"The old Good King, Bad King routine"

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Reading of 1 samuel 18 begins on page 290. After David had finished talking with Seoul, Johnathan became 1 in spirit with David, and he loved him as himself. From that day, Seoul kept David with him and did not let him return home to his family. And Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. Jonathan took off the robe he was wearing and gave it to David along with his tunic and even his sword, his bow and his belt.

Whatever mission soul sent him on, David was successful. That soul gave him a high rank in the army. This pleased all their troops and souls offices as well. When a man were returning home after David had killed the Philistines, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King sol with singing and dancing with joyful songs and with tambourines and liars. As they dance, they sang.

Seoul has slain his thousands and David his 10 thousands. Seoul was very angry. This refrain displeased him greatly. They had credited David with 10 thou tens of thousands and he thought that me with only thousands. What more can he get but the kingdom?

And from that time on, soul kept a close eye on David. The next day in evil spirit from God came forcefully on soul. He was prophesying in his house while David was playing the liar. And he as he usually did. Seoul had a spear in his hand, and he hurled it, saying to himself, I'll pin David to the wall, but David eluded him twice.

Saul was afraid of David because the lord was with David but had departed from Seoul. So he sent David away from him and gave him command over 1000 men. And David led the troops in their campaigns. In everything he did, he had great success because the Lord was with him. When Seoul saw how successful he was, he was afraid of him.

But all Israel and Judah loved David because he let them in their campaigns. Sol said to David, here is my elder daughter, me rep. I will give her to you in marriage. Only serve me bravely and fight the battles of the lord. For Sol said to himself, I will not raise a hand against him.

Let the Philistines do that. But David said to Seoul. Who am I? And what is my family or my plan in Israel that I should become the king's son-in-law? So when the time came for Mirab, Seoul stalter to be given to David, She was given in marriage to Adriel of Mahola.

Now Seoul's daughter, Mikhail, was in love with David. And when they told Seoul about it, he was pleased. I will give her to him. He thought so that she may be a snare to him. And so that the hand of the Phil of the Philsteins will be against him.

So, Sosa, to David, Now you have a second opportunity to become my son-in-law. Then Saul ordered his attendants. Speak to David privately and say, look, the king likes you and his attendants all love you. Now become his son-in-law. They repeated these words to David, but David said, do you think it is a small matter to become the king's son-in-law?

I'm only a poor man and little known. When soul servant told him what David had said, So replied, say to David, the king wants no other price for the bride than 100 Philistine 4 skins to take revenge on his enemies. Saul's plan was for David to fall by the hands of the Philistines. When the attendants told David these things, he was pleased to become the king's son-in-law. So before the allotted time elapsed, David took his man with him and went out and killed 200 Philistines, and brought back their foreskins.

They counted out the full number to the king so that David might become the king's son-in-law. Then Seoul gave him his daughter, Nicole, in marriage. When Saul realized that the lord was with David and that his daughter, Michal, loved David. Seoul became still more afraid of him. And he remained his enemy for the rest of his days.

The Philistines commanders continued to go out to battle and as often as they did. David met with more success than the rest of Seoul's offices, and his name became well known. We're now gonna do our second reading. So it's 1 Samuel chapter 19, and that's on page 2 9 1 of the blue vials in a chair near you. So 1 Samuel chapter 19, and that's on page 2 9 1.

Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David. But Jonathan had taken a great liking to David and warned him My father's soul is looking for a chance to kill you, be on your guard tomorrow morning, go into hiding and stay there. I will go out and stand with my father in the field where you are. I will speak to him about you and will tell you what I find out. Johnson spoke well of David to saul, his father, and said to him, let not the king do wrong to his servant David.

He's not wronged you, and what he has done has benefited you greatly. You took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine. The lord won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it, a magrad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason? Saul listened to Jonathan and took this oath.

