PowerPoint

Jack Graham: Sin will produce death as sure as night follows day, as sure as smoke follows fire. Sin first fascinates and then it assassinates and costs you more than you want to pay.

Guest (Female): On today's PowerPoint, Dr. Graham brings a message about what it means to have a great heart. Now here's Dr. Graham with his message, The Price of Leadership.

Jack Graham: This is our series of messages on the life and legacy of King David. After the heart of God because David was called a man after God's own heart. And today we're going to take some time to look at the great heart of David.

And when you read First Samuel, Second Samuel, and the Chronicles and the Kings, you see a lot of violence and war and battles. And the application for each one of us who are the sons of David and our David, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is a direct descendant of David the king.

We as the sons of David, we're told that we reign with Him in life. And so as we reign as kings and priests unto God, as we allow the Lord Jesus to take His rightful place of preeminence in our lives, then we also want to pursue the heart of God like David did. Because the story of David is our story as well. As we reign with Christ, He shows us what God can do with our lives when our hearts are His, when we give our lives unconditionally, we reign in life.

There's a price to leadership. There is a cost, a price tag to leadership. And not everyone is willing to pay the price of leadership. And many though they are willing to pay the price of leadership are not able to lead. Some like Saul in our story of King David, the failed king of Israel, some reach the top and are capable, but they lack character.

It is our ability that may get us to the top, but it is character that keeps us there. One writer called this story of Saul and David a tale of two kings. A tale of two kings. What kind of king are you? And when we look at the lives of these two kings, we see as we examine the life and the leadership of both Saul and David, the price, the cost of leadership.

So if I could catch you up just a little bit from the last time, at age 30, David is finally able to take the throne that he was promised 15, 16 years earlier. David though he was a fugitive from the house of Saul, the king that had been set aside who'd forfeited his leadership, David was the true king and yet he was hounded and hated by Saul. And yet David kept his heart for God, he kept his faith in God, he pursued God. Even as he ran from Saul, he ran to God.

Second Samuel 1, I'm reading in the New Living, picks up our story. Second Samuel picks up right where First Samuel leaves off. And it says after the death of Saul, David returned from his victory over the Amalekites and spent two days in Ziklag. And on the third day, a man arrived from Saul's army camp. He had torn his clothes and put dirt on his head to show that he was in mourning. He fell to the ground before David in deep respect.

"Where have you come from?" David asked. "I escaped from the Israelite camp," the man replied. "What happened?" David demanded. "Tell me how the battle went." And the man replied, "Our entire army fled from the battle. Many of the men are dead and Saul and his son Jonathan are also dead." "How do you know Saul and Jonathan are dead?" David demanded of the young man.

The man answered, "I happened to be on Mount Gilboa." Now this is most likely a lie because this man was an Amalekite. He was a resident Amalekite among the Israelites, and he was probably scouring the battlefield for treasure and bounty. So he didn't just happen to be there. He was there on purpose. And as we'll see, the story he tells is not exactly the truth as to what happened, so just stay tuned for that.

The man answered, "I was on Mount Gilboa and there was Saul leaning on his spear with the enemy chariots and charioteers closing in on him. And when he turned and saw me, he cried out for me to come to him. 'How can I help?' I asked him. He responded, 'Who are you?' 'I am an Amalekite,' I told him. And then he begged me, 'Come over here and put me out of my misery, for I am in terrible pain and want to die.'"

"So I killed him," the Amalekite told David. "For I knew he couldn't live. And then I took his crown and his armband and I have brought them here to you, my lord." He is now trying to ingratiate himself with David the king.

Verse 11, David and his men tore their clothes in sorrow when they heard the news. And then in verse 19, "Your pride and joy, O Israel, lies dead on the hills. Oh, how the mighty heroes... Oh, how the mighty have fallen." And then when you read down the page in the Bible, you discover that David laments and cries and composes a funeral song for Saul and shows us his heart.

What is this heart of David? What is the heart of a great man, a great leader? And it is first a gracious heart. Remember when David and his men were hiding in a cave and Saul came into the cave and David was encouraged by his men to take Saul the king out. Remember there's a conflict going on between Saul and David. Though David was the people's choice after the slaying of Goliath and he was anointed by Samuel, Saul was holding on to power.

He ends up hating David, chasing David, trying to kill David. And so David now has his opportunity for vengeance, for revenge. Saul made David's life miserable. And it would have been very easy for David to hate him back. And so David chose to honor rather than hate the king and he showed the gracious heart in letting the man live. He did it again on a second occasion.

And then in this instance in which the tragedy is revealed that Saul is dead along with Jonathan, David's blood brother, David's closest friend in life, goes down next to his father in the battle. So David shows again this honor and respect for the king, even though the king in so many respects was not respectful.

This is something we must always teach ourselves and teach our children. Because the spirit of rebellion and the spirit of revenge is not the spirit of Christ, who taught us to love our enemies and to pray for our enemies. The world is a place where rebellion rules and chaos is in the streets and violence and disrespect for authority. It seems to be a growing disrespect for people in authority.

