Pastor Stan Mons
Sermon Transcription:
Lord, we ask you that at this time, you help us. Lord, would you help us understand your word? Would you help us understand if your Holy Spirit is seeking to help our hearts understand something and helping our minds see something? Lord God, would you minister online and here in person the cross of Jesus Christ, that a new understanding, true gratitude, and true joy may be born in the lives that least deserve it. Lord God, you are a God of mercy, and we thank you that you responded to our sin by sending your son. Lord, help us see who you truly are, that we may believe you and trust you and bless you and speak of you all the days of our life. Lord God, that every single one of us may hear from you when we come home, "Welcome home, good and faithful servant. You were entrusted with little; I will set you over much." Lord God, I pray that none of us would be full of fear, trembling before you on that day, but that we would have a cleansed conscience, the miracle that only the blood of Jesus Christ can do. Lord, we bless you. We ask you to minister to us through your word. In Jesus' name, Amen. Amen.
Towards the end of the service, we're going to invite Victoria and Anna back up. We're all going to pray for them, and we have a small gift for them as well. But before that, I want to go into the word of God with you today. The title of the word that the Lord has given me is this: God and the Song of a Madman. God and the Song of a Madman. We're going to start in 1st Samuel 18. We're going to read verses 5-7, talking about David, arguably after Jesus one of the most famous people in the Bible. Verse 5: So David went out wherever Saul sent him and behaved wisely, and Saul set him over the men of war. He was accepted in the sight of all people and also in the sight of Saul's servants. Now it had happened as they were coming home, when David was returning from the slaughter of the Philistine, that the women had come out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing to meet King Saul with tambourines, with joy, and with musical instruments. So the women sang as they danced and said, "Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands. Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands."
Talking about David, who had trusted God on so many occasions, when he first gets close to the king, who was king at that time, King Saul, he tells that king, "Listen, when I was shepherding the sheep and a lion would show up or a bear would show up, I'd kill him." Now, if you're a man in this place, you would want that to be your story. You want to be able to tell somebody over a game of pool, "Listen, there was a time I had a little goat in my front yard. You wouldn't believe it, a bear showed up. I took that thing with my bare knuckles and I took it by the throat and I took that thing down, and nothing, no scratch on me, killed that thing right then and there." That's a story that David gets to tell Saul. My kids love it when I tell them that story. I generally tell it to them very animatedly.
Then David hears the words of the Philistine Goliath. He's young and he's not part of the army, and most of the army is all cowering, doesn't really know what to do. Goliath, the giant, would come out and would speak against their God, and would speak against the God of heaven and against God's people. David comes to just bring some food to his brothers, and he hears this go down and he says, "Who is this Philistine that he just gets to uninterrupted declare these things, come against our God, come against us as a people? Is there nobody here in the whole army that is going to do something about it?"
David goes to Saul and tells him the story of the lion and the bear. "Couldn't get me down," and David, full of faith, goes towards this giant in the famous story with the few stones. He swings that thing and takes Goliath down with one stone, takes the sword of Goliath, chops off his own head. Another incredible story for the books in David's life. He gets closer and closer to the king, becomes best friends with the son of the king, ends up marrying a daughter of the king. Nothing could go wrong. But then come the dark days of desperation in David's life, days of panic and fear, driven to act in the flesh by his fears, by panic, not knowing what to do.
This David, who has these incredible stories at a very young age, seeing God use him in extravagant ways to put to silence the voice of the enemy, to put to nothing the strength of the enemy, if you will. And everything seems to go well for David. And then the fear kicks in.
David ends up having to flee from before Saul. Ever since that song had been sung, something changed. That song, "Saul has killed his thousands and David his ten thousands," something began to change both in Saul's life and in David's life. Ever since that song had been sung, Saul, the word of God says, had his eye on David. And he wasn't looking out for David; he was looking to harm David. He had developed a fear, a concern towards David, and it grows from bad to worse. And at this point now, David flees from Saul.
Verse 10 of chapter 21: Then David arose and fled that day from before Saul, and went to Achish, the king of Gath. And the servants of Achish said to him, "Is this not David, the king of the land? Did they not sing of him to one another in dances, saying, 'Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands'?" Now David took these words to heart and was very much afraid of Achish, the king of Gath. So he changed his behavior before them, pretended madness in their hands, scratched on the doors of the gate, and let his saliva fall down onto his beard. Then Achish said to his servants, "Look, you see the man is insane. Why have you brought him to me? Have I need of madmen, that you have brought this fellow to play the madman in my presence? Shall this fellow come into my house?"
