On chapter number 18 we pick up where we left off with David at the end of chapter 17, which was of course the famous story of David and Goliath.
And you remember David's boldness and courage where everyone else has failed.
For 40 days, Goliath had offered the challenge of anyone that would come and face him and just settle it man to man between two men and end the war.
Nobody had the guts to face him, not even King Saul who was head and shoulders above all the people.
David jumped at the chance. He went out there with almost no weapons, just a sling, some stones, and a stick in his hand.
And he ran toward the giant, flung the stone, obviously killed him, cut off his head, brought the head back to King Saul.
They're all amazed. They were shocked. And King Saul didn't even know who he was, even though he had worked for Saul.
If you remember back in chapter 16, David had played the harp for him and been his armor bearer.
But Saul was such an important person. He's surrounded by a lot of servants. He didn't even realize who David was.
So in chapter 18, that's where we're picking up just right after that is taking place. Look at verse number 1.
It says it came to pass when he had made an end of speaking unto Saul.
So that's when David had made an end of speaking unto Saul.
David has come to Saul with the head of the Philistine, Goliath in his hand, and he's talked to Saul.
And as soon as he's made an end of speaking unto Saul, it says that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David.
And Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day and would let him go no more to his father's house.
Then Jonathan and David made a covenant because he loved him as his own soul.
And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was upon him and gave it to David and his garments, even to his sword and to his bow and to his girl.
Now this is the beginning of a great friendship between David and Jonathan that's going to last throughout this whole book until Jonathan dies, of course, at the end of the book.
Even after Jonathan dies, if you remember, David loved Jonathan and was so loyal to that friendship that even many, many years after Jonathan's dead, Saul's dead, and David's been king for a long time.
David just says, is there anybody left who's a descendant of Jonathan that I can show the kindness of the Lord unto him?
And of course, Mephibosheth was the descendant of Jonathan that David reaches out to and brings him into his own house, lets him eat at the king's candle, and elevates him and gives him much wealth.
This was a great friendship. And you have to ask yourself, why did these men become such great friends right away?
Why did Jonathan just love David and his soul was knit to him, the Bible says? Now think about it. There were some things that they had in common, but then there were some things that they didn't have in common.
For example, David was a poor man, by his own admission, later in the chapter. We just read it. And also David was a shepherd. He was from a humble background.
His father's house was not a major house in Israel. Jonathan, on the other hand, is the son of a king. So he's brought up very rich, he's around royalty, and so forth.
But what they did have in common was their great boldness. Because if you remember back in chapter 14, Jonathan was the one who just single-handedly, with one armor bearer, attacked a whole garrison of the Philistines, and one man, Jonathan, killed 18 men of the Philistines.
So Jonathan also had that boldness of just trusting God, and no fear, and total faith in God. And when he saw that in David, he admired that, and he said, man, I want to be friends with this guy. I like this guy. Because they had that in common.
Now there's a lot we can learn from that, because it's really important that you have the right friends. In fact, that's one of the most important things that you do in your life, is choosing your friends and who you hang around with.
Now part of that is choosing which church you go to. Because usually you're going to have a lot of friends from church. I mean, you should have friends that you make at church, and people at church that you're friends with.
And so if you're going to the wrong church, you're not really going to have the right kind of friends. But if you're going to a great church, you should be finding a lot of great friends there, and a lot of people there that are the right kind of people for you to hang around with.
It's extremely important to hang around with the right friends, because you will become like your friends, and you'll begin to act like your friends. The Bible says, as iron sharpened with iron, so sharpened a man the countenance of his friends.
And so we have an effect on our friends. We help shape their personality. They help to shape our personality. And we should choose friends that we have something in common with, but not just, oh, we both grew up in the same area.
Oh, we both dress the same, or we like to shop at the same stores, or we like the same sports, or whatever. Really, the main thing that we should have in common is our faith in God, our love of God's word, our love of the Bible, our boldness and soul winning.
That's the type of things that we ought to have in common with our friends. And here's a couple of guys that probably have very little in common, except for that one thing. They love God. They have faith in God. They have great courage and boldness.
You know, that's the kind of common bond that should tie us to our friends. That's the kind of friends that we should be looking for. Friends that are going to motivate us, because Jonathan was a very brave, powerful man, a man of faith, and he's probably hard pressed to find anybody that's going to sharpen him up.