As surely as the Lord lives, David will not be put to death. So Jonathan called David and told him the whole conversation He bought him to saul, and David was with Staul as before. Once more, war broke out, and David went and fought the Philistines. He struck them with such force that they fled before him. But an evil spirit from the lord came on saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand.

And while David was playing the liar, saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as soldier rode the spear into the wall. That night, David made good his escape. Saul sent men to David's house to watch it and to kill him in the morning. But Michael, David's wife warned him if you don't run for your life tonight, tomorrow, you will be killed. So Michael let David down through a window and he fled and escaped.

Then Michael took an eagle and laid it on the bed, covering it with the garments, and putting some goats hair at the head. When saw sent men to capture David, Michael said, he's ill. Then saw sent men back to see David and told them, bring him bring him up to me in his bed so that I may kill him. When men the men entered, there was the idol in bed, and the head was goat's hair. So said to Michael, why did you deceive me like this and send my enemy away so that he escaped?

Michael told him, he said to me, let me get away. Why should I kill you? When David had fled and made his escape, he went to Samuel at Ramma and told him all that sword had done to him. Then he and Samuel went to Naoff, and stayed there. Word came to saul, David is in Naoth at Ramma, so he sent men to capture him.

But when they saw a group of prophets prophesying with Samuel standing there as leader, the spirit of God came on Saul's men, and they also prophesied. Saul was told about it, and he sent more men, and they prophesied too. Saul sent men a third time, and they also prophesied. Finally, he himself left for a Rama and went to the great cistern at Saku, and and he asked, where is Samuel and David over in Naoff at Rama, they said? So saul went to NAYoff at Rama.

But the spirit of the God of God even came on him, e sorry, came even on him, and he walked along prophesying and said he came to Naoth. He stripped off his garments and he too prophesied in Samuel's presence. He lay naked all that day and all that night. This is why people say is saul also among the prophets. Thank you for reading that.

Do you keep the passage open in front of you? All of it. So start on page 290. And if at any point in this, you feel, you're getting a bit hot, you need to grab a glass of water. There there's water at the back there.

Don't worry. If you need to get up and move around and get it, that's absolutely fine. Let me pray for us. Hemily father, we pray, please, that as we come to this, your word, you'd help us to be attentive. Father, there are so many things that may be against us concentrating the heat, maybe other things that we're thinking about, other things on our minds, father, please would you help us?

Help us to focus, to listen to you and to be changed by your word. Amen. A Christian is, someone who loves Jesus. 1 Peter, chapter 1 verse 8, says this. Though you have seen not seen him, though you have not seen him, but this is Jesus.

Though you've not seen him, you love him. Repeatedly, the central command, is in the bible is that we are to love God. We are to love Jesus. Christian cannot be merely reduced to a set of, doctrines that you can just tick, although they are very important. Now, the Bible says we are to do more than just agree to certain doctrines, and we are to do more than just, do certain religious practices.

Now, we are to love Jesus. When we do, door to door, I know there's a group going out today in the heat, well done, going out knocking on doors just to introduce ourselves to people in the neighborhood. Sometimes when you speak to people, you you might introduce the fact that we're from a church, that we're Christians, and people will say very positive things. And they might even say, oh, yeah, I've got church background, and yes, I believe it all. I believe Jesus lived, that he died, that he rose to life again.

I believe he's the son of God. I believe it all. And yet you can feel there's something missing here. They're they're they're not in it's not changing their life. They're not engaged with a church.

They're not they seem to be living it out. And maybe 1 of the questions that could be asked, maybe you could ask this this afternoon as you're going around. You could say to them, Do you love Jesus? Do you actually love him? Now, of course, when Jesus was around 2000 years ago, ministering talking to people, love was not the only response that people had for him.

Now some loved him, but others feared him and hated him and did away with him. Jesus seems to have had the kind of a love him or hate him kind of reactions, the marmite kind of reactions. Do you think that's interesting? He's like a strong magnet. You're either drawn to him, repelled by him.

