Doing Your Best When Life is the Worst

It's been said that transformation is only possible through images, not just concepts alone. And this is something that Jesus seemingly used to no end. He didn't just tell us that we have a heavenly Father who loves us. He gave us this image, a father had two sons, one stayed back, one went to the big city. So in the prodigal son, we don't just have the concept of what grace is. We have an image of what it looks like. And of course, in the incarnation, in Jesus coming, we have the ultimate image, not just God telling us, sending us words about his love, but showing us that Jesus, the word of God came so we could see God. He said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. And in my opinion, this is one of the reasons that shows like House of David are so powerful for us to see these stories come to life, not just concepts, but images. Well, if you have a Bible, we're going to be today in 1 Samuel 16, and we welcome you back to Is That in the Bible? And we're so grateful that Wonder Project has invited us into the set of House of David. And we get to step in this moment into the throne room of King Saul. And it's absolutely amazing to get to be transported virtually in production to Gebeah and to step into this environment. And we're going to talk today about how hard it is to keep our cool when we're in the middle of a situation that makes our blood boil. We all know that kindness is a fruit of the Spirit. But if we're honest, there are times when kindness low-key feels crazy. And the question we want to ask today is how do we deal with difficult people without becoming ugly ourselves? How do we have stimulus that makes us just want to lose our cool but maintain a composed mentality? Now if there was ever somebody who had to deal with a hostile work environment, it was David. You know, he was brought in originally to the palace to Saul's throne room, to Saul's bedroom to actually make the environment less hostile. And that's just what we're going to see as we start with a clip from episode four of the first season of House of David.

Let's watch the video. Unbelievable. In this scene where we listen to Michael, who plays David, playing the liar, his sweet psalmist of Israel, gifting an anointing so evident, and to watch the reaction of the royal family as the music, as the song, as the lyrics, as the name, above all names being exalted just undeniably changes the atmosphere. It's not the sermon, but a little pro tip, just obvious from the show that when you change the music around you, you can change the mood going on inside of you. It's one of the ways to just take control of your spirit. And that is exactly what the Bible says brought David to the palace from his job being a shepherd in Bethlehem all the way to the big city. We have in 1 Samuel 16, verse 15, and Saul's, and I'm reading out of the New Living Translation if you want to track along in your YouVersion app. And Saul's servants said to him, surely a distressing spirit from God is troubling you. Let our master now command your servants who are before you to seek out a man who is a skillful player on the harp, and it shall be that he will play it with his hand when the distressing spirit from God is upon you, and you shall be well. All right, Saul said, find me someone who plays well and bring him here. One of the servants said to Saul, one of Jesse's sons from Bethlehem is a talented harp player. Not only that, he is a brave warrior, a man of war, and has good judgment. He is also a fine-looking young man, and the Lord is with him.

And then if you jump down to 21, so David went to Saul and began serving him. Saul loved David very much, and David became his armor bearer. Then Saul sent word to Jesse, asking, please let David remain in my service, for I am very pleased with him. And whenever the tormenting spirit from God troubled Saul, David would play the harp. Then Saul would feel better, and the tormenting spirit would go away. And this is God's word. Lord, we thank you for your word. We elevate your word above our feelings, our opinions, our situations. We thank you that even as we take a big breath in and release it, we feel your word doing for us what the music did for Saul, just the spirit changes. We live in a world just of so much distraction and information and just so much coming and going. Thank you that we can just rest and find peace and anchor ourselves in you. Thank you for your presence here in this moment, and we pray this in Jesus' name. Well, we're so glad that you're with us, by the way, at Every Fresh Life Church and partner churches and watching this online and just believing the same spirit of God that was just there with David. And what we were just seeing, that's what scripture says happened. God's spirit came into this moment,

and that's what Saul missed so much. Because as we've said previously in the series, the sin in Saul's life created a barrier between him and the Lord. And so he's just dealing with just this dysfunction. Things are just not right, and yet he's still trying to drag along as though everything were OK. And the only way he could make do is allowing David to become like a living Spotify playlist as he would bring praise. The Song of Moses, songs that David had written in the sheepfold. And again, it's not the sermon, but we have to just point out how excellence makes space for a person's gift. When they looked for David, they only found him because he was such an excellent harpist. They said, we want to find the best. So had David not taken seriously his practicing and his playing and perfected and honed his craft, he never would have been selected for this. And so we can even just think about right now, what's the parallel? What today could you be doing that tomorrow would open up a new door for you to be faithful in secret when no one's looking? So that down the road, God, when he's ready to exalt you, he knows where to find you, but you have to do your work now. Do those hard yards now. I think it was Michael Jordan who once said,

