Christianity Church of England & Ministry Sermons & Scripture

David & Honour // Preach on 1 Samuel 24

Preach from The Point Church 7/2/16 on David & Honour, from the series ‘King David: A Man After God’s Heart‘. You can listen using the link above or watch below (although the sound quality on the video is not great, sorry!)

Below are my planning notes which I used to structure the talk. Feel free to reuse.


1 Sam 24:1-22

INTRO //

1 Samuel – Amazing story read it! 

Intro – series on King David, through 1 Samuel. David we have heard was ‘ a man after God’s heart’ – a faithful man, sold out for God, guided by him in all things. A great role model!

Amazing story – like Hollywood Blockbuster.

 

Haven’t got time to go through it all again but there is a lot in there. I actually think God has something for us here something prophetic for our church in all this and it’s about honour, lack of honour, dishonour

And then of course finally here in the this passage we see David acting with honour and respecting Saul as the anointed one of God, even though he is pretty much delivered into his hands to kill.

 

But what even is honour?

 

WHAT IS HONOUR //

Dictionary:

Quality of worthiness, respectability

Honesty, fairness, integrity

Virtuous conduct

You know what I notice about those words? Honour is not a thing is it, not tangible, you can’ touch it, or see it alone. So when or how do we find honour? When do we see it? Well I think honour only becomes apparent in relationships, when people come together, through us and our actions.

 

I saw this this week, from Bill Johnson – he said that:

 ‘Giving honour actually releases the life of God into a situation.’

 

So then, if honour only becomes apparent when we interact with each other, when we do that we are actually allowing the presence and power of God into whatever situation we are in. Isn’t that what we see here with David and Saul, David gives honour, even where we might think it undeserved and it’s like Saul’s eyes are opened, God is released into the situation…

And how do we act with Honour?

Well I want to look at David specifically here, after all he is the focus of this series…

3 things I think are key here.

: David honours God. He is amazingly faithful, he seeks God for his guidance, he is focussed on what is God’s will. He is a servant of the Lord.

: He honours Saul – served Saul well despite being badly treated, having spears hurled at him for no reason! He dealt with Sauls’ jealousy and rage, his unreasonableness with patience and peace. (bible ref) pretty amazing right.

: He honours himself – he knows who God has made him to be. Firstly in the earlier story where he fights Goliath, despite ridicule from his brothers and poss others in the camp, he knows who he is, he knows he can beat this ‘giant’ and confidently does it. But he also recognises where God has put him. He is humble – He was not up himself, he didn’t even think he was good enough to marry the kings daughter (to become his son in law) he was humble, ‘I am only a poor man and little known’ he says. Bit not falsely humble either…

 

So honour God, honour each other and honour ourselves…

 And I think we can simplify this further – this is all about identity – knowing who we are in Christ – who God has made us to be. David knows who God is, he knows who he is and who God has made him to be but he also recognises who God has made Saul to be.

So let’s look at that a bit more. And I want to focus on what happened there in that cave

Saul was anointed by God (through Samuel) to be king. Now Saul was foolish we know and selfish and made wrong decisions. He knows the Lord but I don’t think he truly understands who God has made him to be. Because he tries to take things into his own hands, he rushes ahead and goes against what God has said. He doesn’t truly honour God or himself.

And yet David, David knows and honours God. Saul puts a hit out on him and he does not fight back. And finally after being chased into the desert and running for his life, here we see Saul ‘delivered into his hands’ as David’s men say, they believe God has delivered Saul to him so he can take his life.

But no. David says no ‘ I will not lift my hand against my master because he is the Lord’s anointed’

And there is something quite comical about this moment isn’t there, I can’t not talk about it. Saul has gone into the cave to take a pee basically (or worse). The very cave in the middle of this vast mountainous desert that David and his men are hiding in. not only that but he decides to take a leak. Now let’s not get into too much detail but we could probably say that for a man this could be his weakest moment. Right? He’s not going to have a hand on his sword, he’s not going to be focussing on what is around him and he’s exposed. Not only that but he does so in the cave where David is hiding.

This is the man who has hurled spears at his head, been unfairly hunting him down and David’s men say to him, look it’s the time, God is delivering him into your hands like he said he would. David creeps out, unseen and what does he do? He just cuts off a corner of his robe. You can imagine the men behind him face palming, what is he doing, this was it, the one moment and he’s fluffed it.

But David is grief stricken, what have I done, v6: the Lord forbid I should so such a thing…

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’ 

He honours the anointing of God on Saul, because he knows who God is, he knows who he is and who knows who Saul is in God’s eyes.

Now there’s something else here. Much of this whole story is prophetic.

So he cuts the corner of his robe, what is that reminiscent of?

In Ch 15: 27 Samuel rebukes Saul, telling him he has rejected the Lord and so the Lord has rejected him, then as he turns to leave Saul grabs his robe and it tore.

7 ‘As Samuel turned to leave, Saul caught hold of the hem of his robe, and it tore. 28 Samuel said to him, “The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today and has given it to one of your neighbors—to one better than you.’