But then he sees what David did, and what David did, let's face it, is a lot more famous than what Jonathan did, and it was a little bit probably more daring and more outstanding. I mean, they're both great men, it's hard to say.
But you can see why they became friends. Now go to 2 Timothy chapter number 1, if you would. 2 Timothy chapter 1 at the end of the New Testament. Because you see, the Bible tells us that Jonathan loved David, and it says that they made a covenant with one another, and it says that he loved him as his own soul.
You know, that's a great picture of what friendship should really be like. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 1, let me show you a great example of friendship in the Bible. Now Paul was a man who had a lot of great friends, and at the end of Paul's epistles, he's always greeting a lot of friends. Do you notice that?
He's always greeting a lot of friends. He had a lot of friends, and he liked to give a shout out to his friends at the end of each of the epistles that he wrote. And he talks a lot about a lot of his friends standing with him.
It says in verse 16 of 2 Timothy 1, the Lord gave mercy unto the house of Onesiphorus. Now this was one of his good friends. It says, for he oft refreshed me. And he's talking about when he was in prison in Rome. He said, he oft refreshed me, and was not ashamed of my chain.
But when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently, and found me. The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day, and in how many things he ministered unto me at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.
You see, a real friend is not just looking for what they can get out of you, they're looking for what they can do for you. They don't just want to be your friend when things are going great for you, and when you have something to give them, and when you're Mr. Popular, or you've got all the money, so you're all the money.
You're always buying dinner, and you're always paying for everything everywhere you go. You know, they're there for you even when you fall on hard times.
And you see, Onesiphorus, when a lot of people were ashamed of Paul, and Paul said, all men forsook me. And my first answer is, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. Later he says, all men would turn Asia if he turned away from me.
Paul's friends were constantly turning their back on him, but he said of Onesiphorus, he was not ashamed of my chain. He didn't want to stay away from me like, oh yeah, you know, Paul got arrested, let's stay away from him, lest we get arrested too.
Or maybe the government's going to become suspicious of us, you know, because we're hanging around this guy. Or, well he's not going to buy dinner, you know, he's in jail. He's not going to do anything. What's the point of being friends with him? What can he do for me? How's he going to help me?
In fact, me being associated with him is probably going to get me criticized. Onesiphorus was not ashamed of his chain. He wasn't ashamed of the hard times that Paul had fallen on, the fact that he was in prison.
And it says he sought him out very diligently. I mean, it worked hard to try to find him, to see what jail he was in, and to go see him, and to go visit him. And he says, when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently and found me, and he said I was refreshed by my friend who came and saw me and visited me and loved me and cared about me.
You know, that's the kind of friendship that we should have. We don't ever want to be a fair-weather friend who's just friends with people who are convenient for us, or they're a fun person to be around. You know, so many people aren't fun to be around.
But if they're your true friend, you're going to be there for them anyway, and you're going to love them and care about them, and when they need your help, you're going to be there to help them out, to step in and help them in the hard times.
That's what real friendship's about, and it seems like a lot of people don't understand what friendship means. They think friendship is, oh, this is who I go bowling with, you know, or this is who I go and play basketball with or something.
And it's so shallow. It's just a hanging out as in, well, I hang out with so-and-so. But are they really your friend? And, you know, rarely do you have somebody in your life who's a nonecipherist, who you can really know, this person's my friend, and no matter what happens when the whole world's against me, that person's my friend.
This person's going to stand with me. And the Bible says a man that had friends must show himself friendly, and there is a friend who'd stick it closer than a brother.
And there are friends that you can have in this life that'll stick closer to you than your own brother, than your own family, than your own flesh and blood, because they're your brother in Christ, and they will stand with you like Jonathan did with David.
Now, if you look at the lives of Jonathan and David, there came a time when Saul, who's Jonathan's father, is trying to kill David, hunting him down as a traitor, even though David had done nothing wrong.
And yet Jonathan stayed loyal to his friend. And it even caused such a rift between Jonathan and his father, Saul, that Saul literally threw a javelin at his own son, Jonathan.
Later on, in the book, a couple chapters later, Saul is going to throw him a javelin at Jonathan and his own son, try to kill his own son. Why? Because Jonathan was staying loyal to his friend, David, because it was the right thing to do.
So Saul tried to kill him. Saul called him a son of a perverse, rebellious woman. You know, he's basically calling him names and everything. Why? Because he stood up for and stayed with his friend.