Train your children to respect authority. Train your children to be respectful of the nation. Train your children to be respectful of those who lead, whether it is a government official, whether it is a pastor, whether it is a schoolteacher, a school leader. But we have all of this shameful disrespect going on in the world. David refused revenge.

In Romans chapter 12, verses 14 through 17, the New Testament teaches us, "Bless those who persecute you. Don't curse them, pray that God will bless them. Be happy with those who are happy and weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with each other and don't be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people and don't think you know it all." And then watch this, "Never pay back evil with more evil, and do things in such a way that everyone can see that you are honorable."

David's heart was an honorable heart because he was an honorable man. What did he do? He knew that God is a righteous judge. "Vengeance is mine," says the Lord. The battle is the Lord's. It's not our job to seek justice, but to seek God like David did when someone hurts us or even harms us. David had a gracious, grace-filled heart. That's why he was a great man. That's why he rose above all others in his generation.

But then David had a grieving heart. And here we look inside this man. When Saul dies in battle and it was a terrible death... the Philistine armies decapitate the king. Though he had fallen on his own sword and died by his own hand in reality. And while the arrows had pierced him and he was dying, he took his own life. So he was... I've always believed Saul, the man who might have been.

So much talent, so much ability, so much strength. He was the popular choice of all the nation when he was named king. The man who might have been, but he threw it all away. He wasted the privilege and the promise that God had given him.

And yet once again, David refused to celebrate over the death of the king. You would have supposed that David would have said, "Well, now finally. I've waited these 15 years. This man has been a nemesis to me, more than a nemesis, an enemy for no reason. I'm glad he's dead." None of that came out of David's mouth.

Instead, as you read the verses in front of you, he begins to weep. And he writes a lamentation, a song, a funeral hymn, if you will. David always the worshipper, always the writer of the great psalms, he writes this. And he's not laughing with delight that Saul is dead, he is lamenting with tears.

We all like to laugh, I hope you do. I hope you enjoy life and that you are full of happiness and joy in the Lord. We love to laugh, but sometimes it's a time for tears. An American poet by the name of Emily Dickinson, remember her from English class? She wrote, "Because I could not stop for death, death stopped for me." So death stopped for Saul, it was his time. It was his turn to die and he died in sin, unrepentant sin, in agony.

If you want to see how he died rather than the story that this Amalekite told, look at First Samuel, the end of the story there. The fighting grew very fierce around Saul and the Philistine archers caught up with him and wounded him severely. And Saul groaned to his armor-bearer, "Take your sword and kill me before these pagan Philistines come to run me through and taunt me and torture me." But his armor-bearer was afraid and wouldn't do it, so Saul took his own sword and he fell on it.

In the end he took his own life, dying in agony and blood. In those days, the victorious warriors and armies would mutilate the bodies of the defeated dead, especially the kings. But Saul didn't want that to happen. But it's interesting to me, very interesting to me that Saul was more concerned about what would happen to his body than what would happen to his soul.

Jesus said, "Don't fear those that can kill the body, but fear those who can kill the soul." The Lord said in Mark 8:36, "And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world and lose your own soul?" So along the way, Saul forfeited his soul and he dies by his own hand in battle. We don't have to wonder why this took place, not just how it took place, but the expanded story of First Chronicles 10:13 and 14 tells us why he died.

So Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord. He failed to obey the Lord's command and he even consulted a medium instead of asking the Lord for guidance. So the Lord killed him and turned the kingdom over to David, son of Jesse. And so what does David do? He laments. Saul's suicide depicts the tragic ending of a life lived in disobedience to God. David shows honor to the king.

Saul had plenty of opportunity. This violent death of Saul just was the end of a long journey of sin and shame in his life. Sin is like that. "The wages of sin is death." And Saul's sin produced death. Sin will produce death as sure as night follows day, as sure as smoke follows fire. Sin first fascinates and then it assassinates.

And as I've said on numerous occasions in the past, sin will take you farther than you want to go and keep you longer than you want to stay and cost you more than you want to pay. Such is the case of Saul. Sin destroyed Saul's life and at the end he's insane. Sin kills and destroys.

And when it happens, it kills the testimony of the Christian, it kills the testimony of the man. It strips away our strength like Samson, it pulverizes our purity. And sin is like a cancer, it starts small but then it spreads. And it ended up with Saul decapitated and disgraced. And the Philistines are celebrating, but not David.

In fact, David said in verse 20, "Tell no one in Gath, don't publish this thing in the streets, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice." Love covers a multitude of sin because sin will play you and then it will slay you. Romans 2:24 in the New Testament said, "God's name is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." How many times do believers rejoice because of the public sin and shame of those who should know better?

This is a warning for me, it's a warning for you. It's a reminder call to walk worthy of the gospel to which we have been saved, to guard our hearts, for out of it flow the issues of life. God help us not to forfeit our witness and lose our credibility with our own family, our own friends, coworkers, and church members. Later Saul's body is recovered by valiant men and cremated, but then his bones were taken to David and the bones were honored and entombed.