Here we see David, who has seen God move in his life. He's been an example, really a story of pointing forward to what we could expect once God would bring us into relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. And here, David begins to shift. Time and time again in the chapters between the story we read and this story, we read it time and time again: David behaved wisely, and Saul was afraid of him. David behaved wisely, and then the word says, "And when Saul saw that he continued to behave wisely, he was gravely afraid of David."
And right here, we read that David makes room for fear in his life. Then we read this incredible sentence in the beginning of verse 13: "So he changed his behavior." David behaved wisely, behaved wisely, behaved wisely. Fear. So he changed his behavior. We know from the word of God that fear is a spirit. If you struggle with fear, you can attest to this. It always tells you what to do or what not to do. Fear is not just a feeling; it speaks. It is very clear. You know the message, and if you listen to the fear, it's going to affect your behavior. It's going to affect what you choose to do. And David makes room for a spirit of fear to have a voice in his life.
Up until this point, all things had been going uphill for David because no one had seen David, really. Everybody was overlooking David until God saw him. Samuel had come to David's father's house, and Samuel had asked for Dad to bring all of his sons. We see David's father bring all of the sons except him. And Samuel goes from son to son, and the Holy Spirit does not bear witness in his heart that one of these is going to be the next king of Israel.
So at the borderline of confusion, Samuel asks David's father, "Are these all of your sons? I'm running out of options here. This is confusing to me because I know God sent me here to anoint a new king, and none of these sons seem to be it. Is there not...?" "Oh, yeah, David. He's with the sheep." David was not even invited to the ceremony. He was not even invited. There was not a thought in his father's mind that he could possibly be it. But God saw David. And ever since that moment, that thing had taken place in David's life, very similar to when God takes us from our life without Him. He comes to live inside of our heart, saves us, and a new journey starts. And ever since that journey started with David, God had noticed him. Everything went uphill. He ended up living in the king's house. They didn't know that David was anointed king, but God already brought him into the palace. He was put in charge over all the armies. Things were really looking on the up and up. And then, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, God allows something into his life that will bring the worst out of David, the absolute worst. Find the worst corners of his heart and bring it all out. It's a one-sentence song. A one-sentence song.
The great David, the king of Israel, the child of God, the man after God's own heart. A one-sentence song. Something arguably so small brought the most shameful acts up out of David. And he gets discredited, he gets disgraced. The man that so recently, just a few chapters before, brought honor and testimony to the name of God, now is a joke to his enemy. "This fellow, what? Am I going to have this man in my house? Take him out." They don't even kill him. They discredit him. They disgrace him. He's worth nothing. He's like an animal to them. He's a joke now to his own enemy. This was the place where Goliath came from. This was the king that Goliath had fought for. This is where he came from—Goliath from Gath.
And now, in this very place, this enemy king in David's life makes fun of David. David is nobody to him. He's not afraid of him. He doesn't worry about him. He makes a joke out of him. And God allows this in the life of the believer. He will allow the song of a madman to be played. What that simply represents is that it can be a very small thing. Some people may call it a trigger. It can be in your marriage. The smallest thing is said or mentioned, and you go from behaving wisely to absolutely raising your voice and being a disgrace. If everybody could see you like this, you'd never want to behave like this in front of people. It takes one word, one sentence, a small situation, a small thing. Something happens, and all of a sudden, what was in your heart is clearly to be seen. It's coming out now.
And it can be the smallest things that bring it up. It can take all of the effort in the world to try to suppress it, and even then, we often do not even succeed. And God allows it in the life of the believer. He will allow the song of a madman to be played. Something so simple, so small. And all of a sudden, everything may be going well, this small thing comes in, and all of a sudden, things seem to be falling apart. It can be small, but it drives you. It drives you. It drives you to change your behavior, just like it did for David.
Behaving wisely, behaving wisely, behaving wisely. A one-sentence song. So he changed his behavior, made a fool out of himself, took himself, who was such a testimony not only for the name of God but for the entire nation of Israel, the beloved, loved by all, and made himself a fool. He brought shame on himself, made himself a disgrace. The Lord allows small things in the lives of the believer that will bring out the worst in your heart that you didn't even think was hiding there, and it reveals something. It reveals something dark in the corner of the heart. It allows it to come out, and if you give it to the Lord, if you allow the Lord to bring it out, and if you allow it to be changed by Him, it will be gone.