And you won't find Jonathan betraying David. Just read the whole story, and Jonathan is always staying with him. David is the same way. David honored and respected Jonathan. They should have been enemies.
I mean, think about it. Who's going to be, according to the Lord, who is going to be the next king of Israel? David, right? Okay. Well, if David did not come along, who would normally be the next king? Jonathan.
I mean, he's Saul's son. He's proved himself in battle. He's proved himself as a great leader, a great man of God, a powerful warrior. He had every quality that would be found in a king.
And really, the problem with him was that, of course, his dad had sinned, and that's why he was kind of suffering in a way for his dad since.
And so he was going to die with his dad in that final battle on Mount Gilboa. So, if you look at it from a human standpoint, Jonathan and David had every reason to be enemies.
Because they're both basically headed for the throne, and one of them's got to go. And yet, they stayed friends. They stayed loyal to each other.
It's one of the greatest examples of friendship in the Bible is the friendship between Jonathan and David. And so, if you have friends and people who you know are loyal to you, you should be loyal to them.
And you should not turn your back on your friends when they're in need or when things go wrong. You should have a little bit more respect for your friend than them.
And so that's kind of just introduced at the beginning of 1 Samuel 18, this great friendship between Jonathan and David. And Jonathan actually even gives him the shirt off his back, literally.
He gives him his robe. He gives him his weapons. And this is expensive stuff. I mean, he's the king's son. He's wearing his best stuff. And he gives it to David and makes a covenant with them.
Basically, they swear to each other or promise to each other that they're going to be loyal to each other as friends.
It says in verse number 5,
Now, so far, there's no problem between Saul and David. Saul loves David. I mean, he just saw David kill Goliath. He says, this guy's great. I'm putting this guy in charge of my men at war. This guy's a great warrior.
So he puts him in charge of the men at war. All the men at war respect him. And sometimes when you bring in a new guy and all of a sudden he's just in charge, let's say you're at your job.
And at your job, people kind of climb the ladder, don't they? And then all of a sudden they just bring in some outsider. Oh, he's your new boss. And you're like, what? This guy just got hired last week. I've been working here for years.
But because of David slaying Goliath, everybody respects him. And then they saw the way that he handled himself. He behaved himself wisely. Saul loves the job he's doing. All the men at war respect him. Yes, sir. They obey him. They don't have a problem following him.
Even though he's a lot younger, even though he's new, they don't mind following him because of his exploits with competing Goliath.
It says in verse 6, and it came to pass, as they came when David was returned from the slaughter of the Philistine. Now here's where the problem starts right here. And this is the problem that we're going to see all the way through the book of 1 Samuel.
It starts in verse 6 and 7. It says that when they returned, the women came out of all the cities of Israel singing and dancing to meet with King Saul, with Tabareth, with joy, and with instruments of music. So they're celebrating the victory.
And the women answered one another as they played and said, Saul had slain his thousands and David his ten thousands. Now that was a pretty stupid thing to say. That was a dumb thing to say.
Because first of all, it's not even true. I mean, David killed one guy. Saul has fought all kinds of battles. And they're basically putting David above Saul. That wasn't the right thing to do. They shouldn't have done that.
Because this is going to make Saul really mad, and he's never going to stop being mad about this. And obviously, Saul should have been humble. Saul should have just went with it and said, oh, whatever, it's just a stupid song.
But when he heard this song, it just infuriated him. Like, wait a minute, this guy came along, did one thing, and now all of a sudden, and look what he says about it. It says in verse 8, Saul was very wroth. Wroth comes from the same word as wrath.
Wrath is a noun. Wroth is an adjective. It's just extreme anger. Saul was very wroth, and the saying displeased him, and he said, they've ascribed unto David ten thousands. And to me, they have ascribed but thousands. And what can he have more but the kingdom?
And I mean, I can see where Saul's coming from. I mean, he should have let it go, but at the same time, you can see where he's coming from here. He's the king, he's the leader, and yet he's taken a backseat to David. He didn't like that very much.
And it says in verse 9, and Saul eyed David from that day and forward. So from then on, David's pretty much Saul's enemy. Everything was great until that point, and whoever wrote that stupid song will tell you what.
It says in verse 10, and it came to pass on the morrow that the evil spirit from God came upon Saul. And I already preached about that in another sermon, so I don't want to go on and on about that.