it's what you do alone by yourself in the gym that one day fills up stadiums and arenas. And the Bible does talk about how God looks for faithfulness in small things to entrust you with greater levels of responsibility. And David is just a living study of that sort of excellence in secret in Bethlehem. But the thanks that David gets for doing such good work for Saul is to be mistreated at every turn, to be mishandled, and to be treated badly. And the title of the message today is doing your best when life is the worst. Can you relate to that? Think about an area in which it's easy or tempting for you to phone it in or to turn off, you know, sort of like you're trying to sort of quiet, quit in certain ways because life is the worst and so you don't do well. But David did just the opposite. Even though David had never done anything wrong to Saul. And here's how crazy it is, it says Saul loves David. It's like, man, if you love me. Like, you have a weird way of showing it. If you love me, you've got a strange way. It's almost like with friends like these, who needs enemies? David is loyal to Saul. He took down Goliath for Saul. He carries Saul's armor. He deals with Saul's bad moods. He brings him his song.

And yet, look, if you jump to 1 Samuel 18, verse 5, look what happens next. Whatever Saul asked David to do, David did it successfully. So David, again and again, brings his A game to Saul, no matter what. Almost like the New Testament says, he served his master pleasing the Lord and not pleasing man. So Saul made him a commander over the men of war, an appointment that was welcomed by the people and by Saul's officers alike. How cool is that? David gets respect everywhere he goes. It's not just people in the street cheering for him, wanting autographs from him that think he's awesome. The people closest to him actually respect him. People around him want to work with him. Think of this. People under him are eager to be under him, his mighty men of war. One of my craziest parts of the show to watch is when you see David interacting with Uriah. Oh, and dang, isn't that just like a knife knowing what's coming? It's just, oh, it pains me. But also to see Uriah's respect for David, to see eventually David earn the respect of his brother. So everybody's happy to be under David's leadership. Verse 6, when the victorious Israelite army was returning home after David had killed the Philistine, women from all the towns of Israel

came out to meet King Saul. They sang and danced for joy with tambourines and cymbals. And this was their song. Saul has killed his thousands and David his tens of thousands. This made Saul very angry. What's this? He said. They credit David with ten thousands and me with only thousands. Next, they'll be making him their king. Look at this. So from that time on, Saul kept a jealous eye on David. Didn't Jesus say if your eye is bad, your whole body will be bad? But if your eye is right, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be fine. How Saul sees things. You cannot outlive how you see things. What you see and what conclusions you come to when you see what you see, this will determine the outcome of your life. Choose to see your apartment as small and terrible and crappy. You'll feel that. But choose to see, hey, I've got a place to live. Hey, I've got to, it may not be the Ritz, but I got a place to lay my head. Hey, I'm not out on the streets. Hey, I got a job. Hey, I got a car.

Hey, I'm going to choose to find a blessing and to see the good. You'll see more of whatever you stare at. So, of course, Saul looking for reasons to hate David is just going to keep finding more and more and more. The very next day, a tormenting spirit came back. Of course it did with what Saul's focusing on, with what Saul's choosing on. Of course, that's going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy of a life that he does not want to live. It overwhelmed him. He began to rave in his house like a madman. We said that Saul is temperamental because he's got a temper and he acts crazy all the time like a madman. David was playing the harp as he did each day, but Saul had a spear in his hand. OK, that's, you want to maybe like start getting on monster.com and looking for a new job when your boss sits there while you play with a spear in his hand. And he suddenly hurled it at David, intending to pin him to the wall. But David escaped him twice. Saul was then afraid of David, for the Lord was with David and had turned away from Saul. Finally, Saul sent him away and appointed him commander over 1,000 men. And David faithfully led his troops into battle. David continued to succeed in everything he did.

