Pastor Nate continues our study through the Bible in the book of 2 Samuel
[00:00:00] . This might sound kind of awkward, but I'd like you to imagine in your mind your own future.
[00:00:07] And I pray distant future funeral. Think about what said, what people believe about you,
[00:00:17] the priorities of your life that they celebrate. Just think about all of that.
[00:00:22] And the reason why I'm mentioning that today is because in our passage, David is going to eulogize his father-in-law Saul
[00:00:32] and one of his best friends, his best friend, Jonathan, Saul's son. They're both going to die in battle in the passage in front of us.
[00:00:39] So what we're going to do today is we're going to read the account of their death.
[00:00:45] And I'll make a few comments as we read through it. But then we're really going to focus on the song that David writes in response to their death.
[00:00:55] And as we go through that song, that's where we'll go more slowly. And as we go through that song, I'm going to try to draw out for you five different things
[00:01:04] that David remembered about Saul and Jonathan that I think we might also be remembered for.
[00:01:10] Some of them we won't want to be remembered for and many of them we will want to be remembered for.
[00:01:15] So let's start out reading in 1 Samuel 31 and we're just going to bleed right into the first chapter of 2 Samuel.
[00:01:23] So it says in verse one, now the Philistines were fighting against Israel and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa.
[00:01:33] And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons and the Philistines struck down Jonathan and Abinadab and Mal'Kashua, the sons of Saul.
[00:01:42] It's not every one of Saul's sons but three of four. The battle, verse three, pressed hard against Saul and the archers found him
[00:01:51] and he was badly wounded by the archers. So kind of the idea here is that more than likely the Philistines had chariots
[00:01:59] and they had archers and they pursued Saul. Saul ran to Mount Gilboa knowing that if he started climbing this mountain
[00:02:07] the chariots wouldn't be able to go up but the archers came out and slowly, methodically, they chased him up the mountain
[00:02:13] and eventually struck him. Then, verse four, Saul said to his armor-bearer,
[00:02:19] draw your sword and thrust me through with it lest these uncircumcised come and thrust me through and mistreat me.
[00:02:27] So Saul was nervous about the shame of being killed by the Philistines but also was nervous about being tortured.
[00:02:35] But his armor-bearer would not do it for he feared greatly. Therefore, Saul took his own sword and fell upon it
[00:02:44] and when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead he also fell upon his sword and died with him.
[00:02:51] Thus Saul died and his three sons and his armor-bearer and all his men on the same day together
[00:02:57] and when the men of Israel who were on the other side of the valley and those beyond the Jordan
[00:03:02] saw that the men of Israel had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled
[00:03:08] and the Philistines came and lived in them. So the Philistines moved into Israelite territory because Saul lost.
[00:03:15] So this is- if you're in Israelite reading this passage years later this is embarrassing.
[00:03:20] The next day, verse eight, when the Philistines came to strip the slain they found Saul
[00:03:26] and his three sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. So they cut off his head and stripped off his armor
[00:03:32] and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to carry the good news,
[00:03:38] obviously good news for them, to the house of their idols and to the people.
[00:03:43] They put his armor in the temple of Astoroth and they fastened his body to the wall of Beth-Shawn.
[00:03:48] But when the inhabitants of Jabesh Gilead heard what the Philistines had done to Saul
[00:03:53] all the valiant men arose and went all night and took the body of Saul
[00:03:58] and the bodies of his sons from the wall of Beth-Shawn.
[00:04:01] And they came to Jabesh and burned them there and probably they did that to disguise the abuse that Saul had suffered
[00:04:08] and they took their bones and buried them under the tamarisk tree in Jabesh
[00:04:14] and fasted seven days. So that's the inglorious death of Saul and then his sons as well.
[00:04:22] Now in verse 1 of chapter 1 of the next book, second Samuel, they kind of just go together these two books.
[00:04:28] It says after the death of Saul when David had returned from striking down the Amalekites,
[00:04:34] David remained two days in Ziklag. So this helps us understand David was not in the battle.
[00:04:39] He didn't fight for the Philistines that he'd been tempted to do as he'd been tempted to do.
[00:04:43] Nor did he fight for the Israelites. He was just in his town Ziklag.
[00:04:49] He wasn't in the battle. But on the third day, verse 2,
[00:04:52] behold a man came from Saul's camp with his clothes torn and dirt on his head.
[00:04:59] And when he came to David he fell to the ground and paid homage.
[00:05:03] David said to him, where do you come from?
[00:05:06] And he said to him, I have escaped from the camp of Israel.
[00:05:09] And David said to him, how did it go? Tell me.
[00:05:13] So now David cares. He really cares about Israel. What happened?
[00:05:17] He's asking. So the man answered, the people fled from the battle
[00:05:21] and also many of the people have fallen and are dead
[00:05:25] and Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead.
[00:05:29] Then David, verse 5 said to the young man who told him, how do you know that Saul
[00:05:35] and his son Jonathan are dead? You know this was of utmost concern to David's heart.
[00:05:41] He believed that Israel had lost but he really wants to know
[00:05:44] how can you say for certain that Saul is dead and his son Jonathan?
[00:05:48] Remember Saul's his father-in-law, Jonathan's his best friend.
[00:05:51] He wants to know, how do you know? How can you confirm this?
[00:05:54] So the young man, verse 6 who told him said, by chance I happened to be
[00:06:00] on Mount Gilboa and there was Saul leaning on his spear
[00:06:04] and behold the chariots and the horsemen were close upon him.
[00:06:08] And when he looked behind him he saw me and he called to me
[00:06:11] and he answered, here I am. And he said to me, who are you?
[00:06:15] And I answered him, I am an Amalekite. And he said to me, stand beside me
[00:06:20] and kill me for anguish has seized me and yet my life still lingers.
[00:06:26] So I stood behind him and I killed him because I was sure that he could not live
[00:06:31] after he had fallen. And I took the crown that was on his head
[00:06:35] and the armlet that was on his arm and I have brought them here to my Lord.
