March 26, 2017 A.D., by Pastor Ben Willis

1 SAMUEL 24:1-12 [NLTse]
After Saul returned from fighting the Philistines, he was told that David had gone into the wilderness of En-gedi. 2 So Saul chose 3,000 elite troops from all Israel and went to search for David and his men near the rocks of the wild goats.
3 At the place where the road passes some sheepfolds, Saul went into a cave to relieve himself. But as it happened, David and his men were hiding farther back in that very cave!

4 “Now’s your opportunity!” David’s men whispered to him. “Today the Lord is telling you, ‘I will certainly put your enemy into your power, to do with as you wish.’” So David crept forward and cut off a piece of the hem of Saul’s robe.
5 But then David’s conscience began bothering him because he had cut Saul’s robe. 6 He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do this to my lord the king. I shouldn’t attack the Lord’s anointed one, for the Lord Himself has chosen him.” 7 So David restrained his men and did not let them kill Saul.

After Saul had left the cave and gone on his way, 8 David came out and shouted after him, “My lord the king!” And when Saul looked around, David bowed low before him.

9 Then he shouted to Saul, “Why do you listen to the people who say I am trying to harm you? 10 This very day you can see with your own eyes it isn’t true. For the Lord placed you at my mercy back there in the cave. Some of my men told me to kill you, but I spared you. For I said, ‘I will never harm the king—he is the Lord’s anointed one.’ 11 Look, my father, at what I have in my hand. It is a piece of the hem of your robe! I cut it off, but I didn’t kill you. This proves that I am not trying to harm you and that I have not sinned against you, even though you have been hunting for me to kill me.
12 “May the Lord judge between us. Perhaps the Lord will punish you for what you are trying to do to me, but I will never harm you.

SERMON
In our reading, David (before he’s become king) is being hunted by Saul – who was king of Israel at that time. King Saul is hunting David because he has become jealous of David’s popularity with the people. (That, and because Saul has become harassed by demons on account of his only following the LORD when it benefits him.) As David has been on-the-run, living as a fugitive, a band of others who’ve suffered under Saul’s rule have also joined-together with him.
At the time of our reading, King Saul has an elite force hunting David and his men. What Saul doesn’t know is that David and his band are hiding far back in a cave, the same cave that Saul ducks into to use the bathroom! David’s men, seeing Saul alone and so vulnerable, take it as a sign that the LORD wants them to kill the king. But David interprets the situation differently. Saul has set aside his robe as he relieves himself, so David sneaks forward, cuts off a corner of Saul’s robe, and then retreats back into the cave.

Once King Saul has finished and is back with his troops and ready to resume the hunt, David comes out of the cave and shows the king and his troops the piece of Saul’s robe. “You are hunting me because you think I am trying to take over Israel,” David calls out to them. “But, King Saul, if I’d wanted to harm you I could have cut you as easily as I cut your robe.” Years later, because of such honorable and gracious acts on David’s part, when King Saul is killed in battle and Israel is looking for someone to replace him, David is looked upon favorably and they make him king over them.

What I’d like us to see in all this is that when David’s men saw the king come into the cave alone and so helpless, they whispered to David that this was his opportunity to kill the king. But David, looking at the exact same circumstances, knew the LORD well-enough to know that that’s not what the LORD wanted. That is, even though Saul had become David’s enemy, David knew the LORD wanted him to humble himself to Saul; to honor his enemy; to serve him…

As we live here in the world, I think that we, too, can find lots of voices whispering for us to come back with a clever put down, to make them pay for what they’ve done, to take advantage of their weakness to get the upper hand, tit for tat, do it to them before they do it to you… But, for those of us who are getting to know the Lord’s voice and His will as we study and trust in His Word, we know that more often than not, the Lord is calling us to be more humble; to be more honoring; to be the servant of all…

But this isn’t just the way the Lord calls us to treat our enemies…
When the Lord Jesus and His twelve disciples gathered around the table at that last supper, they all knew somebody needed to be assigned the job of washing off all their feet. Now, there weren’t many worse jobs out there than washing and wiping the dirt and dung off of people’s feet. It was the job for a slave, for the least of those among you, for the “lowest man on the totem pole”. But which of them was that going to be? Which of them would Jesus choose to embarrass and shame with such a job? But then Jesus took a towel and a bucket and redefined greatness by washing their feet Himself!