But if you do that journey without Jesus, it's not going to be a one-time thing. You're going to learn to live with this thing. You're going to learn to hide this thing. You're going to learn to be one way at home and one day on the other side of the front door. It's called a hypocrite—behaving differently in front of people than you really are in private. The Lord will allow these things in your life that bring out these worst-case scenario character things, identity things, whatever it may be in your or my life, so that you get to see that you are willing to change your behavior from testimony to shame. You and I are willing to change our behavior from testimony, behaving wisely, and honorably, to shame in a heartbeat. And all of a sudden, you're in a place where you have given your enemy everything to discredit you, to disgrace you. You're no threat to the enemy, a joke to him, and you gave it all to him at the end of the day. And you feel horrible, you feel destroyed, but God rewrites the song.
God, right here, exactly at this moment—which we could argue is one of the heights of the deepest places David has ever been. We know a few more in David's life, but this must be one of the worst moments, the blackest pages in David's life. Why did he have them write this down in the Chronicles? Why did he have them write this down in the history books of the Jewish nation? The king-to-be, at the flick of a thumb, could have said, "That part, we're going to leave that part out. I don't need my kids to hear this. I don't need my grandkids to hear this. As a matter of fact, I don't need the people of Safe House to hear this. I can be remembered as the one that took down Goliath. That's how we're going to do it. I have the authority; don't say no to me." He could have done that in a heartbeat.
Why does he have it written down in such detail? Because right at this point, where he's at the deepest place, at this point in his life, God gives him Psalm 34. This is the moment he writes it, when he has made the worst decisions, failed in the highest ways possible, made himself literally look like an idiot in every way that he could. He tried so hard to convince everyone that he had no healthy mind anymore. That's what he was doing—seeking to convince people he's no threat, he's a joke, he's overcome by insanity. God at that moment gives him Psalm 34. Let me read to you Psalm 34. At the top of this Psalm, I think in Russian it's part of the verse; in English, it's just a small part above the first verse. I'll read it to you just for the sake of clarity. This is what it says: "A Psalm of David, when he pretended madness before Abimelech, who drove him away, and he departed."
This is when he wrote the Psalm. This is what the Psalm says, starting in verse 1 to verse 10:
"I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth." Whoa, that just took a sharp turn. He went from pretending to be insane, and the song he writes is not a song of "Oh, I'm so ashamed of my actions," not a song of "Will God still be with me?" He starts off with praises. That sounds a little inappropriate, David.
Verse 2: "My soul will make its boast in the Lord; the humble will hear of it and be glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord, and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried out, and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encamps all around those who fear Him and delivers them. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him. Oh, fear the Lord, you His saints; there is no want to those who fear Him. The young lions lack and suffer hunger, but those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing."
Church this man learned something. This man learned something from the Spirit of God at the deepest place that he had ever been to at this point in his life—a place of failure, a place of literally giving in to his own enemies, giving in to the testimony, giving in to everything that God had given him up until that time. He just basically wasted it all, brought it all to nothing. This man learned something. This is not the Psalm of a person that has just made their worst mistake, it seems.
God allowed a one-sentence song, something small, to reveal the darkest, unchanged, immature, fleshly parts of David's heart to come out for anyone to see, for him to see, because God wanted to change the song. You see, the song was all about how much greater David was than Saul. But here at the end of this story, we don't have a song anymore about David. We don't have a song anymore about how David conquers. He says, "I sought the Lord, He heard me, He delivered, He set me free from my fears. This poor man cried out." He's no longer David with great victory, David with great pomp, David who says, "Listen, I took out the bear, I took out the lion, surely this one will be mine too." He says, "No, I'm a poor man, but I cried out. The Lord heard me and saved me out of all of my troubles."
David learned something. "I chose shameful behavior even though I knew better. I chose to act in the flesh even though I had another way out, and I could have trusted God and called on Him. I made a fool of myself. I made all the wrong decisions. My situation overcame me. I gravely failed God, and yet God is on my side. Yet God answers me when I pray. Yet God protects me. Yet God invites me. I sought Him, and He heard me. He didn't treat me according to my failure. He didn't treat me according to the damage I have just done to the testimony in my life. I looked to Him and I was radiant. I didn't get shame or disappointment or rejection from heaven, but I was allowed into the upper room, if you will. Their faces were not ashamed."
I looked towards God, and even though I had done all of these things—wasted the grace, chosen against God, destroyed my reputation and the reputation of my testimony—God answers a man like me. God responds still to a man like me, as if I did nothing wrong. And he starts to write: "I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth," as if he's saying, "I don't know what you're going to do, but the Holy Spirit has shown me something that is going to allow me to bless God all the days of my life because He does not respond to me according to what I do or do not do. He is responding to me in a different way. He is on my side."