[00:06:40] Now what we just read there were two contradictory accounts
[00:06:45] about Saul's death. You know in the first one at the end of
[00:06:49] 1 Samuel it said he fought against the Philistines.
[00:06:52] The Philistines pursued him up to Mount Gilboa, shot him with archers.
[00:06:55] He asked his armor bearer to kill him. His armor bearer wouldn't do it
[00:06:58] so Saul pulled out his own sword and fell upon his own sword.
[00:07:01] But in the second story this Amalekite comes with the crown
[00:07:05] and the armlet from Saul, gives him to David and says,
[00:07:09] well I saw Saul. He was lying on his spear. He was mortally wounded
[00:07:14] and so he asked me to finish the job and I could tell he wasn't going to survive.
[00:07:18] So I finished the job for him and here's you know the evidence.
[00:07:22] More than likely what has happened is this young Amalekite is thinking to
[00:07:26] he probably just got there after Saul had died.
[00:07:29] He's fabricated a story now for David.
[00:07:33] He's thinking in his mind because he went, he got to the bodies before
[00:07:37] the Philistines so he takes the crown, takes the armlet and he's like
[00:07:40] man when I bring these to David and I tell David that I killed Saul.
[00:07:44] David who has been persecuted by Saul for like a decade now
[00:07:49] he's going to put me on his team. You know so he's like thinking
[00:07:53] he's going to be happy, he's going to be excited. So let's read what happens next.
[00:07:57] It says then David verse 11 took hold of his clothes
[00:08:04] and tore them and so did all the men who were with him.
[00:08:08] So David's like going to mourn over this and then his men are going to
[00:08:12] I think they're just going to pretend to mourn also.
[00:08:16] They're just like okay David's doing it so we're going to mourn too.
[00:08:19] But I'm sure in their hearts they're like this is the greatest day of our lives.
[00:08:22] Saul is gone. And they mourned verse 12 and wept and fasted
[00:08:27] until evening for Saul and for Jonathan his son and for the people
[00:08:31] of the Lord and for the house of Israel because they had fallen by the sword.
[00:08:34] So this young Amalekite guy he's just watching this whole thing go down
[00:08:37] like oh man I just brought them what I thought was good news
[00:08:40] they're acting like it's really bad news what's going to happen to me.
[00:08:44] Well here's what happens verse 13. And David said to the young man
[00:08:47] who told him where do you come from and he answered
[00:08:50] I am the son of a sojourner and Amalekite.
[00:08:54] David said to him how is it that you are not afraid to put out your hand
[00:08:57] to destroy the Lord's anointed. Then David called one of the young men
[00:09:01] and said go execute him. And he struck him down so that he died.
[00:09:06] And David said to him your blood be on your head for your own mouth
[00:09:11] has testified against you saying I have killed the Lord's anointed.
[00:09:16] David what you have to notice here is that David is now immediately
[00:09:20] behaving like the king of Israel. He puts this man under capital punishment
[00:09:24] he doesn't say even go kill him he says go execute him.
[00:09:28] And David then here's where we're going to pick up the tale verse 17.
[00:09:32] Lamented with this lamentation over Saul and Jonathan his son
[00:09:38] and he said it should be taught to the people of Judah
[00:09:42] behold it is written in the book of Jasher. Now there's no book of Jasher in the Bible
[00:09:46] this was an outside of the Bible book a collection of Jewish Hebrew
[00:09:51] songs different parts of literature. The book of Joshua also mentions the
[00:09:55] book of Jasher we don't have it it's not saved for us
[00:09:59] but they saved it there but they also wrote it in 2 Samuel chapter 1
[00:10:03] this lamentation and David began to speak. Now this
[00:10:07] song that we're about to read this lamentation first of all let's just say like this
[00:10:11] isn't it grace that he even had a lamentation.
[00:10:15] I mean to me you read about all the things that Saul did to David
[00:10:19] you expect to read something like and David
[00:10:23] wrote a super upbeat pop song celebrating
[00:10:27] the fact that Saul was dead no he laments
[00:10:31] his heart is broken the king of Israel has died
[00:10:35] and he's broken over that.
[00:10:39] So let's read what he says first I want to show you verse 19
[00:10:43] to 21 he says your glory oh Israel
[00:10:47] is slain on your high places how the mighty
[00:10:51] have fallen tell it not in Gath publish it not in the streets
[00:10:55] of Ashkelon lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice lest the daughters
[00:10:59] of the uncircumcised exult you mountains of
[00:11:03] Gilboa let there be no dew or rain upon you nor fields
[00:11:07] of offerings for there the shield of the mighty
[00:11:11] was defiled the shield of Saul not
[00:11:15] afflicted with oil. Now the first movement of this song
[00:11:19] there's going to be three times David says how the mighty have fallen
[00:11:23] so that's how he introduces the song how the mighty have fallen
[00:11:27] and when he says that he's talking about Saul, Jonathan
[00:11:31] Saul's other sons and then the armies of
[00:11:35] Israel who have lost so that's who David is remembering he says how the mighty have fallen
[00:11:39] particularly he's talking about Saul and Jonathan these two men
[00:11:43] fallen. And there's two different ways that David wants this to be remembered.
[00:11:48] There's one group that he doesn't want to know about Saul's death.
[00:11:53] It's the Philistines. Did you see it there in verse 20?
[00:11:56] He says, tell it not in Gath.
[00:11:58] That's a Philistine stronghold of Philistine town.
[00:12:01] He says, tell it not in the streets of Ashkelon,
[00:12:03] another Philistine territory, unless less the daughters of the Philistines
[00:12:08] rejoice. In other words, David does not want the Philistines
[00:12:11] to know about Saul's death because the Philistines will rejoice
[00:12:15] because of Saul's death. Now, obviously, we already read the story.
[00:12:18] We know that they did know.
[00:12:20] We know that they went around and took his body,
[00:12:25] pinned it up against the wall of Bethshawn.