But the evil spirit from God came upon Saul, and he prophesied in the midst of the house. And David played with his hand, so David's playing the harp form, as at other times. And there was a javelin in Saul's hand.
And Saul cast the javelin, for he said, I'll smite David even to the wall with it. And David avoided out of his presence twice. And Saul was afraid of David. Well, you'd think David would be afraid of Saul, but Saul is in his house.
And he's basically, he's not right with God. And he's got this evil spirit troubling him, and I already talked about that in another sermon. But he's prophesying while preaching, but he just gets in this fit of rage.
Well, because if you remember, whenever he would have this problem, he would call in David, and David would play the harp, and then he'd feel better. Well, now he's mad at David.
So David's playing the harp, and he's just brooding about this. He says, no, I'm just going to kill David right now. And he just gets this idea, and he just pulls out a javelin. And while David's playing the harp, he just throws it at him. And he did it twice.
So David, I guess, just figured, okay, well, I guess Saul's back to normal. Because Saul was kind of a mentally unstable person at this time. And so he had his moments of clarity where everything's fine, and then he had these moments where he's just freaking out.
And the whole rest of the book is like that. Because remember how many times he's apologizing to David, oh, David, I'm so sorry. I don't know why I'm going to do it. And the next thing you know, he's trying to kill him.
And this is how it is. When people are not right with God, they become really irrational, and they just do a lot of strange things, and they go back and forth. They're unstable. And that's where Saul is at at this point.
So he tries to kill David with a javelin twice. And it says that Saul was afraid of David because the Lord was with him and was departed from Saul. He knew that David was being blessed by God and that he wasn't. Therefore, Saul removed him from him and made him captain over a thousand, and he went out and came in before the people. And David behaved himself wisely in all his ways, and the Lord was with him.
So he just wants to get David out of his sight. He wants to get rid of him. So he puts him in charge of a thousand soldiers and has them out fighting battles. It says in verse 15,
Wherefore when Saul saw that he behaved himself very wisely, he was afraid of him. But all Israel and Judah loved David because he went out and came in before them. And Saul said to David, Behold my eldest daughter Merah. Her will I give thee to wife, only be thou valiant for me, and fight the Lord's battles. For Saul said, Let not my hand be upon him, but let the hand of the ballistae be upon him.
So he's basically just trying to get David involved and make battles as he can, just figuring, you know, eventually he's just going to get killed. If I just get him in enough battles and fighting enough people, he's so bold, he has so much courage, he's going to run into something and he's going to end up getting killed.
And David said unto Saul, verse 18, Who am I? And what is my life or my father's family in Israel that I should be son-in-law to the king?
And it came to pass at the time when Merah, Saul's daughter, should have been given to David, because she was given unto Adrile and the Holothite to wife. Now, this is Saul basically breaking his word, because if you remember back in chapter 17, part of the deal with killing the life was that whoever killed him, what was part of the deal? They get to marry Saul's daughter.
So basically, Saul is reneging here on the agreement of saying that he was going to give her to him to wife. First he said, whoever slays the life is going to get to marry her. Okay? Then he says, okay, well you just have to fight these other battles and then you get to marry her. Then it comes about the time that he should have married her and he gives her to somebody else.
So Saul's breaking his word here because he's angry at David. Let's keep reading. It says in verse 20, And Michael, Saul's daughter, loved David. And they told Saul, and the thing pleased him.
And Saul said, I will give him her, that she may be a snare to him. Ha ha ha. So he's not giving him his second daughter out of the goodness of his heart. It's because he's still trying to get David killed.
So he comes up with this new plan just to try to maybe cause David to fall into battle. So he says, yeah, I'll give her to him to be a snare to him. Because his second daughter actually was in love with David anyway. So he says, oh, this is perfect. I'll give her him to wife.
But he says, he's got another thing up his sleeve here. He said at the end of verse 21, Wherefore, Saul said to David, Thou shalt this day be my son-in-law and the one of the twain.
And Saul commanded his servants, saying, Commune with David secretly, and say, Behold, the king hath delighted thee, and all his servants love thee. Now, therefore, be the king's son-in-law.
And Saul's servants spake these words in the ears of David. And David said, Seemeth to you a light thing to be a king's son-in-law? Seeing that I am a poor man and lightly esteemed, he's a very humble man.
