Jealousy, Sacrifice, and Kingship: Lessons from David

Right? Who is on the throne? Because here's the thing, somebody or something is on the throne of your life. There is something that is guiding you, is controlling you, and it's either you or it's Jesus or it's something else. Is Jesus ruling and reigning in your heart and your life? That's a bit of a probing and kinda deep question and that's a lot different and more of a difficult question than, do you like going to church? Right? It's a lot deeper of a question than, hey, did you guys like the worship songs or did you like the sermon? [00:40:21] (39 seconds)  #WhoIsOnTheThrone

He gave up his throne as a way of saying, God, I want you to rule in my life. So as we look at this story, it's about kingship. And in closing, you know, every time we talk about a king, every time the Old Testament talks about kingship, talks about David, it's always pointing forward to talk about the ultimate king in Jesus Christ. Right? Everything that the human heart longs for in a king to fight their battles, to give victory, to give peace, to give security, Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of this. He is the king that is never selfish, the king that, never manipulates and uses people. He is the king that will always stand in victory, and he lays his life down for us. [00:39:02] (50 seconds)  #JesusTheKing

His jealousy opened him up to the work of the enemy. As it says in the book of James, don't let anger take root in your heart because you will give the enemy a foothold in your heart. Can I tell you that that is true? I mean, that is absolutely true. You let bitterness and anger, jealousy rest in your heart, the bible says it opens up a foothold, a stronghold for the enemy to have impact in your life. You see people that are oppressed and people that are struggling, a lot of times because they have bitterness, envy, jealousy in their heart. [00:27:59] (37 seconds)  #BitternessFoothold

And it's like it's like this pride, this jealousy just eats Saul alive, tears him up on the inside. This is what it says in Proverbs fourteen thirty. It says, a peaceful heart or a a tranquil heart gives life to the flesh, but envy or it's often translated jealousy makes the bones rot. Isn't that a powerful picture of what Saul is experiencing in this drama of David rising and Saul falling? It's like David was the best person that Saul could have been around. He was faithful to the Lord. He was a worshiper. He had no selfish ambition. He was going out and defeating Saul's enemies. [00:26:32] (47 seconds)  #JealousyConsumes

Like, he could have been such a great friend and a blessing to Saul, but because Saul was consumed with jealousy, he was pushing him away. Right? Here's what happens sometimes when when you're not right with the Lord is you begin to push the people out of your life who are right with the Lord. Right? It's like you push them out of your life because they're this reminder that that this is where I'm supposed to be, but that's not where I am, and and it's easier to push them away than to deal with your own sin. David could have been a friend, he could have been a a helper to Saul, and yet his own jealousy caused him to try to kill David. [00:27:19] (39 seconds)  #LordWithDavid

Says Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with David and the Lord had departed from Saul. That sums up their entire rising and falling. The Lord was with one and the Lord departed from the other. So Saul removed him from his presence. Remember, if you're not right with the Lord, you push people away that are. He said, and he made him commander of a thousand and he went out and came in before the people. And David had success in all his undertakings for the Lord was with him. [00:30:09] (29 seconds)  #FaithBringsVictory

And so we see this heroic act of Jonathan where they go and they defeat all of these Philistines, just the two of them, because he trusts in God. And so when Jonathan you say, what would draw him and David's heart together? It was like out of all of the people that they knew, the two of them had this bravery that said, if God is with us, then who can be against us? Right? They had this same heart. It was like when Jonathan saw David go out and defeat Goliath and say, look, it's not by strength or by might, but it's through God's spirit. [00:13:06] (35 seconds)  #PourOutThePraise

And so you look at Jonathan, he had every right to be jealous, to be angry, to be frustrated, to hate David, and yet he chose to love love him and chose to honor him. I wrote this that he gave up his weapons, which to me is symbolic of saying, I'm not going to fight for my own way. He gave up his armor, which is what I would say, God, I trust you to protect me. Right? He was like, God, if I give up the palace, who's gonna watch over me? He gave up his armor, said, I trust you, God. He gave up his robe, which is a way of saying, God, I want to be clothed not in my own strength, but God, I wanna be clothed in your righteousness. [00:38:13] (49 seconds)  #CheckYourJealousy