Church, this kind of a failure of a man—I know it's very hard for us to take the name David and begin to say, "Well, this is a man of failure," because there's such incredible things God did through this man. But this man, we know, has some of the greatest stories of failure as well. At this point, he's God's man of failure. Yet, he's always delivered, always protected, always accepted, never rejected by God. Despite all of these failures, he writes this Psalm in response to this situation. By all situations and means, he should have felt rejection from God. Instead, he writes a Psalm like this.
It is a prophetic foreshadowing of what you and I would come to know through the son of David, Jesus Christ. He's often referred to in the scriptures as the son of David. And what David shows us on the pages with the stories of his life, the son of David is sent to come and show us in the heart for our own life. The prophet Micah cries out, "Who is a God like You?" Verse 18 of chapter 7 of Micah: "Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever because He delights in mercy." Church, this is who God is, and it causes the prophet to cry out, "Who's like You? Out of every god, every king, every person I've ever met, who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity, just passing over it as if it's nothing? Who does that? Who's like that?"
The life of David reveals it on the pages, but the son of David wants to show you in the heart that when you—even though you may have heard about Jesus before in your life—you've tried to pray, you've tried to do what's right, and some days you did well, you behaved wisely, and then other days you may as well have never tried because honestly, on that day, you just let everything come out. You became a joke. The enemy has no reason to be afraid of you, no reason to be intimidated by you. You gave in yourself. He didn't need to do nothing. David's enemy didn't need to do anything except just be there.
So easily in our life, the Lord will allow something that causes us to see in our heart: Man, I change my behavior that easily. I choose to throw away testimony that easily. I choose to stop behaving wisely so easily. My own children, who I love dearly, may do something small, and I'm carrying stuff around I'm not even supposed to be carrying. I'm supposed to give it to God in prayer, but I'm carrying it around, and my own kids, who I would die for, do something small, and I lash out at them. I change my behavior that easily.
God will allow little things that give you an opportunity to say, "This heart needs some work." When it comes down to it, I cannot make myself be changed. I cannot make myself into a good man completely. I cannot make myself walk how I would like to walk and how I would like for everyone to see me. If everyone could see me at all hours of the day, I know exactly what I would be like, what I would behave like, what my choices would be at all times. But honestly, there are little one-sentence small things that make it go from bad to worse. And the word tells us: Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity? Iniquity is what David chose: bad decisions, painful decisions, shameful decisions. Guilty as charged—David, me too—guilty as charged. And God, God pardons it, just passes over it as if it means nothing. And now that man, that woman, can no longer be regarded as guilty of the crime, nor will they suffer any of the consequences because the word tells us: God delights in mercy.
So God sent His son to pay for every crime, every wrong thing you've ever done or even thought in your mind, so that God could choose to just pardon you even though you were the one that did it, just like David was the one that had just done it now. And God responds to him as if he's never done a thing wrong in his life. God seeks to do the same for you, but it is the son of David that comes to show it to us in the heart.
Every single one of us can read these stories in the Bible, but only the son of David can make our hearts understand that God has done this for you and me because He loves you. He sent His son for you. He desires to pardon you so that, just like David, you don't need to hide the stories of failure. You don't need to hide the stories of disgrace. God washes them away, and you can, just like David, share them publicly and say, "These are all of the things that I have done wrong. These are all of the decisions I made. Isn't it disgraceful? I did all of this stuff. I made every wrong step. I made every mistake in the book. And let me tell you, I sought the Lord, and He heard a man like me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked to Him and were radiant, and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried out, and the Lord saved him and saved him from all of his troubles." That is what we testify about in the name of Jesus Christ.
None of us deserves a thing that heaven gives. God freely gives to all who are willing to believe that there's no other way to be forgiven but through the name of Jesus Christ, the son of Almighty God, the son of David. If you're willing to trust Him just the smallest bit, He will send His Spirit to teach your heart what He revealed to David that day. None of your failures, none of your choices, none of you changing your behavior behind closed doors—none of it caused Me to become offended with you and take a step back from you. I love you. Somebody's paid for all of this. Somebody's made a way for you to never be rejected in the presence of the Father. And the story changes.
Instead of a song that plays over and over again in your life, bringing out the worst in you, now there's a song that says, "God listens to someone like me." Can you believe it? "God answers someone like me." Can you understand? God is willing to forgive someone like me. God is willing to bring someone like me into His kingdom. Would you worship with me? That becomes our story. Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity, as we worship Jesus. Jesus is so willing today to send His Spirit in your heart to help you understand something that maybe you've never understood before—that all of this has been done for you, not as some abstract truth that we believe God does for His church. It doesn't matter what you believe until you understand who you are to God, what He has done for you, and what He is willing to do through you in this generation. He's willing to send His Spirit to show it to your heart.
-Pastor Stan Mons