[00:12:28] And by the way, the brave men of Jabesh Gilead went and pulled the body down.
[00:12:33] Forty years earlier, Saul's first military victory was for the people of Bethshawn
[00:12:39] or for the people of Jabesh Gilead. He had saved them.
[00:12:42] So 40 years later, they come back and they pull his body down from the wall.
[00:12:45] They took his armor and they put it in the temple of the astrakh.
[00:12:50] And so what they're doing is they're going around and they are celebrating
[00:12:54] the fact that the Philistines are that their God is mightier
[00:12:59] than Saul and his God. That's what they're doing.
[00:13:02] So this is an embarrassing moment for Israel, this failure, this loss of Saul.
[00:13:08] But there was another group that David wanted to know about Saul's death.
[00:13:13] And we get that in verse 21, because what he does is he curses
[00:13:17] the mountains of Gilboa. Did you see that there?
[00:13:21] And what he does is he says, may there be no more
[00:13:25] do or reign upon you nor fields of offerings.
[00:13:28] Well, what he's meaning by that is that he's cursing this mountain
[00:13:32] and what he wants is it for it to be perpetually
[00:13:35] a dry and arid place so that no grass will grow upon it.
[00:13:41] So that no cows, oxen, sheep can graze on the
[00:13:48] slopes leading up to Mount Gilboa.
[00:13:51] That's why he uses the line.
[00:13:53] May there be no fields of offerings.
[00:13:57] He doesn't say fields of sheep or fields of cattle.
[00:14:00] He says fields of offerings.
[00:14:02] So if you're a sheep, you take that personally.
[00:14:06] But for David, when he saw sheep, you know, he's like, but you also could be an offering.
[00:14:11] So that's what he means by that line.
[00:14:13] So he's pronouncing a curse upon Mount Gilboa.
[00:14:16] In other words, what David was hoping for was that the Philistines
[00:14:20] would not hear about this and they did.
[00:14:23] But he was hoping that they wouldn't because it was an embarrassment
[00:14:26] for the people of Israel, about the God of Israel.
[00:14:29] But he was hoping that the people of Israel would hear about it.
[00:14:32] He was hoping that in years to come, people would walk by the Israelite
[00:14:36] mountain of Gilboa and see it all dry, arid and ask, what's going on here?
[00:14:42] Why is there no green grass?
[00:14:44] Why is it that no animals can graze upon it?
[00:14:48] There's just nothing there.
[00:14:49] And he wanted people to respond.
[00:14:50] Well, that's the place that Saul died.
[00:14:53] That's the place that Jonathan died.
[00:14:55] Why did Saul die?
[00:14:56] Why did Jonathan die?
[00:14:57] Well, Saul had hardened his heart against the God of Israel.
[00:15:02] He persisted in his own way.
[00:15:04] And because he'd done that, God lifted his hand from his life
[00:15:07] and he lost his life in news replaced by a man who was God hearted
[00:15:11] and better than he.
[00:15:13] In a sense, David did not want the news of Saul's death to go out,
[00:15:18] but he did want the news of Saul's death to go out.
[00:15:22] So I'm sorry about this first point.
[00:15:24] But the first thing that I have to say that we often will be remembered
[00:15:29] for is we will be number one remembered for our failures.
[00:15:33] Now, before you feel like I'm just going to breathe fire on you right now
[00:15:36] and just really crush you with a point like this.
[00:15:39] Let me just explain this a little bit.
[00:15:43] You know, the reality is none of us is going to live a perfect life.
[00:15:48] In fact, I hate that statement because when we say it, you know,
[00:15:53] no one's perfect, no one lives a perfect life.
[00:15:56] It's kind of like giving ourselves a little bit of a of a pass, right?
[00:16:00] It's kind of this statement.
[00:16:01] Like when someone says that, it kind of makes me feel like, oh, you know,
[00:16:04] like I went to the car lot, I picked out a new car
[00:16:07] and they forgot to put the floor mats in before I left, you know,
[00:16:10] but everything else is good.
[00:16:11] It's not perfect.
[00:16:13] The floor mats aren't there, but otherwise it's great.
[00:16:15] That's not what our lives are like.
[00:16:17] You'd be like buying a car and you pick it up and there's no engine.
[00:16:21] You know, those are some of the gaps in our lives.
[00:16:25] So sometimes we say, well, you know, I'm not perfect.
[00:16:27] Really what we mean is like, I have just fallen so far short of the glory of God.
[00:16:35] So I'm not here to beat us up about this, although Saul served as a warning,
[00:16:43] you know, there are times, especially when the Lord raises you up
[00:16:49] where a fall in your life is going to embarrass the community of the saints.
[00:16:56] You know, when a prominent believer, a pastor, evangelist,
[00:16:59] someone like that, you know, falls into some kind of disgraceful sin.
[00:17:03] There's grace for them.
[00:17:04] They can be restored, you know, things like that.
[00:17:06] But it is it hurts the body of Christ.
[00:17:09] It's a harmful thing.
[00:17:12] There's a story in in or a verse in Second Timothy
[00:17:17] that kind of illustrates what I'm talking about right now,
[00:17:19] though on the other hand about us learning about failures.
[00:17:23] Because remember Paul Paul was a guy.
[00:17:25] He always had all these friends that he did ministry with.
[00:17:27] He would serve Jesus alone, but he did it better when he had other people.
[00:17:32] So we had companions, you know, guys like Timothy and Silas
[00:17:36] and Titus and Barnabas and Mark, he had these different people
[00:17:39] that he would go out and he'd do ministry with.
[00:17:42] He worked for Jesus with these guys.
[00:17:46] And one of his companions, you can kind of trace it out.
[00:17:49] He had this guy named Demis that was a friend of his, a co-laborer in Christ.
[00:17:54] But in his last letter that he ever wrote on his really on his deathbed,
[00:17:59] not that he was sick, but he knew that he was about to be beheaded for the faith.