And the servants of Saul told him, saying, On this manner spake David. So they bring back that to Saul. And Saul said, Thus shall ye say to David, The king desireth not any dowry, but a hundred forescans of the Philistines, to be avenged of the king's enemies.
But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines. Now, obviously, he was already supposed to give him his daughter anyway. But now he's saying, Okay, let me put a price tag on it.
No dowry, you don't have to give me any money or anything. But he says, You need to bring me back a hundred forescans of the Philistines. Now, I don't think that God approved of that.
Just because people do stuff in the Bible, it doesn't mean that God told them to do it. You know what I mean? And a lot of times people make the mistake, when they read stuff in the Bible, they think God told them to do everything that they did.
Well, this is just something that Saul reaped up. I don't think that this is of God at all. Because you'll never see God telling people to do something like this.
But Saul says, Okay, here's what I want. I'll give you my daughter. Isn't this romantic? I'll give you my daughter to wife, but you have to bring me a hundred forescans of the Philistines.
So he basically just wants them to just go start a fight with the Philistines. Because they're the enemies of Israel. They're at war with them.
And he says, You need to go slay a hundred Philistines and bring me their forescans. Now this is similar to the Native Americans with the scalping. You know, where they would bring back scalps and get paid for it.
But this mutilating of corpses, I don't think is something that God approves of at all. But it's just something that he told them to do.
And so you know if any man will compel you to go a mile with him, go with him twain. And so David says, You want a hundred? I'll bring you two hundred.
And Saul did this because Saul wants David to get killed. So he figures if he goes down and first of all picks a fight with the Philistines, you know with his soldiers obviously, he's not doing this single handed.
But bringing his army down there, killing a hundred Philistines and then mutilating the corpses in a way that they're probably not going to like being mutilated.
You know that they're probably, their fellow countrymen are going to look at this and not think it's cool.
And so he figures if David does this to them, if David kills a hundred guys and mutilates their corpses by taking their forescans off, and you know he said he's going to get killed.
I mean somebody's going to kill him. David goes down and kills two hundred. Cuts off two hundred forescans, brings them back to Saul, Okay where's my wife?
You know and Saul's like, Oh man this didn't work. It backfired on him. I mean he was probably still glad that he defeated some of the enemies.
And again, this isn't something that God told him to do. So don't go out and say, Well God, we've got some weird ideas. Saul had some weird ideas.
David was just going with it because he wanted to marry the girl, you know. So it says, But Saul thought to make David fall by the hand of the Philistines.
And when his servants told David these words, it pleased David well to be the king's son-in-law. Then the days were not expired.
Wherefore David rose and went, he and his men, remember I told you he brought his men with him, and slew of the Philistines two hundred men.
And David brought their forescans and they gave them in full tale to the king that he might be the king's son-in-law.
And Saul gave them Michael his daughter Dwight. And Saul saw and knew that the Lord was with David and that Michael, Saul's daughter loved him.
And Saul was yet the more afraid of David and Saul became David's enemy continually. Then the princes of the Philistines went forth and it came to pass after they went forth.
That David behaved himself more wisely than all the servants of Saul so that his name was much set by.
So you see in verse 30, Then the princes of the Philistines went forth. Why did they go forth? Because he just killed two hundred guys and mutilated their corpses.
So basically they're going to come forth. I mean the retaliation comes is what I believe that's talking about.
And David behaves himself wisely yet again. He's winning the battles. He's being spared. God's with him. God's blessing him. God's keeping him safe.
God's causing him to prosper. His wife loves him. Everything's going great. And notice I just keep saying over and over again that Saul's afraid of him.
Saul's afraid of him. This is envy. This is Saul envying David. And really this is part of the destruction of Saul that's going to eat away at him all the way until he gets to the end of the book.
You know this book has 31 chapters and all the way through we're going to see this envy and this fear of David.
And you know we ought to not ever let this creep in. The Bible talks a lot about envy in the New Testament.
And it talks about and says that we should not have bitter envy and strife in our hearts. It says this wisdom descended not from above but is earthly, sensual, devilish.
And the Bible says that envy comes from the devil. And also fear is not of God. God has not given us the spirit of fear but a power of love and a sound mind.
And so envy is not something that we should have in our hearts. And what is envy? Envy is when I look at someone else's success and it makes me angry.
And I wish that it was me that had that success. Now that's ridiculous. When we look at someone else succeeding, we should rejoice and be happy.