Why? Because the Lord was with him. And when God is with you, it doesn't matter who comes against you. You can't keep God's man down. And so I think that's one of the things that just helps us to continue to serve with our eyes on God, not looking to people. Because God opens doors that no one can shut, and He shuts doors that no one can open. And we don't have to worry about who's against us. We can just keep trusting God, following God, doing the good that He's called us to do, and let the Lord take care of everything else. Now, Saul is the exact opposite. Throughout this series and in the show, we see Saul first really giving in to pride. And as many people throughout church history have recognized, pride is the ultimate gateway drug. Pride is what creates the conditions in our hearts and lives that make it possible for all the other sins to show up. And when you see Saul giving in to pride, well, then it makes sense that we begin to see him giving in to greed. We begin to see him giving in to anger. We see him succumbing to wrath and even now to all out murder. Now, of course, as we ask the question, is that in the Bible? Saul in the show, it's more sensational how he discovers and connects the dots that David is the anointed.

In the Bible, it seems to be just a little bit of a more gradual suspicion. Now, of course, for making for a TV drama, you need to have some gasping moments. And this person told this person. And of course, that's not exactly how it goes out, but where it gets to is exactly what we see in episode seven of season two of House of David, when Saul finally gets to a breaking point. And like Jesus said, the anger in his heart leads to murder in his life. Check it out. It is you, isn't it? My king. I loved you, trusted you, and still you betrayed me. My king, I am loyal to you. I always have been. Loyal. Are you? No more deception. Speak the truth. Did Samuel choose you? My king, please just sit down. Did he choose you? Did he? Did Samuel choose you? No. No. God chose me. David's success, which should have made Saul happy because it was his success. Every of the ten thousands that David was conquering was Saul's victory as well. But Saul didn't look at it through a generosity mentality, through a servant leadership mentality. He only saw what was in it for him.

And so David's victory infuriated Saul because it threatened his place. Now, this attempt on David's life will certainly not be the last. There in the Bible is another occasion where he throws a spear at David, as well as his attempt to kill him through the securing of the four skins. Yes, that is in the Bible and it's depicted in the show. Amazing. I never thought there'd be a day where we'd see that on TV. He comes in with that bag. Unbelievable. And he'll also, for the next years, try and kill David through rounding him up and chasing him down from cave to cave and Getty and all over the wilderness to Philistia and back, as well as, of course, sending the execution squad to murder David in his own bed, where his wife, Michal, hides the statue with the goat's hair and gives David the cover to get out. That's depicted in the show exactly as it happens with her doing that and all the rest. But the bottom line is David has had to face so many difficulties in his life. He's been attacked by bears. He's been attacked by lions. He successfully fought a six foot nine or nine foot nine foot tall. There's a reference back to our previous teaching foot tall giant. But here, this is shocking. The greatest contest of his life is actually a person who he loves the most, his own father-in-law, the king that he is loyal to and serves. So Goliath, I get. We all have Goliath and our lives will attack us. But what do we do when someone who loves us hurts us deeply? And what do we do when we're trying our best, but life is the worst? There's difficulty coming our way.

What I want to give to you is five things that can keep you from becoming bitter, that can keep you sane even when life feels crazy all around you. The first thing, jot it down. Don't be surprised. Don't be surprised. There should be a sense in which we should anticipate the pushback, anticipate the backlash, anticipate the hard things that are going to come our way when we do all the great things that God has called us to do. I mean, to some extent it's inevitable because people who have given up on their dreams always resented when they see other people living out theirs. So it's sort of table stakes for living the dynamic destiny that God has on your life. And as we look at many of the men and women throughout history who have dared to live a great life, it has brought and invited and almost been like a tractor beam sucking in difficulty. Jesus, in fact, was the one who said in John 15, 18, if the world hates you, just know it hated me before it hated you. So he's saying, if you're going to follow me, it's going to happen. The New Testament echoes that. All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. So a part of living in a broken world, a part of doing great things, a part of being God's anointed in this way is going to be it's going to happen.

So you just have to remember, Samuel didn't. David said it so perfectly. Samuel didn't choose me. God did. Saul, you don't have to choose me. You didn't give me my blessing. You didn't give me this opportunity, so you can't take it away. I'm just going to continue to keep my eyes on God. Don't be surprised. Secondly, don't become spiteful. Don't become spiteful. Don't ever resort to getting even. Now, of course, it's human nature to want to eye for an eye, tooth for tooth. You do this, so I'm going to do that, and even up it a little bit. But Jesus taught us a better way. He said, turn the other cheek. He said, if you were asked to walk one mile, be willing to go two. He said, if the world says, or the law even says, eye for an eye, I give you a better word. I give you something called grace. Peter said it this way. Don't return evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, blessing. And he said, if the world says, eye for an eye, I give you a better word, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.