[00:18:04] He wrote to Timothy and he said, And even Demis has forsaken me,
[00:18:08] having loved this present world and has departed for Thessalonica.
[00:18:12] That is the last word in the Bible about Paul's companion, this man named Demis.
[00:18:18] Now you might hear that and you might say, Well, that seems kind of
[00:18:21] that seems a little mean of God to put that one in there.
[00:18:25] I mean, imagine like someday if you're a believer, you're going to meet Demis.
[00:18:29] I don't know what day it'll be, maybe like day one billion in eternity.
[00:18:32] You know, you'll meet Demis and it might, you know, maybe you're thinking like
[00:18:35] that's going to be a little awkward.
[00:18:37] You know, I mean he's a believer, but he kind of biffed there at the very end.
[00:18:42] But here's the thing, you know who's so glad
[00:18:46] that his failure is recorded in Holy Scripture?
[00:18:50] Demis, because in the presence of the Lord,
[00:18:54] he is longing for every believer on earth to walk with him, to enjoy him,
[00:19:00] to prioritize life correctly.
[00:19:04] You see, the reality is there are going to be gaps in my life and gaps in your life.
[00:19:09] But we should want the people in our lives to learn from those gaps.
[00:19:14] And so we will be remembered in one sense for our failures.
[00:19:18] There will be things that we leave undone, things that we don't execute correctly.
[00:19:23] But hopefully the people in our lives can learn even from the mistakes in our lives.
[00:19:31] So number two, let's look in verse 22.
[00:19:34] Paul goes on, excuse me, David goes on in his song
[00:19:39] and he says, from the blood of the slain, from the fat of the mighty,
[00:19:44] the bull of Jonathan turned not back.
[00:19:47] The sword of Saul returned not empty.
[00:19:50] Saul and Jonathan, beloved and lovely in life and in death.
[00:19:54] They were not divided.
[00:19:55] They were swifter than eagles.
[00:19:57] They were stronger than lions.
[00:20:00] All right.
[00:20:01] Now in this next part of the song, David really begins to highlight some beautiful things
[00:20:07] about Saul and about Jonathan.
[00:20:09] And here really what he rejoices over is the military strength
[00:20:13] that Saul and Jonathan provided historically to the people of Israel.
[00:20:18] Now it's hard for us to imagine that because we just read 1 Samuel 31
[00:20:22] where they lost a military battle.
[00:20:25] But in the years running up to that, they had actually been used by God quite a bit,
[00:20:30] especially before David came onto the scene to help defend the people of Israel, protect
[00:20:35] the people of God so that Israel could exist so that the Messiah could come.
[00:20:41] And so David rejoices over that.
[00:20:43] And he says, you know, they were they went out to fight.
[00:20:47] Jonathan's bow was successful.
[00:20:49] Saul's sword was successful.
[00:20:51] They were not divided.
[00:20:53] They were swifter than eagles.
[00:20:55] They were stronger than lions.
[00:20:58] You see what David was remembering about Saul and Jonathan is what they fought for in life.
[00:21:05] The second thing I wanted to show you is that not only will we be remembered at
[00:21:09] times for our failures, but we will also be remembered for what we fought for in this life.
[00:21:16] We will be remembered for the battles that we engaged in the focus of our lives,
[00:21:21] the fight that we gave ourselves to.
[00:21:25] I was listening recently to an interview that an author was giving about her work
[00:21:31] and writing and things like that.
[00:21:32] She is not a believer.
[00:21:33] So it's interesting to just kind of hear her mindset about life, listen to her world view
[00:21:38] and in the course of the interview, she shared an article that she'd written
[00:21:43] about her future funeral and what she wanted it to be like.
[00:21:47] She wasn't near death.
[00:21:49] She wasn't sick as far as she knew is just something in the distant future for her
[00:21:53] that she thought this is how I want my funeral to go.
[00:21:57] And she just kind of laid it all out.
[00:21:59] This is what I want here.
[00:22:00] And this is how I want that.
[00:22:01] And you know, it's pretty interesting.
[00:22:03] It was very secular.
[00:22:04] There was no eternity.
[00:22:05] There was no Christ.
[00:22:08] There was no gospel.
[00:22:10] The way she concluded it, she said at my reception, this was her final thing.
[00:22:13] She said at my reception, I want everybody to bring food for sort of a potluck meal.
[00:22:20] But the only food that I want people to bring are organic foods that they have grown themselves.
[00:22:29] And she said, and I realized that there probably won't be enough food for everybody.
[00:22:33] And she concluded her essay by saying, and that will be my final lesson.
[00:22:39] And as I heard that, I thought, man, my apologies, organic food, whatever.
[00:22:44] I'm sure it's great.
[00:22:45] I eat organic food from time to time.
[00:22:47] Sounds good.
[00:22:48] But I hope to God that's not my final lesson.
[00:22:54] Listen to what Paul the Apostle said in Colossians one verse 28.
[00:22:58] He said of himself, he said, Jesus Christ, we proclaim warning everyone and teaching
[00:23:05] everyone with all wisdom that we may present everyone mature in Christ for this
[00:23:11] eye toil struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me.
[00:23:20] Paul was a man who spent his life trying to spread the gospel, preach the gospel,
[00:23:26] make disciples, expand the kingdom of God here on earth.
[00:23:30] And we, of course, will not be as fruitful as Paul the Apostle was fruitful.
[00:23:37] But man, that we would have a quest in life that is aligned with God and his word.
[00:23:43] Some questions that we could ask concerning this point are things like this.
[00:23:48] What is the quest of my life?
[00:23:51] Am I engaged in battles today that I will be proud of as in pleased and satisfied
[00:23:58] with tomorrow?
[00:24:00] And who might I pour my life into helping them become more complete and mature
[00:24:07] in Jesus Christ?
[00:24:09] A friend of mine named Phil Metzger.