So if today if you've come along and maybe today, you're maybe you're not a Christian, and you're sort of neutral about Jesus. Can I suggest maybe you haven't really got to know it? Well, in our passage that we had read, in that long passage, chapters 18 and 19, We saw 2 opposing reactions to King David. Hate and love. And we've been saying over recent weeks that David in these chapters in 1 Samuel is foreshadowing for us Jesus.

He points us through to Jesus King David, the good king of Israel foreshadows, gets us ready for 1000 years later when Jesus would come. What you see in miniature in David, you see in big scale in Jesus. And that's the the whole Bible tells us that that it is all about Jesus. Jesus said the old testament was all about him. And therefore, part of our challenge as a church as we've been going through 1 Samuel is to keep asking, how does this point us to Jesus?

And we see it here in this passage. With David being around now, it becomes easier, doesn't it? Cause he foreshadows Jesus. In nice clear ways, he's the great king, and Jesus is the even greater king. So how are we gonna tackle this large section?

We've got these reactions, but how are we gonna tackle this person? Normally, when we've got old testament narrative. The way I preach it is to preach through the story. We kind of tell the story and then, and preach it as we go through. If I do that for 2 chapters, I think we could be here a long time, and you may have fainted from the heat by the time we're finished.

So I'm not gonna do that. This time, I'm gonna do it slightly differently. Do let me know, by the way, at the end, whether whether it works. It's always good to have a bit of feedback, then I'll know whether to do it again next time or not. But what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna give you some themes.

And show you where they are in the passage. So I'm gonna give you 3 themes. And, actually, all 3 of the themes are in verses 14 to 16 of chapter 18. So if you just have a look there, these can be kind of your theme verses for the sermon for these chapters because they contain all 3 themes. So just have a look at verse 14 to 16 of chapter 18 where it says in everything he did, this is David.

In everything he did, he had great success. Because the lord was with him. When Saul saw how successful he was, he was afraid of him, but all Israel and Judah loved David because he led them in their campaigns. So do you see there in those verses? You've got there are 3 themes, 1 for each of those sentences.

And just so you know where we're heading, here are the 3 themes. The lord was with him with David. So you get that verse 14. In in everything he did, he had great success because the lord was with him. And you see this throughout the chapters, the lord is with David.

Then you've got Saul's fear. First 15, when Saul saw how successful he was, he was afraid of him. Here you go. Fear. But then thirdly love.

But all Israel and Judith love David because he led them in their campaigns. There you go. The lord with him, fear, and then love. That's where we're gonna be heading. Okay?

So first off, the lord is with him. The lord with David said that in verse 14 that the lord was with him, and therefore, David succeeded in everything he did. You get that repeated several times through the through the chapters that whatever David did, he succeeded at it. Just have a look at verse 5 with me. Verse 5, whatever Mission Sol sent him on.

David was so successful that Saul gave him a high rank in the army. This pleased all the troops and Saul's officers as well. At this stage, Saul is okay with David, sends him on missions, and everything he does. Succeeds. Every fight he goes into, he wins.

And there is a song that, therefore, is sung. When the the army comes back, the women sing songs. They go out to meet King Saul, singing songs verse 6, verse 7. Here's the song. As they dance, they sang, Saul has slain his thousands, and David his tens of thousands.

The song everywhere was, you know, Saul's good, but David is greater. Saul kills 1000, David, 10000. He's just so much. He's so great. Whatever.

Everyone knows. Whatever David does. He succeeds. And halfway through chapter 18, you get this point as it was read. I'm sure you spotted it.

You get this time where and we'll we'll come back to this in a future point, but Saul decides that it's a good idea to marry his daughter to David, to get David as a son-in-law. And he does this because he wants this as a way of killing David. So we'll come back to that. And he tries to do it first off with his with his daughter, Merap. And David said, no, I couldn't possibly.