You see, David had spears thrown at him, and he never threw them back. Why? Because to kill Saul would be to become like Saul. And so yes, duck when spears are thrown at you, but don't ever pull them out of the wall and fire them back. Don't ever stoop to that level. As has been said, when they go low, stay high. Continue to walk with God. Keep your eyes on Him. Thirdly, don't become sour. I think it's really tempting to eventually get hurt, eventually get hurt, eventually have someone let you down, and sort of almost anticipate it's going to happen again. It's going to happen again. And you can almost, if you have enough hurts in life happen to you, get to the place where you're meeting people and you're already watching them walk out on you as you're even saying hello to them. And I'll be completely honest. Over the years, serving in ministry. Over the years, pastoring a church. You know, enough people that for some, God called them out, and it was a good thing. For others, it was seeking opportunity, and you could kind of almost tell it wasn't a great thing. Others, it was just really hurtful and malicious the way they went. And then also having to 180 and I realized, hey, I've done that too.

I've been on that too. I contributed to it too. But you can almost, if you're not careful, let the trauma, and it can be traumatic to have people hurt you, you can let that trauma become your template, where you just believe it's going to happen again and again and again. And listen, the lie of the enemy is always going to try and sour you to new friendships God's trying to give you by not letting you fully engage in the new friendship for fear it will hurt you. And through counseling, I had to connect some dots because I started to notice myself unwilling to really give my whole heart to new relationships, to new co-workers, to people coming into my life because I would sort of say to myself, it's only a matter of time before you're going to walk out on me too. And that was sort of my unwritten code that was souring me to something that God wanted to be a blessing to me. And in counseling, what I realized was this kind of went all the way back to my parents' marriage dissolving and eventually a divorce, but the limping along period throughout my high school years, where at a formative time, I didn't have full access to my parents, and specifically my mom. And I kind of walled myself up to protect myself. And I sort of was doing that again and again and again.

Again, anticipating pain that in some cases might not come at all. But it's a mistake to grow jaded and cynical, to get to a place where you're not letting yourself love. Because as C.S. Lewis put it so well, if you stop using your heart, it will not be broken. And that's what we want. I don't want my heart to be broken. He said, but if you don't use it because you don't want it to be broken, it will actually become unbreakable, impenetrable, and irredeemable. For to love is to be vulnerable, is to be vulnerable. What is he saying? He's saying you don't want your heart to get hurt. But when you don't let your heart get hurt, your heart will not be able to get hurt. And if your heart is not able to get hurt, what does that mean? Your heart is not able to experience love. Because a part of the human experience of love is to get hurt. There's a fabulous depiction of this in the final Hobbit movie, that J.R. Tolkien Hobbit movie. And it's this elf princess Tariel who's just lost this hobbit she loves, Kili. And she's grieving. She's grieving because her heart's on fire. And she says to the elf king, she says, why does it hurt so much? You know what he responds? Because it was real.

Why does it hurt? Because it was real. And when you wall up, wall up, listen, you're not able to get your heart hurt. Therefore, you're not able to experience real, true love. So don't become sour. But fourth, don't be stupid. Don't be stupid in your love. What does that mean? That means that it's not unloving to draw boundaries. Hear me, David, he didn't just remain in the palace. Once he realized that he was in a dangerous position, what did he do? He got out of town. He kept a distance. He got his mighty men around him. He was not willing, even though he loved Saul, to stay in a place where Saul could actually hurt him. He could honor him, but he could do so from a distance. This is what Jesus, I think, was communicating when he said, be wise like a serpent, but harmless like a dove. There may not be the trust that is able to be given to someone, even after they've been forgiven. And so we have to think and use wise counsel. And sometimes, with law enforcement, and there could be legal ramifications and restraining orders. You see what I'm saying? I'm saying we can love someone.