[00:24:12] He years ago when he was 17 or 18 years old, he and a few of his friends
[00:24:21] decided that they wanted to go on a missions trip to Hungary and some
[00:24:27] other countries in Eastern Europe.
[00:24:30] They'd been invited to do so.
[00:24:31] They were Southern California kids living down in Orange County.
[00:24:34] And they probably didn't even I'm pretty sure at that time of his life,
[00:24:38] Phil probably didn't even know where Europe was, let alone Hungary.
[00:24:42] But he wanted to go.
[00:24:43] Somebody invited him.
[00:24:44] He said, yeah, sure, I'll go.
[00:24:45] I love the Lord.
[00:24:46] I'll go.
[00:24:46] His pastor who supported him and going actually wrote him a check
[00:24:50] to purchase jackets because he was an Orange County kid.
[00:24:54] He had like a windbreaker.
[00:24:55] That's all he had.
[00:24:56] And they were going in the winter to Hungary.
[00:24:58] And so they bought these big jackets and coats and everything.
[00:25:01] And he went there and they preached the gospel and a lot of kids started
[00:25:06] getting saved.
[00:25:07] And this real move of the spirit began to develop and Phil began to realize
[00:25:12] that God had a call on his life to go and live in that country.
[00:25:16] And eventually he and his wife, Joy, they moved to Hungary where
[00:25:21] they spent decades pouring into that community, pouring into the city of
[00:25:26] Budapest and pouring into the surrounding regions.
[00:25:29] And after I think almost three decades of life and ministry there,
[00:25:34] he and Joy, they just recently moved back to the States.
[00:25:36] They went moved to San Diego.
[00:25:39] What they left behind is they left behind a country not just with one
[00:25:42] church, but with 20, 30 or 40 different churches and many others
[00:25:47] that had spread out from those just in that nation.
[00:25:51] They had made a massive impact in that place.
[00:25:54] The fight that they are known for is very clear.
[00:25:58] It's very obvious.
[00:25:59] Now you and I, we might not impact an entire nation.
[00:26:03] There are people that the Lord has called us to reach.
[00:26:06] There are people that the Lord has called us to make an impact with.
[00:26:10] And so we must remember that we will be remembered for the quest
[00:26:17] that we gave our lives to.
[00:26:20] But notice also in verse 24 as we move on, David also said of Saul.
[00:26:25] I love this little line.
[00:26:26] He said, you daughters of Israel weep over Saul who closed you
[00:26:31] luxuriously in scarlet who put ornaments of gold on your apparel.
[00:26:37] Apparently during Saul's 40 years of being king and you know the
[00:26:42] parts we've read of his time as the King, they didn't sound so
[00:26:45] great.
[00:26:46] In fact, some of David's mighty men, they came from a group of
[00:26:49] people who said we're distressed.
[00:26:51] We're indebted and we're discontented with Saul in his
[00:26:55] leadership.
[00:26:56] But David pointed out, he said, look, the reality is as he
[00:27:00] led you, there was some prosperity that he brought into
[00:27:04] the nation.
[00:27:05] He clothed you with scarlet.
[00:27:07] He put ornaments of gold on your apparel and apparently
[00:27:10] his leadership had led to at least a little bit of blessing
[00:27:14] in Israel.
[00:27:15] He had to a degree served the people of Israel.
[00:27:19] And this is my third point.
[00:27:22] We will also be remembered for the service that we gave to
[00:27:26] other people.
[00:27:27] We will be remembered for the way that we served other people.
[00:27:30] You know what's absent in this song?
[00:27:32] Absent in this song is any mention of the way that
[00:27:36] Saul looked at the beginning of Saul's life and ministry
[00:27:40] when he was chosen by God, you notice says about him in
[00:27:43] verse Samuel, it tells us that he was head and shoulders
[00:27:46] taller than everybody else and that he was a very handsome
[00:27:50] man.
[00:27:50] That's what it says at the beginning.
[00:27:52] David never mentions that.
[00:27:54] That's not important to him because the reality is you'll
[00:27:57] not be remembered for your looks.
[00:28:00] You won't be remembered for your sweet triathlon time in
[00:28:04] 1999.
[00:28:06] And you won't be remembered for the number of likes you
[00:28:08] got on an Instagram post.
[00:28:10] You won't be remembered for any of those things, but
[00:28:12] you will be remembered for the way you served the people
[00:28:17] that God placed in your life.
[00:28:20] Look, some of you are in the first third of your life.
[00:28:22] I'd encourage you to set your focus upon others and build
[00:28:26] them up.
[00:28:26] Some of you are in the middle season of your life and
[00:28:29] I'd encourage you to fight for serving others.
[00:28:31] And some of you are in that final third of your life
[00:28:34] and some of you have served the Lord well and you've
[00:28:37] served others well.
[00:28:38] And God bless you for that reality.
[00:28:41] You are worthy of being commended for fighting the
[00:28:44] good fight and running that race.
[00:28:46] May we continue to serve others until the day that
[00:28:49] we go home to be with Jesus.
[00:28:52] You see, Jesus Christ remembers all of that service.
[00:28:55] I love what Paul said again in that final letter
[00:28:58] that he wrote to Timothy.
[00:29:00] He said in the first chapter of that letter, everything
[00:29:03] that I've done for the Lord, I trust that he is able
[00:29:07] to keep what I have entrusted to him.
[00:29:12] You know, there were people that Paul served that
[00:29:14] never said thank you.
[00:29:16] There were people that Paul served like any parent
[00:29:19] understands who did not appreciate what he had done,
[00:29:23] but the Lord saw all of it.
[00:29:25] The Lord witnessed all of it and would commend Paul
[00:29:30] for that work.
[00:29:31] Some questions that we could ask on this point
[00:29:33] would be questions like whether they recognize it
[00:29:36] or not, who will benefit from my life?
[00:29:40] Are there areas of my life where I am serving, but don't
[00:29:44] immediately recognize it as service.
[00:29:47] I find this is interesting to talk about on Mother's Day
[00:29:50] because I find this is often the case with mothers.