You know when we look at maybe somebody else gets a great job and they're making good money, we shouldn't look at that oh it must be nice.
You know we should look at that and say hey great. Praise God for that. You know good for them.
If somebody gets some nice thing, they get a nice car or a nice suit or whatever, we shouldn't look at that and get mad about it and upset.
I never get angry about that. My husband doesn't buy me that stuff. I don't do whatever and she's always getting all this stuff.
That's a wicked thing. The Bible says it's devils. That's the word that he uses. When you look at other people's success, other people's blessings,
and I've seen it too. Maybe one person wants to have a child. You see this in the Bible. One person wants to have a child and then somebody else is having all kinds of children.
Then there's anger there. I've even heard people say to a lady, you shouldn't have another child until she has a child.
You can't have two before she's even had one. It's like what? By the way, I don't even believe in using birth control and all this stuff.
But anyway, I'm telling you right now, that's not right. If someone else is having children and you're not having children or you would like to have children,
you shouldn't get mad about it. You should just be happy that they're having children and praise the Lord.
Look, there's no justification for it. There's no excuse to look at something good happening to someone else and for you to get mad about it.
If it's your brother and sister in Christ. If they're blessed with nice things or children or a nice wife or a nice husband or a nice job,
whatever the case may be. Maybe they get a great opportunity to preach or something. Why didn't I get a chance to preach?
That's not right. You need to guard with this because this is something that can cause people that were friends to become enemies and they hate each other.
When they were once friends, David and Saul were once friends. And they hate each other because of envy. Because of looking at David and saying,
oh no, God's blessing him. I'm afraid of him that he's going to excel me and supersede me. And even just people at your job.
You're afraid that your co-worker is going to climb the ladder faster than you, get the promotion.
God can bless you and give you whatever promotion you need. You need to just do your work and if your co-worker gets the promotion, just be happy for them.
Go to, this isn't in my notes, but go to I know where I want to turn, but 1 Timothy 6. 1 Timothy 6.1.
I'm trying to make sure I have the right chapter here. 1 Timothy 6.1. I think it's a good verse to illustrate it too.
It says, let as many servants as are under the yoke. Now let me ask something. Is someone who's a servant under the yoke, does that sound like somebody who's at the top of the food chain in the workplace or what?
No. This is not the top dog. This is a servant that's under the yoke. This is the person who's taking orders, not giving orders, right?
He says, let as many servants as are under the yoke count their own masters worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.
Look at verse 2. It says, and they that have believing masters, let them not despise them because they are brethren, but rather do them service because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit, these things teach any sort.
Now that right there tells you that if you're a servant, he says, you know, you should count your master worthy of all honor. This is talking about your boss.
In our modern vernacular, it would be employees and bosses. And he's saying, look, if you're a worker, if you're an employee, you should count your boss at work worthy of all honor, that the name of God and his doctrine be not blasphemed.
Otherwise, you're giving Christianity. He knows that you're a Christian. He knows you go to church. And then you're being disrespectful to him, and you're envious of him, and you don't want him to make money.
He says, that's going to cause people to blaspheme God and say, what is up with this Christian employee? Is this what Christianity is about?
And then in verse 2, it says, and they that have believing masters. So this is talking about if your boss at work is saved.
Now, who would say my boss at work is saved? My boss is saved. You know, a few people, yeah. And then who would say my boss is not saved? Yeah.
So there's a mixture. You know, a lot of people, their boss is not saved. Several people, their boss is saved. Okay. So it says they that have believing masters, let them not despise them.
Now look, that shows that there could be a tendency for someone to despise their boss. Even because he's a believer, and he's the boss, and I'm not.
And he's got the fancy car and the money, and he's blah, blah, blah. You know, and Envy has said it. And he says, let them not despise them, because they're brethren.
But rather do them service. You know, try to help them succeed. Make them money. Do your job. Because they are faithful and beloved, partakers of the benefit.
He's saying you should love them, because they're your brother in Christ. That should make you want to work even harder, if anything. I mean, you should work hard anyway.
But if it's your brother in Christ that's your boss, you should want to work even harder, because you want him to succeed, because you love him, because he's your friend, because he's saved.
And you're saved, and you have that bond. But many people despise their boss. And many people don't want their boss to make money. And I remember I had a boss, and he told me.
