, it's the Lord's anointed. So David persuaded his men with these words and did not permit them to attack Saul and Saul rose up and left the cave and went on his way now in the amplified and in the NIV It says he rebuked his men He cut that thing off he felt bad he says guys shame on us. This is the Lord's anointed. Do you get it?

Why does David feel that way? What's the history in David's tradition, his culture, and the Word of God, and What makes him who he is? You know it was not a good thing to go up against Moses There was this group of guys that went up against Moses and Moses says well look I am the Lord's anointed I didn't ask for this job. It's not an easy job, but I am. And the guy's name was Cora.

It was a rebellion. And they said, well, what makes you the guy? Maybe we're the guy. I mean, how do we know what you do in that tent? You say this, but look at you.

You're dragging us through the desert. Would this not be what happens in real life? And so that's what happens. Now of course these guys had the benefit of watching the Red Sea Split, a mountain, thunder, tablets, you know they should have known better by now but they come up and say no but Moses is God's anointed and Moses says well I'll tell you what let's have a little test you stand over there and I'll stand over here everybody move far far away and the ground swallows them up David knows that he says this is this is God's man. What kind of...

See David's orientation is that God is great, we are not, he's awesome. Wow. And if this is God's guy, not only should I not touch him. I'll defend him to my death You know David wept when Saul died Saul and Jonathan died on the hill together The priesthood we know that you don't touch the priesthood, that's God's anointed, David knew that. You know, in the English word, Messiah comes from the Hebrew word meaning anointed.

And in the New Testament Christ translates the Greek word Christos also meaning anointed. Now does anybody catch any transcendency there? See, all the anointing, the Messiah, the Christ, in other words, the power point, the acme of position, the acme of authority is transcendent flowing down through the leadership that God is appointing in Israel. And David sees that, he understands it, it's intuitive to him. It's in his gut, it's in his soul.

David's not interested in the kingship, he's not interested in Goliath, he's interested in the Lord and his glory and protecting that. That's what he's interested in. And anything that threatens that or gets into that orb, he says, Ho, slow down. We can't go there. So David's conscience would not allow him to take matters into his own hand.

And even when he took a snippet into his own hands, it made him feel bad. Because his passions were seated in the right place. You could almost say this was David's passive obedience. You know, we talk about the passive obedience and the active obedience of Christ. The passive obedience of Christ is when he lays down and says, take me.

The active obedience is what? When he's waiting and serving. He's doing good deeds in the light of day. David is saying, passive time to not strike Saul. Where do you think that transcendent value comes from?

That one comes from Christ too. So what was David's act of obedience well David coming out of the cave Here it says afterward David also arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul, my lord the king. And when Saul looked behind him, David bowed his face to the earth and paid homage. He comes out of the king and calls Saul. And Saul says, huh?

As soon as he does, David goes, my lord, the king, the Lord's anointed. What an attitude. I love it Wish my employees would do that So Because David's heart is in the right place, now he's doing something that says this is what Christ looks like. Now, he doesn't know the name of the Messiah, but he knows there is one. And he knows what the anointed is.

And he knows what you do. So he knows Saul's in not a good place, but what does David do? Does he wait for Saul to kind of send a message to him and says, you know David, let's figure this out. No. David takes the opportunity, and this is the word here, he takes the initiative.

So, we're in church, we're wherever, we're getting the short end of the stick. David didn't do anything to deserve any of this, he's the victim. And What does David do with his victimhood? He sues and gets millions of dollars. Wrong.

He initiates reconciliation. That's called maturity. That's what adults do in the room. They initiate reconciliation. They humble themselves.

He comes and initiates contact and then immediately humbles himself. Because this is not about him. This is about doing what's best, what's right in a circumstance. This is taking the initiative. You know, God in his part of his ontology is initiation.

God is the great initiator. It's where masculinity, it's one of the traits of masculinity. A good man initiates. He doesn't wait. He doesn't let somebody else do his job for him he initiates I heard that years ago on a radio show and I actually called in that's a rare event But I did a guy from Gordon Conwell had a book called evangelical is not enough and da da da and discussion I said, what is masculinity and because he was saying?

