So Saul took three thousand able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats. He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. The men said, “This is the day the Lord spoke of when he said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’ ” Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe. Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord ’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.” With these words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way. Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground. He said to Saul, “Why do you listen when men say, ‘David is bent on harming you’? This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lay my hand on my lord, because he is the Lord ’s anointed.’ See, my father, look at this piece of your robe in my hand! I cut off the corner of your robe but did not kill you. See that there is nothing in my hand to indicate that I am guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I have not wronged you, but you are hunting me down to take my life. May the Lord judge between you and me. And may the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done to me, but my hand will not touch you. As the old saying goes, ‘From evildoers come evil deeds,’ so my hand will not touch you. “Against whom has the king of Israel come out? Who are you pursuing? A dead dog? A flea? May the Lord be our judge and decide between us. May he consider my cause and uphold it; may he vindicate me by delivering me from your hand.” When David finished saying this, Saul asked, “Is that your voice, David my son?” And he wept aloud. “You are more righteous than I,” he said. “You have treated me well, but I have treated you badly. You have just now told me about the good you did to me; the Lord delivered me into your hands, but you did not kill me. So David gave his oath to Saul. Then Saul returned home, but David and his men went up to the stronghold. (1 Samuel 24:2-18, 22 NIV).
Saul apologized and apologized. And yet he kept doing the same thing.
So Saul went down to the Desert of Ziph, with his three thousand select Israelite troops, to search there for David. (1 Samuel 26:2 NIV).
Saul again seemed out to kill David. And David rebuked him but did not kill him. Then Saul said, “I have sinned. Come back, David my son. Because you considered my life precious today, I will not try to harm you again. Surely I have acted like a fool and have been terribly wrong.” (1 Samuel 26:21 NIV). He said he will try. We can't promise to be perfect as humans but we can promise to try. We can take away anything that will tempt us. If our job gets in the way of a relationship we should get rid of the job we can give up our phone. Anything necessary to stop us from sinning. In chapter 26 when he promised to David he actually kept the promise. He later killed himself. He did not sin again against David.
Most people would be happy that Saul killed himself after he sinned against him. But David was sad and wept. He grieved. Saul spent the majority of his life fighting the wrong enemy. The enemy was not David it was his heart. The sin starts in our heart. Not other people.
*When it comes to saying sorry there has to be change afterwards. Do we live differently after?
We have to change. How much we fight to change shows the sincerity of our apology. If we don't fight or care at all it doesn't seem like we really care. Crocodile tears are an example of this. Crocodiles kill an animal and are eating it and cry. Not because they are sad just because they are made that way. They do the same exact thing later. They aren't repenting. When we see we can't have fake apologies. We have to be sincere and care that we sinned.
1. If there is no follow through it will be déjà vu.
Saul apologized many times and many times did the same exact thing. They kept going through the same thing.
In golf if you don't follow through you have to start decelerating before you even get to the ball. Before we even get to newness we will be back in sin. We fall back to the same thing.
“No one, sir,” she said. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.” (John 8:11 NIV).
2. You can't guarantee perfect but you can give radical attention.
We as humans aren't perfect. But we can give all of our hearts to try!
Attention is defined as special care.
Romans 13
You have to kill sin or it will kill you.
We have do everything we can in our strength from God to prevent sin.
3. Don't just show the change you gotta say it.
We have to be honest. We need accountability. We have to tell people we need their help. We have fallen but need help.
4. Behavior modification is powerless without heart transformation.
We tend to focus on the outside when the inside is the real problem.
You can't just pluck away away the fruit from the tree you have to pull out the root. And only a powerful source can pull out the root.
We focus on damage control and try not to have too many consequences. We don't actually care that we sinned.
We need to hate what we did and what it did to others.
With a strong passion we have to HATE sin. It destroys people.
We have to be changed from within.
God is really using these messages a lot in my life! I am really enjoying them!
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