There's situations of abuse, and it's not like, well, I'm just going to love you and stay in a situation where I could be hurt. And it can be love and forgiveness and all of that, but there can still be clear boundaries that need to be drawn. And I see that all in the life of David with his relationship with Saul. All right, so we're not going to be surprised, spiteful, sour. We're not going to be stupid. In closing, when you're doing your best and your life hurts the worst, don't stop. Don't stop doing what God blessed in the first place. Don't get discouraged and stop living out the dream. Don't stop embracing your calling. Don't stop playing your loudest sound and sound and using your harp skillfully and fighting the word. Don't stop. Don't back it down. Don't think, well, this brought the complexity, so I'm going to just tone it down and stop a little bit because this is what made my life so hard. So why would I do it if it's just going to continue to bring backlash? There was a man named Nehemiah who, for doing the great things that he did for God, had all of these people come out of the woodwork. And they tried to assassinate his reputation and then eventually tried to assassinate him the old-fashioned way, kind of like Saul did.

And at one point, they tried to distract him, to distract him from his calling. He said, let's meet about the wall you're building. Let's just circle up and meet in a place called Ono. And Nehemiah said this, why would I stop the great work I'm doing to come down and to talk with you? And so he said, Ono, to their attempt to get him to Ono. And you should, too. Don't stop the great work you're doing. Keep it going. Keith, in his 10 Paradoxical Commandments of Leadership, put it this way, and I close with this. People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered. Love them anyway. If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Do good anyway. If you are successful, you win false friends and true enemies. Succeed anyway. The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway. Honesty and frankness will make you vulnerable. Be honest and frank anyway. The biggest men with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men with the smallest minds. Think big anyway. People favor underdogs.

Only follow top dogs, fight for a few underdogs anyway. What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight. Build anyway. People really need help, but may attack you if you do help them. Help people anyway. Give the world the best you have, and you'll get kicked in the teeth. Give the world the best you have anyway. And then he says, you see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway. And Father, we pray that you would help us to serve you and to not keep our eyes on people, to not fear man, but to fear God. And if us were praying, if you would say, man, I needed this. There's been ways in which I've felt myself becoming sour or spiteful. I've been surprised, or I've been tempted to withdraw from people. If you would just say before the Lord, I really needed this message. And God, I hear what you're saying to me. I hear you calling me to keep my eyes on you and to keep doing the good you've called me to anyway, in whatever capacity. It could be at work. It could be a situation with a friend or a family member. It could be something you know God's called you to do, but you're tempted to not do it because you

know it's going to be hard. Would you just let God know that you hear what He's saying and just right there in the quiet of this moment, just kind of put your hand up. You could be listening to this driving your car down the road or sitting in church. But just say, God, I hear you. God, I want to be a David. And God, I want to follow your spirit's leading and guiding as I handle the souls in my life. God, I thank you for my brothers and sisters' honesty. I pray that you would rain down your anointing oil, your empowering love and grace upon their situation. Would you protect them? Would you set a hedge upon them, God? Would you be with them in their coming and their going, in their playing, in their leading, in their serving, in their dreaming, God? Protect them and keep them in your peace, I pray. You can put your hands down. And I want to now invite any of you who have never trusted in Jesus Christ to make the most important decision in the world. We can talk about how to show up and be your best at work. There's plenty of reasons to talk about that. How to do good in friendships and relationships. There's a time and a place for all of that. But the most important relationship is for you to give your heart to Jesus. You know, they say if you feed a man for a day with fish,

he's good for that day. But if you teach someone to fish, you feed him for a lifetime, right? It's kind of like that. It's like we can talk about how to work downstream in your life with all these relationships. But if you get the most important relationship with Jesus right, he'll work out all the other things, all the other things too. But you've got to seek God first. So right now as we're praying, if you've never trusted in Jesus, if he's not living as Lord in your heart and life, I'm going to pray a prayer. And I'm going to invite you to pray because the Bible says, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. I'm going to ask my brothers and sisters who are Christians around you in church or even just praying for those of you church online, people in the chat, hosts ready to engage you at church online. We just want to welcome you into the family of God to cheer you on, like in that parable of the prodigal son that we began with to say, yes, we're so glad you're home. There's room for you at the table. There's food for you. There's a ring and a robe for you at the feast. Pray this prayer to God. He'll hear you. Say this, say, dear God, I know that I'm a sinner. I can't fix myself. But I know that you can.

Because of Jesus's death and resurrection, I ask you to save me and set me free. Come into my life, I pray, in Jesus's name.