He said, you know, he said most bosses, because I got to the point in the company where I was kind of the second in command, and so I pretty much knew everything that was going on in the company.
You know, I was writing the checks, and so I saw how much everybody was getting paid, I see how much we're making on the job, I see everything numerically.
And I remember my boss saying to me, he said, you know, he said a lot of bosses, they don't like their employees to know how much they're making.
Because then the employees will become envious of what they're making. You know, because they say a lot of times, they don't want them to know that maybe, you know, the boss made $30,000 profit on this job.
You know, and maybe the employee makes $30,000 in a year or something, you know. They don't want them to hear that number and freak out and say, oh, this isn't fair, I'm not getting paid now.
Now, here's the thing about it. In today's, and I don't know exactly what things were like back then, right, a couple thousand years ago, but the Bible is a timeless book that's written for all time that always applies.
And I'll tell you right now, in today's world, you know, it's easy to look at people who are the boss, and who are business owners, and who are bosses, and to think it must be nice.
But in reality, there are so many taxes, and so many fees, and so many hassles, and so much risk involved with running a business, or starting a business, or owning a company.
And anybody who's tried to start a business knows, you know, there's a risk. I mean, it's difficult to make it. There's a big risk you're taking.
And I remember, for example, when I started my fire alarm business, I mean, I took a huge risk. I mean, I had borrowed a ton of money, and I had, there was a time when I was, I don't want to give all the exact numbers, but I mean, there were times when I was owed huge amounts of money from customers, and you're hoping you're going to get paid.
Now, when you're the employee, you're not making as much, but you get paid every week, no matter what. I mean, hopefully you do. Anyway, usually you do.
But pretty much, you know, Friday rolls around, or the first of the month, or whatever, you get that paycheck like clockwork. You know, a lot of times when you're running a business, people will owe you huge sums of money, and you owe other people money, you know, because of your cash flow, and so forth.
That people will owe you massive amounts of money, and you don't know if you're going to get paid or not. You hope you're going to get paid. You say, oh, of course you're going to get paid. If you don't get paid, just go to court. Yeah, that shows who's never run a business before.
Because anybody who's been in business knows, sometimes you just don't get paid, and there's nothing you can do about it, and you're going to waste more time and money going to court, and it's not going to get you anywhere.
It's the law of the jungle in the business world in many cases. And I'll tell you right now, I've been stiffed on a lot of jobs. I mean, there have been a lot of jobs where people owed me money, and I never got paid. And to this day, I've never been paid.
You know, and that's a risk that you take when you start a business. You could lose everything. You could lose a lot of money. You're spending a ton of money. You're taking a big risk. And a lot of times, you know, you're working 90, 100 hours a week to get the thing off the ground.
So you deserve a payday at the end of that, you know, when you start making big money. But see, a lot of employees don't understand that. I'll be honest with you. When I was an employee, I didn't understand that.
You know, and I'll be honest with you. There were times when envy was in my heart. And I'm thinking to myself, here I am doing all the hard work. I'm making nickels and dimes, and this guy's making a fortune. He's getting rich off my back.
And you know, that's not right, though. And I'll confess it as a sin. It wasn't right for me to have that attitude sometimes, but it was because I was young and immature and inexperienced.
As I got older, I started realizing a little bit more about how the world works, saying, hey, this guy's earning his money. Money doesn't grow on trees. This guy's working long hours. This guy invested everything. He risked everything.
This guy's working a 90-hour week many times. And this guy lives with this business seven days a week, whereas the employee clocks out, see ya, you know, in three days. That's just no stress.
And so don't get envious, okay? You know, you might not make as much money as somebody else. You know, maybe you're not getting paid enough. That's not what the sermon's about.
And obviously, yeah, there are bosses who don't pay enough and that rip people off. And I don't believe in that. I believe in paying people a good salary.
And anybody who's ever worked for me, I paid a decent wage, and they were happy with their wages. And anybody who's ever worked for me, I always paid well.
Because I believe in that. I believe in paying people a good wage for their work and not making them scrape by on nothing and seeing how little I can get by with paying somebody.
You know, I try to pay somebody a fair wage for what their experience in work is, in my experience as an employer.
But I'll tell you right now, yeah, there are people who rip you off. Yeah, there are people who take advantage of their employees.
But let me say this. It should never matter to you how much your boss is making. It shouldn't even matter to you.
