William Carey said, "Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God." Today we see that David wants to attempt a great thing for God, but God says "No, instead I want to do a great thing for you”.

Today we see how David learns a terrible lesson concerning how God is good, but He isn’t safe.

Have you ever had a time in your life when you finally achieved some lifelong goal and then the thought occurs to you...now what? In these chapters David finally becomes king...now what? What kind of king will he be?

When someone dies...how do we evaluate their life...how do we encapsulate it? Do we consider it as a whole? Or should we focus on the last few years? Or if their life ended badly do we only remember the early years? I think of this whenever I read an obituary...where a person’s entire life is summed up in a few paragraphs. Do these few paragraphs really give us the essence of the person who has passed? David is faced in today’s text with the dilemma of how to remember Saul? Where should his focus be? On Saul’s unjustifiable and unnecessary pursuit and persecution...or on Saul being the father of his best friend?

Today we finish 1st Samuel with the death of Saul, but before we examine the final product of Saul's life, the fruit; we will look at the seed that gave life to that fruit. Saul proudly planted seeds of defiance and he consequently reaped the thorns of destruction...he should have known what fruit would spring from the seeds he planted.

Today we finish 1st Samuel with the death of Saul, but before we examine the final product of Saul's life, the fruit; we will look at the seed that gave life to that fruit. Saul proudly planted seeds of defiance and he consequently reaped the thorns of destruction...he should have known what fruit would spring from the seeds he planted.

David’s life appears to be running smoothly since he made the decision to defect to the Philistine camp. He doesn’t have to wander all over the desert anymore hiding in caves, in fact, a whole town has been given to him. Saul had even given up his pursuit of him. The Philistines give him so much personal freedom that he can even go out behind their backs and raid the enemies of Israel...and after all isn't all of this God's will? However, the other shoe is about to drop in two significant ways. David’s deception of the Philistines has painted him into a corner where he may be tempted to keep up the ruse to save his own hide! He will be rescued from this temptation by the mercy of God only to walk from the frying pan into the fire.

Guest Speaker Dave Champness takes us through the thread that connects the entire bible.

One of mankind’s greatest wishes is to communicate with the dead and there are popular "psychics" today that skeptics refer to as “grief vampires”. They find people who are trapped in a place of non-acceptance concerning the death of a loved one and then they provide reconnection and reassurance...and all for a modest fee. In today’s text King Saul seeks reassurance from a person who claimed to be able to speak with the dead.

In today's text David is discouraged. He is tiring of this renegade in the wilderness routine...tired of being the pea in God's Shell Game with Saul. He is weary of fixing the same old problems, resisting the same old temptations, and constantly having the same old needs. How does he become discouraged? By thinking to himself David takes his focus off the Lord and onto himself. Soon his doubt creates problems his fears attempt to fix.