Masculinity finds its trait. It's its Transcendency in the father and what really defines the father. Well, he's the great initiator We'll get to that third point here. David doesn't wait. He's not being lazy about it.

He's not being timid about it. He knows that he must do this. He must initiate with Saul. He wants reconciliation. He wants peace.

So he initiates reconciliation. David reasoned with Saul. Verses 9 and 11. Come let us reason together says the Lord. He initiates and then he says come on Saul.

Let's try to figure this out. Let's work this out. Let's make the Lord look good. Let's not let the nations think one thing or another. Let's demonstrate what it should look like.

Verses 9-11 says, Afterward David also arose and went out of the cave and called after Saul my Lord the king when Saul looked behind him David bowed with his face to the earth and paid homage and David said to Saul Why do you listen to the words of men who say, Behold, David seeks your harm? I think David just had some experience with that in the cave. You know, David knows it's not an easy process. But he said, Hey, why do you let people dictate to you? Because with David, it's a stumble.

With Saul, it's a lifestyle. He makes a living listening to people he didn't kill King Agag because he listened to people he he he sacrificed the sheep and lost the kingship because he listened to people. Saul was always worried about what people thought and not enough about what God thought. Samuel said, the kingdom has been taken away from you. And Saul says, you're right.

I was wrong. Samuel, can you come to the festival so I can save face it hasn't been a lesson learned there we call that that's not godly sorrow That's the kind of sorrow that leads unto death. Godly sorrow leads unto repentance. Godly sorrow is King David when he gets caught and he just guts himself out and says, wow, I am awful. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit in me." That's David's response to his foolishness.

Saul's response is, You're right, Saul, I'm terrible. Would you please at least come to the festival so that the people will see that you are with me. And David is saying, Saul, why do you listen to people? And really the opposite of listening to people is what? Listening to the Lord.

So David is left in the only place he could. He leaves himself in God's hands. He says, This is verse 15, This is verse 15, May the Lord therefore be judged and give sentence between me and you, and see to it, and plead my cause, and deliver me from your hand. David's not seeking to make his own vindication here. Now, there are times where it's certainly right and good to settle matters.

But everything in perfect order, and in this case, It's not your place to supersede what God is doing you know sometimes you're waiting for a circumstance to break and you think things should look this way and look like that and There's that temptation for you to do and say and act to kind of help that circumstance. But really the mature thing is to lovingly initiate, conversate and then leave it and let the Lord work with it. Because anything beyond that is you manipulating a circumstance and trying to do something because you just can't wait kind of that's a triple on Dondra you just can't wait you got to wait now This is what it means to wait in the Lord. It's not pleasant. It's not comfortable.

It's not easy. It's a bummer It's a drag That's what we say in the 70s It's no fun to wait it's much more fun to act You know I've been very busy in the last four or five years doing a lot more of what I'm doing now. And I remember when I was getting really busy saying, man, Am I crazy to do all this stuff? Because I waited and waited for a long time because things were not the way they needed to be and then god started doing Some things and making things the way they needed to be so that I could move forward Had I jumped ahead of that timetable, and I have no idea where I'm going to end up, I really don't. I pray with my wife every day, and one of the prayers that we pray, I say, Lord, give us vision to step further out, and the trust that we need, and the peace, to be assured that you are doing things to supply each step we take out into the water.

Because it's scary when you do that. But if you get out ahead, then you're not waiting anymore and you might drown. Well, you'll get water boarded. Nobody drowns in Christ, but sometimes we get water boarded. It's like drowning, but then the Lord rescues you and says, you see, you didn't like that, Right?

Let's not get ahead. I'm not here to watch you drown. So this transcendence I've been talking about, all these truths, all these things that David is working out in the Old Testament, They all find their place somewhere. These are eternal transcendent truths. They find their place in Christ.

That's where they find their place. All transcendent truths find its place in Christ. It's that proverbial pond in the water with concentric waves. And they go backwards in time and they go forward in the dominion and the consummation of all things. If it's not a worthwhile transcendent eternal truth, it's not in Christ.