And I'll be honest with you. Once I got a little bit older and more experienced, and when that boss that told me, remember how I told you he said,
hey, a lot of employers don't want their employees to know how much they're making. You know, at that point in my life, I can honestly say at that point in my life, from the bottom of my heart,
I wanted him to make the maximum money possible. My goal was to make him money. And I didn't give grudges to him.
If I could have made him millions of dollars, as long as I was getting paid my fair salary for what I was doing, I would have been thrilled to make him millions of dollars.
Because you know what? It doesn't matter to me. It's none of my business. And our goal is to do them service, it says in 1 Timothy 6.
Do for them, and make them succeed, and not envy them. And if you look at David, he was a great example of that.
Did he have a good boss? His boss is throwing a javelin at him while he's on the clock. He had a javelin thrown twice.
But you see him going out and doing a great job. Everything Saul sends him to do, he did it, he did it right, he was wise about it,
and he wasn't envious of anything. Even when the woman that he was supposed to marry is given to somebody else.
Do you see him having a bad attitude? Do you see him envious of the moholothite? No. He just looks at that and says, hey, whatever.
And he probably ended up with the better wife anyway, because at least he ended up with the one that loved him.
The other one that doesn't mention whether she liked him or not. At least he got the one that was in love with him.
They had some problems later on, but that's another story. That is a whole other story.
But I'm tempted to explain that right now. I gotta save that before we get to that chapter.
But the thing that I'm trying to express here is that Saul was a bad boss. Yet David served him well, wanted him to succeed, did not envy him.
But Saul was the exact opposite. He's this envious, and we use the word jealous. I don't really like using the word jealous, because it's not really...
I think envious is the more expressive word. I don't like jealous to be a bad word, because the Bible says God's name is jealous.
The Bible says that we should be jealous about certain things. For example, people say that I'm a jealous husband. Yes, I am. Of course I am.
Any husband who's right with God is a jealous husband. I've heard these men say, I had a guy tell me one time, well I'm just not really the jealous husband type.
I just said, well you're not very much like God or Jesus Christ. I don't know why you're bragging about that.
Because I don't know why you're bragging about the fact that you think it's okay for your wife to hang around with other guys and you're not a jealous husband, because I'm sure a jealous husband.
I mean, good night. If somebody gives my wife a compliment, what's that supposed to mean? I'm just kidding.
But hey, I'd rather be a little too far in that direction than this guy who says, whatever. I'm protective of my wife. I'm jealous of my wife, because she belongs to me, I belong to her.
I hope she's jealous of me and doesn't want to just share me with everybody else. But envy is another story. The word jealous in the Bible, a lot of times it's a good word.
But the word envy on the other hand, that's what's bad. Envy is where you look at other people's success and you begrudge them their success.
And when good things happen to them, you covet what they have and wish that it was you that was succeeding. I wish they'd sing that song about me. Why are they singing about him slaying the ten thousands?
And I'm only slaying thousands. In reality, you probably can't even slay thousands. It didn't make it mad that they said Saul is slaying his thousands. That's not what made it mad.
The part that made him mad was the part about David slaying his ten thousands. It was that somebody else was getting more praise and more glory than he was.
Now, should they have been saying that? No. But should Saul have envied David and eyed him from that day forward and never let it go? No.
So beware of envy creeping in your heart. Love your boss and love your brother in Christ. Be the right kind of friend. Be like David. Be like Jonathan. Be there for your friends.
Don't let them down in their hour of need and forsake them when they need your help. Be there for them, especially if they're your brother and sister in Christ.
And you know what? That's why coming to church is so important. And a lot of people think, oh, I'm not going to go to church. I'll just download the sermon. Save the gas money. Save the trip down there.
You know what? But you can't download a friend. I don't know. Maybe you can't. You can't download a friend, right? You can't download friendship. You can't download being here.
And being here is important to make the friends. And I thank God for you, my friends. Because I believe that there are many people here and I hope everybody here would stand with me in my hour of need and be there for me and I'll be there for you.
That's what the local church is all about. Friendship and sticking closer than a brother. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer for them.
Father, thank you so much for this chapter. And help us to learn from the mistakes of Saul in this chapter. And we can learn from the good things that David and Jonathan did.
We can look at Saul as an example of envy. And help us not to get that bad attitude that he had. And help us to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Savior Jesus Christ.
In Jesus' name, Amen.