So she's married off to someone else. But then Micau or Michael expresses love for David. And this is 1 of Saul's other daughters. And Saul is pleased with this. And so he says, well, to he sends messages to David saying, come on.

It's time for you to become my son-in-law. We know that this is because Saul wants to kill him. And David said, well, I'm poor. I you know, I'm I'm poor, and I'm a nobody, which may be hints that Saul hadn't kept his promise that whoever killed Goliath would get lots of money. Well, David is saying I'm poor, and no 1 knows me.

And so Saul says, well, okay. The price for marrying my daughter is 100 Philistine foreskins. Oh, as you gotta go and kill 100 Philistines, bring back their foreskins. And Saul seems to think, well, 100, that's I mean, that's plenty. You know, if I send him off to get that, he is never coming back.

He's not gonna win this battle. But David seems to know Whatever he puts his hand to, he will win. He will succeed. And so here's David's reaction, verse 26. When the attendants told David these things, he was pleased to become the king's son-in-law.

So before the allotted time elapsed, David took his men with him, went out and killed 200 Philistines and brought back their foreskins. And they counted out the full number to the king. Yuck. So that David might become the king's son-in-law. That's all gay with him, his daughter, Michael, in marriage.

Groost and horrible. But do you see David just seems to know, oh, hundred Philistines? Okay. Seems seems good. I'll bring back 200.

And that's what he does. Do you see the lord is with him? Everything he does? He succeeds. And in chapter 19, as we as we move into that, It's less about success in battle and more about protection that whatever Saul throws at David, David manages to escape it.

I mean literally whatever Saul throws at him. It could be Spears, but it could be people that he sends. And every time David eludes capture and eludes death. And you see at chapter 19 that the lord uses various different things to protect David. He uses Jonathan, saul's son.

Cause at the beginning of the chapter, chapter 19, Saul says to Jonathan and to others, go and kill David. Just go and kill him. And Jonathan meets with Saul and persuades him around. We'll come back to that in a moment. But then he sends more people and the Lord uses Macau Michael.

David's wife sold daughter to protect him. And then you get that last 1, which is just incredible, isn't it? When Saul is sending people to go and get David, and as they arrive, do it David by this stage has run away and gone to be with Samuel, the prophet. And every person who Saul sends comes forward to come and get David and end up prophesying. They seem to be taken over by the spirit of the lord and end up prophesying so that they can't now come and take David.

And even saul coming along to come and get David is taken over by the spirit and just starts prophesying. What exactly that prophesying is we don't really know. But all we know is they were taken over weren't able to come and capture David. So do you see throughout these chapters, the lord is with David. David therefore succeeds in everything and escapes everything.

Whatever he does works. It feels like well, if you're a fan of Harry Potter, there's a potion in Harry Potter, that you could take Felix for leases. I believe it is the luck potion, you take it, and just everything goes well. Whatever you decide to do, every sort of win, you know, I think I'm gonna go over here turns out to be the right thing to do. You'd play Quidditch bound to win.

Well, David seems to be like that. Obviously, he's not magic, and there's no potions. There's no luck in the Bible doesn't go with any of that, but it's because the lord is with it. Whatever he does just works. Now, as we've said, first and foremost, David foreshadows Jesus, Our chief goal is to see how this passage points us through to Jesus.

And in Jesus, not only is the lord with Jesus. But a number of times, over and over again, actually, you see Jesus making the claim to be the lord. And whatever Jesus puts his hand to succeeds. In incredible ways, incredible miracles he performs. 1 time after he's healed a person who is deaf and mute.

The people said there we go. It's on the screen. It says people were overwhelmed with amazement. He has done everything well, they said. He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak.

People were just saying of Jesus, whatever he does, he does it well. He succeeds. What about protection for Jesus? That's an interesting 1. Is Jesus protected?