The Lord Jesus summarized His Own life this way: “For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve others and to give His life as a ransom for many.” (Matthew 20:28; Mark 10:45) And in the letter To the Philippians, through the apostle Paul the Holy Spirit calls every Christian to have that same attitude. Chapter 2:6-8 says, Though He was God, He did not think of His divinity as something to cling to. Instead, He gave up His divine status; taking the humble position of being born as a human being! Then, after appearing in human form, He humbled Himself even further by dying a criminal’s death on a cross.”

Taking seriously the Lord Jesus’ call to serve those around us tends to lead fairly quickly to the fear that: “If I do that, people will take advantage of me; they will walk all over me!” Which brings us to the difference between choosing to serve and choosing to be a servant.

When we choose to serve, we are still in charge. We decide whom we will serve and when we will serve. And if we are in charge, we’ll worry a lot about others taking advantage of us and walking all over us. But when we choose to be a servant, we give up being in charge. And the Lord Jesus shows us the great freedom in this.

Like the Lord, when we voluntarily choose to give up our rights, when we choose to be in a position where we can be taken advantage of, then no one can manipulate or control us. When we voluntarily choose to serve the great and the least of these, to do the great sacrificial acts as well as the unnoticed menial duties, we make ourselves vulnerable, but in choosing to do that ourselves, we make ourselves invulnerable.

It is the same power that lies behind turning the other cheek and taking a bully’s load farther than they’d asked and doing good to those treating us poorly: When we do such things willingly then others no longer have any power over us. We are no longer the victim. We have chosen to serve, to honor, to be humble, and so nothing and no one can hurt us.
William Law, in his famous 18th Century book A Serious Call to a Devout and Holy Life, spoke of the life of a servant this way: “…condescend to all the weaknesses and infirmities of your fellow-creatures, cover their frailties, love their excellencies, encourage their virtues, relieve their wants, rejoice in their prosperities, compassionate their distress, receive their friendship, overlook their unkindness, forgive their malice, be a servant of servants, and condescend to do the lowest offices to the lowest of mankind.”

So, the fear that we may be taken advantage of and stepped on is justified. That is exactly what may happen. But who can hurt someone who has freely chosen to be stepped on?

Here are some types of servant-heartedness the Lord Jesus challenges us to. There is “hidden service”: That is, serving in such a way that no one knows you were the one who did it. Since serving can make us look good, hidden service keeps us humble and squashes our pride.

There is “serving in the little things”. When we only seek to serve as a part of big things we only need to sacrifice for a time. And many people are willing to do that. But committing to serve even in the little things requires us to sacrifice constantly, since there are always little things that need doing! The “service of little things” keeps us fighting against our natural tendency towards laziness.

The Lord Jesus calls us to guard the reputation of others as a part of our servant-hood. Paul charges young Pastor Titus to “speak evil of no one”. (3:2) But it’s not just for pastors. There is a discipline in holding our tongue that works wonders within us.

We serve when we let others serve us. Not getting caught up in the need to repay their kindness, but simply and graciously receiving their service to us.

We serve by treating others courteously. Some today have come to see social kindnesses as meaningless and even hypocritical. But saying “please” and “thank you”, holding the door open for another, and offering our seats to women and those older than us are simply ways of acknowledging the image of God in others and affirming their worth.
We serve by showing hospitality, even when there’s no food and it doesn’t happen in our own homes. At the heart of it, hospitality is simply welcoming another and being present with them; sharing their lives and sharing your with them.
We serve by listening to others. Just as our love for God often begins by listening to His Word, the beginning of our love for others often begins by listening to them.

We serve by bearing each other’s burdens: That is, letting others share their troubles and sorrows with us and then handing, or helping them hand those troubles into the strong, gentle arms of Jesus.

And, as we’ve been talking about and practicing in the Adult Class, we serve others by sharing what God has told us about them with them. It may be a word of comfort or of encouragement. It may be a word of challenge or of revelation. And, of course, God speaking to us for another doesn’t guarantee we’ll understand the message He has for them correctly. So we must speak and share such things humbly. But we must not hold back from serving one another in such ways.
The risen Christ calls us to the ministry of “the towel and the helping hand”. Such service, flowing out of the deep places of the heart, is life and joy and peace.