[00:29:53] They'll kind of say like they'll be raising their kids.
[00:29:57] They're all tired and just burn out with these
[00:29:59] children, you know, that are just tough to deal
[00:30:02] with and they're working so hard from the moment
[00:30:04] they wake up even before they wake up, you know, they're
[00:30:08] serving and then they're here.
[00:30:10] Man, I need to serve and they're like, I got to find a
[00:30:12] place to serve the Lord.
[00:30:14] I'm like, you know, you are serving the Lord.
[00:30:17] You got these children that you're raising for him.
[00:30:20] That is a ministry in and of itself.
[00:30:22] Another question we could ask is do I have current
[00:30:25] responsibilities that I could turn into service?
[00:30:30] What I mean by that is that there are things that
[00:30:32] are in your life that are just duties, responsibilities
[00:30:35] that you might not actually be serving yet in them, but
[00:30:38] you could maybe turn them into service.
[00:30:41] Years ago I was a softball coach.
[00:30:43] My kid, my daughters have retired from softball
[00:30:47] since then, you know, they kind of caught to the
[00:30:49] zenith of their careers and then they moved on to
[00:30:51] other things.
[00:30:52] But for four or five years, I was a girl's softball
[00:30:56] coach. It was an incredible time of my life.
[00:30:58] And I noticed that there were two different types of
[00:31:00] people who would coach softball.
[00:31:02] You know, some people would just kind of treat it like
[00:31:04] a responsibility.
[00:31:05] You know, get there as late as you could leave as
[00:31:09] quickly as you could just kind of run through the
[00:31:11] stuff, you know, and it kind of felt like it seems
[00:31:14] like that kind of person to the kind of person
[00:31:16] that someone like roped them into it, you know, like
[00:31:18] they showed up at some meeting, you know, to sign
[00:31:21] up and someone's like, Hey, you're the coach.
[00:31:23] I'm like, Oh man, I didn't want to do this, but
[00:31:25] I guess I got to put in my time, you know, kind
[00:31:27] of thing.
[00:31:27] And then there were other people who you could tell
[00:31:30] it's like, man, they get there early.
[00:31:32] They'd be greeting people as they arrived.
[00:31:34] They'd stay late.
[00:31:35] They talked to the individual families and parents
[00:31:37] and talk to the kids.
[00:31:39] They turned their responsibility into an opportunity
[00:31:43] to serve other human beings.
[00:31:45] Do you have current responsibilities that you
[00:31:48] could turn into service?
[00:31:51] Last year, my paternal grandmother went home
[00:31:54] to be with a Lord.
[00:31:55] She was 93, 94 years old.
[00:31:59] Just an amazing woman.
[00:32:00] And as we celebrated her life, that's what she was
[00:32:04] praised for her service of other people.
[00:32:07] She had spent most of her life.
[00:32:09] Unfortunately raising her five children alone and
[00:32:14] her children just praised her rejoiced in her love
[00:32:19] her sacrifice for her devotion will be remembered
[00:32:22] for that.
[00:32:23] All right now verse 25.
[00:32:24] Let's read this next portion of the song.
[00:32:27] David acts like he's ready to close the song when in
[00:32:31] verse 25, he repeats the opening line of the song by
[00:32:36] saying how the mighty have fallen in the midst of
[00:32:39] the battle.
[00:32:39] He could have closed the song right there, but
[00:32:41] he had a special word reserved for his friend
[00:32:44] Jonathan.
[00:32:45] He said, Jonathan lies slain on your high places.
[00:32:49] I am distressed for you, my brother Jonathan.
[00:32:52] Very pleasant.
[00:32:54] Have you been to me?
[00:32:56] Your love to me was extraordinary, surpassing the
[00:33:00] love of women.
[00:33:02] Now this week as I was preparing for this teaching
[00:33:05] and just kind of asking the Lord, you know, I do a
[00:33:08] lot of reading, studying, thinking about the text
[00:33:10] and all of that.
[00:33:11] But as I was thinking about this in this verse, I
[00:33:15] just felt impressed to say, do not let this
[00:33:18] particular point pass you by.
[00:33:21] And I think the reason why I'm saying that is
[00:33:23] because this level of friendship that David had
[00:33:28] with Jonathan is oftentimes very foreign to us in
[00:33:33] our American culture and almost makes us feel
[00:33:38] uncomfortable.
[00:33:40] In fact, there are many who have even taken these
[00:33:44] words of David about Jonathan and put a meaning
[00:33:49] onto them that is totally perverted and outside
[00:33:54] of the Bible saying that David is somehow expressing
[00:33:57] some kind of homosexual desire for Jonathan in this.
[00:34:00] It's like we just don't even know what to do with
[00:34:03] a man declaring this kind of love for another
[00:34:05] man.
[00:34:05] That's not at all what David was meaning.
[00:34:08] What he meant was that the kind of comrade that
[00:34:12] he had with Jonathan was nothing like he'd ever
[00:34:15] experienced with someone of opposite gender.
[00:34:18] He'd gone to war with Jonathan.
[00:34:20] He'd been encouraged by Jonathan.
[00:34:22] These two men were birds of a feather.
[00:34:25] They were of like species and like heart for God.
[00:34:29] And because of that, they had grown so close to one
[00:34:34] another.
[00:34:35] And we will, here's my fourth thing.
[00:34:37] We will be remembered for the friendships that we
[00:34:40] have in this life.
[00:34:43] Look, I want to say it like this.
[00:34:46] If you today are a believer in the major doctrines of
[00:34:56] the Christian faith, you know, if you are someone
[00:35:00] who believes that there is a father God who created
[00:35:04] humanity male and female in his image and that those
[00:35:08] people then fell into sin that led to brokenness
[00:35:11] and despair here on earth.