An action that is prophetic, that Saul, Saul is the one who has gone against God’s commands. He is the one who has defied him, and here he rips the robe from God’s prophet Samuel and in doing so, rips the kingdom of Israel from his own hands. Does that make sense?

 

So now, we see David cutting the corner of Saul’s robe, he has cut the kingdom from Saul into his own hands.

Robes were very important in OT times. They denote something of a person’s identity. So Saul’s robe would have showed he was the king, a royal robe, being cut away from him. Not just physically but prophetically too.

 

xxxxxx

So. David cuts the corner from Sauls cloak and is grief stricken he heads out of the cave and prostates himself he lays flat on the floor before Saul, makes himself even more vulnerable that Saul was in that cave and he calls out to him, he lays down the truth but in total humility and honour.

David is acting from a culture of honour. A way he lives his life in which he honours his relationship with God, he honours the people around him and he honours who he knows God has made him to be. And what happens? Things change. The presence and power of God is released into the situation.

And what is Saul’s response. He responds to that, he weeps, he apologises…

‘May the Lord reward you well for the way you treated me today. 20 I know that you will surely be king and that the kingdom of Israel will be established in your hands.’

 

So because David acted from a position of honour, he release the power of God and that culture of honour onto Saul, who is changed as a result from a position of dishonouring himself, his relationship with God and with David, to the opposite.

As David recognises the robe Saul is wearing, so Saul recognises David’s.

 

Mention book:

Danny Silk – ‘Culture of Honour’. He describes how we can try and live in an environment of honouring God, ourselves and each other and it is fab, definitely recommend it. Will give you a totally different view of situations and how you can handle them.

 

Xxxx

 

So then I said earlier I think God really has something for us as a church in this

It’s all about knowing who we truly are. Who God has made us to be. But not just that, for us to see who each other us.

I think God is challenging us, each of us, to see ourselves and each other in the robes that he has put upon us.

Can you see the robe you are wearing? Not just robes of righteousness

We did some teaching a while back about giftings and being part of the body of Christ but this is more than that, This I think is prophetic, it’s going to release us as a church into greater things, if we begin to act with more of a culture of honour – as we honour who we are, and who each other is, we will enable more of a release of who God is.

 

Xxx

 

Prophecy//

 

So I mentioned the role of a prophet earlier on. In OT times, prophets were the ones who could hear from God, who God gave visions and dreams and words and instructions too, to share with the people. They were the mouthpiece of God on earth.

Nowadays we can all hear from God, because of Jesus, he came so each and every one of us could have a relationship with God. For every one of us. So we all have the capability to hear from God. But there are still modern day prophets who God still uses today. And one thing I have noticed about modern day prophets or those with the gift of prophecy, is that often their words for people are about enabling them to see themselves how God sees them.

 

Mention Shawn Bolz (book) – amazing accuracy – talks of love, so on it. Really sowing into people. And you know the result of a word like that is that it can truly release people

Into what God has for them. So someone might hear a prophetic words that speaks into their life, or a situation they are in and they recognise it, it encourages them, they act upon it and they are released into what God has for them, to see the robe he has given them!

Happened to me – being called, someone spoke into my life, when no one else knew the situation – stepped forward… now look! I was released to see the robe God had put on me.

And it took other people seeing that robe and calling it out in me for me to see it. Then all of a sudden it became clear exactly what robe I was really wearing. You see other people honoured what they could see of that robe in me. And they had a vital role in helping me to see it. 

Repeat? Do you understand this, so important??

If we want to build a culture that is honouring, we need to enable others to see their own robes too. We need to try and release the presence and power of God into the people around us.

I think God wants to release into us today as a church something more of his kingdom of who he is, but he is going to do that through each of us.

So here’s a question for us all – how do we actually deal with other people’s robes?

Sometimes we don’t act with honour towards each other in this respect do we?

For many reasons.

Do we get jealous, angry, try and rip them away, cut pieces off? All the while ignoring our own?

Or do we even pull away our own? Try to remove it, desiring another one?

How about, have we put on someone else’s armour? Like David facing Goliath – but he recognised it was not right for him. Sometimes we are inspired by someone, or have an attachment to someone for whatever reason and we try to imitate them, their way of doing things, we are not looking at the robe we have but trying to put theirs on!

 

And sometimes there might be things that stop us from recognising the one we wear. Perhaps we have negative words spoken over us, we think we can’t do things, or it’s not for us. We even speak over ourselves. I’m not good at that…

 

But when we do that we are ignoring, rejecting, the gift God has given just to us like saul…. And not only that but how hard does it become then for others to see it too?

 

Do you see, if we recognise the role, anointing, robe, mantle on someone else and we honour that, then we allow something to be released. It’s like the true nature of that person has to be called out of them, in naming it, seeing it, it can be.

I’ve been wrestling with this this week and trying to find a way to put into words what I think God is saying to us here.

We are a gathered church of individuals but we are all honoured/special

 

From Culture of Honour:

Life flows through honor. The clear fruit of establishing a culture of honor is that the resurrection life of God begins to flow into people’s lives, homes, and communities, bringing healing, restoration, blessing, joy, hope, and wholeness. If we are not seeing this fruit, then we must ask ourselves whether we are truly honouring those around us as we ought.’

 

 

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