There's a time early in Luke's gospel, chapter 4, when, at 1 point, it's amazing. There at 1 point, Jesus has been speaking and people are loving what he's saying. It says they speak well of him, and they're amazed by him. And then just a few verses later says everyone hates him and wants to kill him. See, this love hate reaction, this love and fear reaction to Jesus.

And they decide to take Jesus out of the town and throw him down a cliff. You can read about it in Luke 4, 29 to 30. It's not so well known that bit, but the crowd decide to kill it. They decide to take him and throw him down a cliff. And it says he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.

Divine protection. Divine protection. And yet, of course, Whereas, David escaped everything in these chapters. Jesus was arrested, tried, beaten, crucified. How how does that fit?

Surely when people came to get Jesus, it should have been that that as they came to get him, they should have been overtaken by the Holy Spirit and then prophesied and unable to get hold of him. But they were able to get him. Which must mean that actually this was all part of Jesus' plan that he be taken and killed. He could have stopped them. He could have got away.

He could have called on. He says the armies of heaven to come and protect him, but he didn't. He went through it because it was part of his purpose, part of his plan, and he did it for us and for our salvation. Now what about us? Jesus promises to be with us.

Does that mean that, therefore, everything that you do should succeed? You know, all your exams should be 100 percent. Everything you do at work should go fantastically well. Well, no. We shouldn't expect that.

But actually, in a way, there is a way that you can say yes in everything that you succeed. The issue is it depends what god's purpose is for you. His purpose is not that you do fantastically in everything you do, but his purpose for you, as we know from Romans 8, where it says in all things, God works for the good of those who love him. What is that good that you become more like Christ? So there is a sense in which you succeed in everything you do in that the lord works everything for your good, for your growth in godliness.

Therefore, nothing is wasted. The joys and the sorrows, the apparent successes and failures God is working his purpose out for you. And in that sense, you can't lose. Will only succeed. So the lord is with David.

We now need to turn to the reactions to David, but you need to have that in place first because the reason why people react in certain ways to David, love him, or fear him, is because the lord is with him. So second, saul's fear. Throughout the chapters, as you would have seen, saul is envious of David. And his hatred of David, his fear of David grows, and therefore his hatred of David grows, and he decides to have David killed. How does this fear play out?

Well, on more than 1 occasion, he tries to pin David to the wall with a spear. First time, verse 10. The next day an evil spirit from God came forcefully on saw. He was prophesying in his house. While David was playing the lie as he usually did.

Saul had a spear in his hand. He hurled it, saying to himself, I'll pin David to the wall, but David eluded him twice. First 12, here's the explanation. Saul was afraid of David because the lord was with David, but it departed from saul. And as you go through the chapters, you see saul is more and more consumed by this fear and this hatred of David.

And it turns pretty ugly. As we've said, Saul decides to marry his daughters to David With the hope, I mean, what kind of an evil twisted sort of father-in-law kind of thing is this? That his hope is that by by David marrying his daughter, hopefully, then David will have to go out to battle more and therefore be killed. And he's playing I mean, he's even playing with his daughter's affections, isn't he? The that Michael loves David, and Saul, it says was pleased about this, but we know it's not a joy that his daughter has found love, but it's, great.

It's an opportunity for me to try and kill David. This is how this fear and hatred is consuming soul. And I want you just to turn, just to have a look at, beginning of chapter 19 because the the the hatred and the envy and the fear gets to a point here where like we said, beginning of chapter 19, Saul says, just comes out with it. It's no longer hidden his desire to have David killed. First 1, Saul told his son Jonathan and all the attendants to kill David.

It's just out there now. Let's just kill him. And Jonathan confronts his dad. Jonathan is Saul's son. And Jonathan confronts his father.

And notice what he says, he says, Jonathan verse 4 of chapter 19. Jonathan spoke well of David to Saul his father and said to him, let not the king do wrong to his servant David. He has not wronged you. And what he has done has benefited you greatly. He took his life in his hands when he killed the Philistine.