[00:35:14] If you're a person who believes that that father
[00:35:16] God sent his son, the second person of the Trinity
[00:35:19] to die to live a human life and to die on the cross
[00:35:24] for the sin of the world as a replacement for
[00:35:27] humanity to take the judgment of God into his body
[00:35:30] upon that cross to be buried and rise from the
[00:35:33] dead three days later and ascend to the right
[00:35:35] hand of the father to someday return and judge
[00:35:38] the living and the dead.
[00:35:40] If you are a person who believes that the Holy
[00:35:43] Spirit of God, the third person of the Trinity
[00:35:46] lives inside of his people and that he operates
[00:35:49] within the body of Christ and that he oversaw
[00:35:53] the writing of Holy Scripture 66 books that we're
[00:35:57] studying here this morning.
[00:35:59] And you believe that this is the word of God that
[00:36:01] we can study and learn God's heart, God's mind,
[00:36:04] God's thoughts, learn about God from and in every
[00:36:08] word of this book.
[00:36:09] If you are that kind of person, what I want
[00:36:13] to remind you of is that in this particular
[00:36:16] community that you are living in, you are in the
[00:36:19] extreme minority.
[00:36:21] You are in the extreme minority.
[00:36:25] That's why I want to press hard into this point
[00:36:31] about friendship.
[00:36:33] About friendship.
[00:36:35] Because the church has made mistakes on either
[00:36:38] sides of this.
[00:36:39] Sometimes the church has run into an idea of
[00:36:41] what we really need to do is to isolate ourselves
[00:36:44] from the world that we're living in.
[00:36:46] And when you do that, you can no longer be salt
[00:36:49] and light a city on a hill, a lamp stand to the
[00:36:53] community, the world that you're living in.
[00:36:56] The other mistake that the church often makes
[00:36:59] is to assimilate into the culture and into the
[00:37:03] to the world that we live in so that our
[00:37:05] beliefs, our views are indistinguishable from
[00:37:09] the culture and the environment that we're
[00:37:11] living in.
[00:37:12] We're to reject both of those.
[00:37:15] But the only way that you're going to be able to
[00:37:17] be in the world, yet not of the world, the only
[00:37:21] way that you're going to be able to be
[00:37:23] distinguishable from the world yet not isolated
[00:37:26] from the world.
[00:37:27] The only way that you're going to be able to
[00:37:30] make it is if you have like-minded brothers
[00:37:34] and sisters in Christ who are walking through
[00:37:36] this life with you.
[00:37:38] Because quite frankly, the people that are in
[00:37:41] the culture and society around us, they're not
[00:37:43] going to think like you.
[00:37:44] They're not going to believe as you do.
[00:37:46] And if you want to make it to the end of your
[00:37:48] life walking with the Lord, trusting him, then
[00:37:51] you're going to have to prioritize believing
[00:37:55] friendships within your life.
[00:37:58] It says in Proverbs 18 verse one that whoever
[00:38:01] isolates himself seeks his own desire.
[00:38:03] He breaks out against all sound judgment.
[00:38:06] We cannot do that.
[00:38:07] We must pursue one another, especially I believe
[00:38:11] in the season that we are in, in the culture, the
[00:38:16] society that we are living in.
[00:38:18] So I think thinking about that, looking at
[00:38:21] David and Jonathan, some of you might need to
[00:38:24] value Christian friendship rightly.
[00:38:29] You know, you might be the kind of person who,
[00:38:31] you know, when you show up at Life Group,
[00:38:33] if the conversation isn't like super deep
[00:38:36] and you're not getting into like subterranean
[00:38:38] theological points, you might be really bummed
[00:38:41] out by that.
[00:38:42] And you might see people eating like guacamole
[00:38:45] and chips and just hanging out and being together
[00:38:49] and laughing and stuff like that.
[00:38:50] You might see that and just be like, that is
[00:38:54] not spiritual.
[00:38:57] Okay.
[00:38:57] But the reality is that if those connections
[00:39:00] aren't formed, if those, if those friendships
[00:39:04] aren't formed with other like-minded believers
[00:39:07] and the day is going to come where that person's
[00:39:08] faith is going to be tested, they're going to
[00:39:10] need those relationships.
[00:39:12] So don't despise those kind of connections.
[00:39:16] Some of you have friends already in Christ,
[00:39:20] but you still need to remind yourself to be
[00:39:23] friendly because there are other people who
[00:39:25] don't have those friendships yet.
[00:39:27] And those friends could be a lifeline for them
[00:39:30] in the future.
[00:39:33] And so you still need to be friendly.
[00:39:35] Some of you might have even said to yourself like,
[00:39:37] I think that probably I'm at a place in my life
[00:39:40] where there's enough maturity and understanding
[00:39:42] God's Word where I could lead a life group
[00:39:45] or I could host a life group, but I don't want
[00:39:48] to because I already have my friends,
[00:39:49] I already have my connections,
[00:39:50] I already have my people,
[00:39:51] I already have believers that are in my life,
[00:39:53] but there are other people out there who
[00:39:55] don't have those connections and they need them.
[00:39:59] And some of you might need to raise the bar
[00:40:02] within the friendships that you already have.
[00:40:05] Look, it can't all be guacamole and chips.
[00:40:08] There does need to be that moment where you're willing
[00:40:10] to speak into each other's lives and share scripture
[00:40:13] with each other and encourage each other
[00:40:15] and exhort each other towards godliness
[00:40:17] and to remind each other of the doctrines
[00:40:19] of God's Word.
[00:40:21] So perhaps some questions that we might ask
[00:40:23] on this point would be things like,
[00:40:25] do I or my children?
[00:40:27] And I think that's a huge point because many
[00:40:30] of us, we've already got our believing friends.
[00:40:32] We're already kind of cruising along,
[00:40:34] but it's your kids.
[00:40:35] It's the younger generation.
[00:40:37] It's going to be very difficult for them.
[00:40:40] So do I or my children need to prioritize
[00:40:43] friendships with other like-minded believers?
[00:40:46] Is there another believer I would weep
[00:40:48] for like David Webb for Jonathan?