But Saul's defeat and disgrace did not happen overnight. It happened because he disobeyed God again and again and again. And David is devastated. David did not hate Saul though Saul hated David. And so David through tears streaming down his face sings this song. In verse 25, "How the mighty have fallen." And he grieves.

And Jonathan, he says the love of Jonathan was greater than the love of a woman. That's how close he was to Jonathan. So his heart is breaking that these two men have died. Being a Christian does not dehumanize you. Sometimes we say to people, "Don't cry, don't cry, Jesus is... He's got this." Well, He does, but it's a wrong, it's a bad thing to tell people not to cry ever.

Because God uses tears, not only for our testimony, but tears to heal our souls. Someone said that tears are like telescopes that help us to see God more clearly. That tears wash our eyes so that we can look better at the Lord. We are to weep with those who weep. And our hearts should break for those who are brokenhearted.

A heart of faith filled with love and forgiveness like David. A heart full of compassion and concern and care like David. Proverbs 24:17 says, "Do not gloat when your enemy falls, when he stumbles, do not let your heart rejoice." First Peter 4:8, "Love covers a multitude of sins." David left everything in God's hand.

Yes, David was a man after God's own heart. He had a grieving heart, he had a grace-filled heart, therefore he had a great heart. And David experiences a great new beginning in his life. In Second Samuel 2:4, he is anointed once again. In fact, David was anointed three times as king of Israel. Once as a teenager when Samuel anointed him, and here again in Second Samuel 2:4 when he is anointed the king over Judah, the portion of the kingdom because there would be a conflict that would continue between the house of Saul, the house of David for several years until David once again rose over in victory over the house of Saul and became the king over all of Israel. And he was anointed three times.

Whenever God does something new, He gives a fresh anointing to His people. May God give us all a fresh anointing. We need God's presence and power to lead us forward. David knew he would need the Lord like never before. And so in Second Samuel chapter 2, verses 5 through 7, listen to these words. They're great ones from David.

David sent messengers to the men of Jabesh Gilead and said to them, "May you be blessed by the Lord because you showed this loyalty to Saul your lord and buried him. And now may the Lord show steadfast love and faithfulness to you. And I will do good to you because you have done good, or you have done this thing. Now therefore," this is my prayer for all of us, "let your hands be strong and be valiant, for Saul your lord is dead and the house of Judah has anointed me king over all of them."

God has another king, the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and His name is Jesus. He is known as the son of David because He's in the direct line dependency of David himself. And when you put your life in Christ's hands, when you give Him your heart, the heart of God becomes your heart and you are saved, no longer doomed to die in your sin and your shame, but it's the tale of a different king. To reign in life through Jesus our Lord.

Guest (Female): You're listening to PowerPoint with Jack Graham and the message, The Price of Leadership. Let me remind you about an encouraging resource Dr. Jack Graham created to help you navigate life with biblical wisdom. It's his book, Choices, which comes as our thanks for your gift of $10 or more.

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Pastor, what is your PowerPoint for today?

Jack Graham: For today's PowerPoint, I want to leave you with this truth: The heart you cultivate in private will be the heart that's revealed in public. David's response to Saul's death wasn't manufactured in a moment. He didn't have to think about how to react. That gracious, grieving, great heart flowed out of him naturally because it had been formed over 15 years of choosing forgiveness over bitterness, choosing honor over revenge, choosing to trust God's timing instead of forcing his own.

So here's my question for you today: What kind of heart are you cultivating right now? Because I guarantee you there will come a moment, maybe this week, maybe this year, when someone who has hurt you will fall, someone who has opposed you will fail, someone who has been your enemy will stumble. And in that moment, the heart you've been forming will be revealed. Will you gloat? Will you celebrate their downfall? Or will you, like David, have the grace to grieve, the humility to honor, and the greatness to leave vengeance in God's hands?

Christian, we're not called to be people of revenge. We're called to be people of the resurrection. We follow the King who, while we were still His enemies, died for us, who looked at those crucifying Him and said, "Father, forgive them." That's the heart we're called to have. That's the anointing we need fresh upon us today.

I want you to pray for a fresh anointing of God's Spirit. Ask Him to give you David's heart. A heart that's gracious when it has every right to be vengeful. A heart that grieves when it could celebrate. A heart that's great because it reflects the heart of God Himself. And if there's someone in your life right now that you're struggling to forgive, someone who's hurt you, someone you've been waiting to see fall, today is the day to release that to God. Don't let bitterness rob you of the anointing God wants to pour out on your life.

Guest (Female): And that is today's PowerPoint. And join us again next time as Dr. Graham brings a message about how God offers you a new beginning, no matter what you've done. That's next time on PowerPoint with Jack Graham. PowerPoint with Jack Graham is sponsored by PowerPoint Ministries.