But if it's a transcendent eternal truth, it's in Christ. And it's going to, you'll eventually find your spot right there. And that is half of what our sanctification is, learning, oh wow, that is the Christ-like way. Oh, that is Christ. That is Christ too.

That is not. So what did Christ do? Luke 19 10, for the Son of Man came to seek and saved the lost. We had something called call to worship. Luke 19 says he came to seek.

Who initiates? The Lord initiates. Do you think, See, we're looking at a transcendent value now, an archetypal value, initiation. If there's such a good thing that's transcendent called initiation, where do you think it finds its place? It must come from the Lord.

And there's a right way to initiate and a wrong way to initiate. And when our heart's in the right place, we initiate well. When it's not, we stumble, we make a mistake, and hopefully we go, oops, got to try again. The old trial and error, That's what makes older people wise. They've blown it more than you.

I have. That's what makes, if there's any wisdom be found in me, it's because I've made enough mistakes to know. That's not the way to do it. Jesus humbled himself. Remember David humbled himself?

He initiated and then humbled himself. Jesus in Philippians 2 and 8, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. Where does humility come from? It's not coming from us. We're not humble by nature.

We have to be taught humility. We have to have our hearts changed. And then we're so used to the pathos of our old man that we need to be taught humility. We're just like my pet dog. We don't know left from right All my dog knows is paw and he goes he can't wait to get that treat I mean his paws up faster than I get that treat through his mouth We have To learn right from wrong.

We have to be taught humility. And what better way than to see what it looks like Paul says, follow me as I follow Christ. What does he mean by that? He says, look at me, watch me. That's a big deal to have people to watch you.

I mean, that's quite a thing. Hey, you want to know how Jesus walks? Watch me. Okay, Jesus initiates, Jesus humbles himself. He is the ultimate, the superlative, the sublime example of transcendent truth.

Jesus rested in the will of God Luke like David he says let the Lord be the one who decides not me I'm not here to do my thing Luke 22 42 says yet not my will but yours. That's Christ in the garden praying Now that's a very good prayer a righteous man does not want to take sin upon himself a righteous nut man does not want to taste The stench of death in his mouth. It's a good desire that Jesus has To not want To consume our sin, but he says but you know what Lord I'm humbling myself before you not your will but my will So today I just leave you with this as we are waiting on the Lord. I want that to take a different meaning. Like so I prayed earlier and this is what I always pray in my heart for me and my family that the eternal truth, it's kind of a fact when you listen to someone speak.

There's only one or two things that really stick. Even if someone says, man, that was great. A year later you'll say, really? What about it was great? Well, I just remember there was that one thing.

If I just leave you with that one thing today, that one thing is going to be how do you wait on the Lord? How do you serve Him? Whose affairs are in the center? See, we're about His affairs, not our own. And so I pray that the Lord would plant in our hearts today, or renew that thought in our hearts today, that we are here to serve Him, not us.

And when we have that attitude, when this center of what we consume our passions over are Him and not us, which is not easily learned, it only takes a lifetime. But as we go through that regimen in that process and that and that's what's wonderful about liturgy every week It's like waves in an ocean call respond repent receive forgiveness, hear the word, respond with rejoicing. As we make a lifelong pursuit of that, we become more like Him. And then we become the people we were not. And oftentimes the people we thought we didn't want to be until he convinces us and shows us the truth of who we need to be so that we can have a better relationship with him it's kind of like husbands and wives Sometimes you don't want to go through that struggle and then you find out when you get out on the other side Wow, it's actually better.

We're actually doing better and That's the way it is and it's always that way with God because he's he never changes all the changing is gonna be us so that we can have deeper fellowship and an easier time in this relationship with our Maker. Let us pray. Thank you Father for this word. I pray that you work it deep down in our hearts Lord that Something of value that was shared today from your word from your story from the people you put before us so that we could see what it looks like when it's done well and even when we stumble and it's not done extremely well. I pray that you work in our hearts Lord give us humility teach us to be what you've called us to be teach us to wait on you well so that when we're waiting the waiting is done well.

Work in our hearts all these things, work in our hearts your word in the mighty name of Jesus. Amen.