[00:40:52] And have I allowed fear to keep me from engaging
[00:40:55] a brother or sister in Christ?
[00:40:58] Christina was telling me about a conversation
[00:41:00] she had recently with one of the young women
[00:41:03] in the church who is a senior at Cal State Monterrey Bay.
[00:41:06] And so that means she's getting done with her senior project
[00:41:09] when it was kind of it was a group project kind of thing.
[00:41:11] And she was telling Christina how that had been
[00:41:13] and what it was like.
[00:41:15] And she mentioned to her, she said,
[00:41:17] you know, I a lot of times we're trying
[00:41:20] to schedule getting together to work on our project together.
[00:41:24] And these other girls that I'm working on it with,
[00:41:25] they have said to me,
[00:41:27] why are you always going to all these church things?
[00:41:31] You know, why are you always it's like a mentoring
[00:41:33] or you know, the young adult Bible study
[00:41:36] or you know, Sunday night service?
[00:41:38] Like why are you always going to do all of these things?
[00:41:42] And I don't think she said it out loud.
[00:41:44] But what she said to herself was because if I don't,
[00:41:49] I'm going to be with you in the bar doing things
[00:41:54] I don't want to do.
[00:41:56] I need to be with God's people to have that kind of priority
[00:42:00] to have that kind of clarity is so life giving.
[00:42:04] Let's read the final line of David song.
[00:42:07] He said, how the mighty have fallen and the weapons of war
[00:42:10] have perished.
[00:42:10] That's the last time the third time David sings that line
[00:42:14] how the mighty have fallen.
[00:42:18] Here's my last point.
[00:42:21] Look at verse 19 with me.
[00:42:24] Before he sings how the mighty have fallen the first time
[00:42:26] what does he say?
[00:42:27] He says your glory.
[00:42:29] Oh Israel is slain on your high places.
[00:42:34] When he says that he's talking about Saul,
[00:42:35] he's talking about Jonathan Israel's glory.
[00:42:39] Saul, Israel's glory.
[00:42:40] Jonathan, Israel's glory.
[00:42:42] The armies of Israel, Israel's glory.
[00:42:45] All of them slain on the mountains.
[00:42:50] Is there any part of you that when you hear that
[00:42:52] it makes you feel a little weird like how is Saul
[00:42:56] Jonathan armies of Israel.
[00:42:57] How are they the glory of Israel?
[00:43:02] You see earlier in this book in first Samuel chapter 15,
[00:43:09] Samuel described God like this.
[00:43:11] He just he gave God the title the glory of Israel.
[00:43:17] You see who's the real glory of Israel?
[00:43:19] Saul, Jonathan.
[00:43:19] No, the real glory of Israel is God.
[00:43:26] Who's your glory?
[00:43:28] Your real glory is God.
[00:43:30] Here's why I'm mentioning this right now.
[00:43:32] There's some of you.
[00:43:35] You know, I start talking about like thinking about how to
[00:43:39] build your life, choosing the right fight, you know,
[00:43:43] serving others.
[00:43:45] How will you be remembered?
[00:43:46] I started talking about stuff like that and there's
[00:43:48] some of you.
[00:43:48] You're like the high achiever kind of people.
[00:43:51] You're so excited about that.
[00:43:53] You know, some of you I'm like just imagine you're
[00:43:56] at your own funeral and many of you are like,
[00:43:58] Oh, I do not want to do that.
[00:44:00] But some of you are like, yes, let's do this.
[00:44:02] I want to assess myself and improve.
[00:44:05] I can't wait.
[00:44:06] You know, kind of thing.
[00:44:08] And here's I can relate to you.
[00:44:11] I can relate to you.
[00:44:13] You use you want to you want to conquer you want?
[00:44:16] You want to do stuff.
[00:44:18] You want to make a dent.
[00:44:21] Here's just how I wanted to end for all of eternity.
[00:44:23] Your glory is not going to be what you did.
[00:44:27] Your glory is going to be God for all of eternity.
[00:44:31] You're going to open up your mouth and sing and you're
[00:44:33] not going to be singing about what you did.
[00:44:37] You're going to be singing about the Lord for all of
[00:44:40] eternity.
[00:44:40] You're going to be living there without any regret in
[00:44:43] your heart, just in awe of the God of the universe.
[00:44:48] And I just wanted to remind you of that because
[00:44:51] I think it's possible to spend too much time thinking
[00:44:55] about your own performance and effectiveness and to not
[00:45:01] spend enough time just thinking about God, thinking
[00:45:04] about how beautiful he is, how wonderful he is, how
[00:45:07] much he loves you, how much he cares about you.
[00:45:10] Instead we might want to be like Isaiah who said in
[00:45:14] Isaiah 61 verse 10, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord.
[00:45:18] My soul shall exult in my God for he has clothed me
[00:45:23] with the garments of salvation.
[00:45:26] He has covered me with the robe of righteousness.
[00:45:31] Look, the reality is like I said earlier, there's no way
[00:45:36] we're going to get everything right in this life.
[00:45:39] It's going to be plenty that we leave undone, plenty
[00:45:41] that we wish we had said that we didn't do.
[00:45:43] There's going to be plenty of that.
[00:45:44] So isn't it good for all of eternity we will rejoice
[00:45:48] in the God of our salvation?
[00:45:51] I'm asking isn't it?
[00:45:54] It's good.
[00:45:54] Yeah, so kind of let me hang in there.
[00:45:56] That wasn't nice.
[00:45:58] So let me close in prayer and let's just commit our
[00:46:01] lives to God.
[00:46:05] Thanks for listening to the Calvary Monterey podcast.
[00:46:08] Please visit Calvary.com to learn more about Calvary
[00:46:11] Monterey and visit Nate Holdridge.com for additional
[00:46:14] Bible teaching from our senior pastor, Nate Holdridge.
[00:46:18] Thanks again for tuning in.
[00:46:19] See you next week.