The Lord won a great victory for all Israel, and you saw it and we're glad. Why then would you do wrong to an innocent man like David by killing him for no reason? Jonathan's reasoning here is good, isn't it? He's saying to his dad, look, dad, why why do you wanna kill, sorta, a a David? Why do you wanna kill him?

He's done you no wrong. What's he actually done to you? Has he has he kidnapped your daughters and taken them off? No. Has he started an uprising?

No. Has he done anything against you? No? But what has he done for you? He's fought for you.

It says he took his life in his hands, risked his life by killing the the Philistine. That we saw in the previous chapter. He's done all that for you. And so he says, you are wrong to kill to try to kill David. You're wrong.

It is he more literally a sin that you are doing. Now that's quite a brave thing for Jonathan to say to King Saul in this rage, in this hatred of David. Now, like we've said, in the new testament, you see people fearing Jesus. This points us through, takes us through to the reactions that there are to Jesus. And people do fear Jesus.

It says in Mark 11, the chief priests and teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him for they feared him because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. They feared Jesus, so wanted him dead. And people can react in similar ways to Jesus today. Why would people fear Jesus? Well, just think why did Saul fear David?

He feared David because Saul knew that his kingship was coming to an end. He knew that God had said to him that God was gonna take away the kingship from Saul and give it to 1 better than him. And therefore you can imagine Saul day by day, on the lookout for, who are the people who look like they are better than me, who might get the kingship? Saul was afraid because he knew someone would come and take his crown. And we can be afraid of Jesus for the same reason.

Because Jesus is claiming a kingship that is far greater than souls. He claims a kingship over all people of all time. He claims therefore an authority over you and claims to have an authority over every part of your life. To be able to say to you, you know, you should live this way. You must live this way.

You must stop living that way. That's the authority Jesus claims to have on you. It'd be a bit like if you're at work or in a school, and there's a new boss. Or you had teacher stars. And maybe you were thinking before they started, oh, good.

Someone nude coming in. You had this place needed a bit of a shake up. Needed a bit of a change. Good. Someone knew coming in.

This would be fun. But then they come around, they start looking around the different departments or different classes, and they come to your department, your classroom. And they say, yeah, this place does need a shake up. Actually, you need a shake up. You need to change.

You need to do things differently. Or maybe even. Maybe we don't need you here. And that's a threat. That's not comfortable, is it?

Well, Jesus in claiming a kingship says, actually, I claim a kingship over every part of your life. And yet, as Jonathan said to his dad, it's worth saying, don't be afraid of Jesus. What wrong has he done you? Is he harsh? Is he mean?

Is he cruel? No. What has he done for you? He has gone to the cross, died so that those who put their trust in him can be forgiven. He has won the great victory for you.

Therefore, although it's understandable to fear Jesus in his play, look at who he is, look at what he has done. There's nothing to fear and everything to rejoice in if you come to Jesus. So the lord was with David. Saul feared, David, and lastly, love. Love.

And we see this. There's love all over the chapters. It's everywhere. It seems like everyone loves, loves David. Jonathan, Saul's son, loves David.

That's chapter 18 verse 1. The people of Israel are described as loving David, 18 verse 16, and we won't read them all out. Saul's daughter, Michael, loves David, and Sal servants are described as loving David. There's a lot of love. Lot of love in the room.

Let's just have a quick look back at Jonathan's love for David. And for this, we go back to the beginning of chapter 18. And we will come back to it in future in a next week's sermon, actually, as well. But it says, verse 1 of chapter 18. After David had finished talking with Saul, Jonathan became 1 in spirit with David.

And he loved him as himself. Now we do just need to touch on the fact that, some people approach the relationship of day of David and Jonathan and try to take it as an example of homosexual, romantic relationship. It's a common 1 that those who are saying, oh, the Bible is okay with that. They will point to this relationship. But it's important to see in the commentators, quite rightly say, there is just no hint of that in the chapters.

There's no hint of sexual relationship, romantic relationship. It is not that. Now come back to me afterwards if you want to, if you wanna talk more on that. Now it's not romantic. It's not sexual.

But it is in but it is nevertheless incredible devotion. It is like an incredible brotherly love. You know, I mean, they brotherly love sometimes brothers don't get on, do they? But but sometimes they get on families. And this is deep brotherly love for 1 another.

And it is made all the more incredible by who these 2 are. As we've seen, Jonathan is the son of Saul, and therefore is the right heir to the throne, have the right to the air, to be air of the throne. When Saul dies, it should revert to Jonathan as king. But we know that the lord has said David is gonna be king. And therefore, really, these 2 should be rivals.

Jonathan and David should be against 1 another. It should be that Jonathan is like his dad, full of envy towards David, but he isn't. In fact, quite the opposite, we're told he became 1 in spirit with David. They aren't rivals, but knit together. And part of this, I think, is their devotion to the lord.

In battles, in previous chapters, both have shown that they trust in the lord. Jonathan, in chapter 14, attacking the Philistine outpost, do you remember? He said, perhaps the lord will act on our behalf. And David, in chapter 17, when gal when fighting Galat said, this day, the lord will deliver you into my hands, In other words, both are saying if they go into battle, we're in the lord's hands. We depend on the lord, and I think it's that that similar outlook where they see 1 another and go, has in good friendships?

Where you go? You see the world the way I do? So these 2, they love each other, and they see they are knit together, and they have this similar outlook. And what Jonathan does next is staggering. Verse 4 is absolute the verse 3 and 4 are incredible.

Says verse 3, and Jonathan made a covenant with David because he loved him as himself. Jonathan makes a covenant with David. This is a binding agreement. And Jonathan has to make it because Jonathan is, don't forget the 1 in position and in the position of power. And he makes this binding agreement and then verse 4 Maybe he was hot there as well.

He takes off his robe, that he was wearing, gives it to David. Now that is very symbolic. That is significant because this is the royal robe that Jonathan is taking off. And giving to David. He gives him his tunic, his sword, his bow, and his belt.

And in doing this, Jonathan is symbolically giving up his royal rights. He's giving up his royal prerogatives, and that includes his right to the throne. Incredibly, what Jonathan is doing here out of devotion to David is an abdication in favor of David. And what we see in Jonathan as time goes by and we'll see it in the next chapter next week's sermon is the the honors this. He is loyal to David, more than he is loyal, even to his father.

And in doing this, Jonathan stands for us as the model Christian. Here is the model of what love for Jesus looks like. It is devotion to him. There is a delight in Jesus. And in seeing his claim to kingship over us out of devotion to him, there is a willingness to abdicate the throne of our lives.

To him, a giving over to Jesus of the kingship of my life. Queen Elizabeth the second apparently said to her chaplain. I hope Jesus returns before I die. When asked why she said, because she wanted to take off her crown and lay it at his feet. That is what we are all called to do.

Will you devote yourself to Jesus? Do you love Jesus? There is objective truth in Christianity. Jesus really is. The king.

He rose from the dead. He reigns and he rules. Therefore, it is right to bow before him. But Christian, we are called to love him as well, to delight in him and out of love. To bow before him cast our crowns before him and make him lord and king of our lives.

Well, you've done well. You got through. We got through chapters 18 and 19. I urge you to go and reread them later, get the flow of the chapters. But in response to this chapter, we're gonna sing in just a moment.

Take my life and let it be. It is that call as Jonathan did to hand over the Royal Rogue of your life to Jesus. So let me just pray for us, and then we'll stand and see. Heavenly father, we, praise you for Jesus that David points to him that David is the 1 who the lord was with yet. Jesus is the lord.

And we pray you'd help us to respond to Jesus. Father, if there are those here who have feared Jesus, please would you help them to see who Jesus really is and to delight in him? And help us all to respond as Jonathan did with this devotion, this love for Jesus. Our men.